Does it Live Up to the Hype?
We won’t bore you with a lot of background on the writer’s strike between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). You probably know the details already, or you’ve at least looked the whole thing up on Wikipedia.
The writers used the strike, which caused the delay of the second half of the season for several television shows, stalled movie projects and essentially cancelled the regular broadcast of one major awards show (The Golden Globes), to create a lot of attention, but did it live up to the hype?
The easy answer would be to look at the immediate result, now that it’s over, and say that it did live up to the hype. But it’s important to remember that just because the writers got some of what they wanted doesn’t mean that the lasting effects of the strike hype were worth it.
The WGA did a pretty good job of adopting the role of David in the classic David vs. Goliath scenario. They garnered support from other unions, actors, even politicians, many of whom voiced support for the plight of the writers. Perhaps just as importantly, they got the viewers at least talking (complaining) about how they missed their TV shows.
The studios, despite hiring high-profile crisis management consultants, ended up looking like rich companies trying to get richer by beating up on the little guy, but they also used the strike to avoid paying writers and instead rushed inexpensive (and highly profitable) reality shows onto the air to keep viewers watching and advertisers paying.
With the strike over, the writers – at least the ones able to tough it out through the strike (and that’s not all of them, by the way) – mostly got what they wanted, but the studios lost virtually nothing. And viewers, whom the writers had hoped would turn away from reality TV, didn’t go anywhere – consequently, neither did advertisers.
No matter how much people complained about reality TV and game shows, millions of Americans still tuned in every week to see the latest future stars/train wrecks on American Idol, and if people had really hated seeing Deal or No Deal every night, they’d have stopped watching it.
Even though the strike is over, this drama is far from over. There will be ill will in Hollywood for a long time, and a lot of real talent fell by the wayside, casualties of a struggle from which they will now see no benefit. In addition, the contracts will have to be renegotiated in a few years, and, even though the writers won this time, they put all of their cards on the table, making it highly unlikely and highly difficult for them to strike again in the near future. What’s worse for the writers is that they ultimately helped the studios learn something that could come back to haunt them.
The writers gave the studios an opportunity to test something they’d never have been able to test otherwise, i.e. will viewers watch whatever is on television, whether it’s been scripted or not? The answer was yes; people didn’t turn off their televisions. It makes you wonder if the studios were looking to find that out all along. If so, the future ramifications for writers could be devastating. While the studios ultimately gave up very little, the strike hype may end up costing the writers much more.
So, did the writer’s strike live up to the hype? Only time will tell.