Posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 by Hooper X
The writers strike is over, but will your favorite television show be going back into production? Here is the long updated production list of television shows. Everything below is subject to change.
FOX
- House - Done until next fall
- Prison Break - 1 more episode then done until the fall
- 24 - Done until January 2009
- Bones - Returns April 28th with 4 new unaired episodes then done until the fall
- Til Death - Should return this season with a handful of new episodes.
- Back to You - Should return this season with a handful of new episodes.
- KVille Done.
- Sarah Connor Chronicles - 4 unaired episodes. Highly unlikely to be picked up.
ABC
- Lost - 8 episodes complete, 2 aired. 5 more to be produced for a total of 13 this season.
- Grey’s Anatomy - Attempting to return with 4 to 7 episodes. Some for this season and some for the fall.
- Desperate Housewives - Attempting to return with 6 new episodes.
- Boston Legal - Could go back into production but unknown at this time.
- Ugly Betty - 4-6 more episodes this season.
- Samantha Who? - 3 unaired, 3-4 more this season.
- Brothers and Sisters - 4 more episodes this season.
- Private Practice - Done until the fall.
- Pushing Daises - Done until the fall.
- Dirty Sexy Money - Done until the fall.
- Women’s Murder Club - Status unknown.
- Cashmere Mafia - Several unaired episodes. Status unknown.
- Big Shots - Status unknown.
- Notes From the Underbelly - Status unknown.
- Carpoolers - Dead.
- Cavemen - Dead.
NBC
- Office 6 to 10 new episodes this season.
- 30 Rock 5 to 9 new episodes this season.
- Law & Order New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Law & Order: SVU New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Heroes Done until the fall.
- My Name is Earl Attempting to return with 9 new episodes this season.
- Medium New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- ER New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Chuck Done until the fall.
- Friday Night Lights Unfortunately, this show is probably dead.
- Bionic Woman VERY DEAD!
- Life Back in Fall.
- Las Vegas Unknown.
- Scrubs Remaining 6 episodes will be filmed. No word on where they will air. Could go straight to DVD.
- Lipstick Jungle Several unaired episodes. No word on being picked up.
- Journeyman Dead.
CBS
- CSI 6 more episodes this season?
- CSI: Miami 6 more episodes this season?
- CSI: NY 6 more episodes this season?
- Two and a Half Men Unknown.
- Big Bang Theory 8 or 9 more episodes this season.
- How I Met Your Mother 8 more episodes this season.
- NCIS 6 more episodes this season.
- Without A Trace New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Criminal Minds New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Cold Case New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Ghost Whisperer New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Numb3rs New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Moonlight Unknown.
- Cane Dead.
- New Adventures of Old Christine New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Welcome to the Captain Unknown.
- The Unit Unknown.
- Shark Unknown.
- Rules of Engagement Unknown.
- Jericho 6 unaired episodes. Would likely take an act of God to bring it back again.
CW
- Gossip Girl 4 more episodes this season.
- Smallville 5 more episodes this season.
- Supernatural 4 more episodes this season.
- The Game New episodes expected. Number unknown.
- Reaper 5 new episodes this season.
- One Tree Hill 5 or 6 unaired, 5 or six new episodes this season.
- Aliens in America Several unaired episodes. No news on more for this season.
- Everybody Hates Chris Several unaired episodes. No news on more for this season.
- Girlfriends Done until next fall.
HBO
- Entourage Back late 2008/Early 2009
- Big Love Back late 2008/Early 2009
- Flight of the Conchords Back late 2008/Early 2009
- Tell Me You Love Me Back late 2008/Early 2009
Showtime
- Weeds In production now. Scheduled for July premiere.
- Californication No return date as of yet.
- Dexter No return date as of yet.
- Brotherhood No return date as of yet.
FX
- Dirt 7 Episode season begins in March.
- The Riches Season beings in March.
- The Shield All 13 episodes complete. Will air sometime after the summer.
- Damages Back in late 2008/early 2009.
- Rescue Me Back in late 2008/early 2009.
- Nip/Tuck Handful of unaired episodes. Then back in late 2008/early 2009.
Posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 by Hooper X
02-09-08 2:30am: Last weekend all indications were that the WGA and the AMPTP had come to an informal agreement and a new deal was forthcoming. While the Guild and producers were hammering out the details this past week, the Guild thought it prudent to schedule meetings Saturday on both coasts in order to brief their members and possibly put an end to this strike. Earlier on Friday, every indication was that by day’s end, the WGA would have a formal contract to email out to its membership so they would be informed when everyone met on Saturday. As of this update (Saturday, 2:27am PST), there has been no such communication and things are beginning to look rather bleak.
According to Nikki Finke and other sources, the Saturday meetings are now at risk of not happening. If there is no contract to present there is no reason to come together to talk. Word is that both sides are still working on the contract details, even at this hour. They are claiming that they will stay at the table until it is done. But if there isn’t something in place soon then the conferences will likely be called off and the best chance we have had to bring this strike to an end will be obliterated.
Nikki is reporting that the lawyers for the AMPTP are nitpicking minor details, looking for one last crumb to ensure they can claim victory in the end. Neither Chernin nor Iger, the purported masterminds behind the deal, are said to be the driving force behind these delays. According to Nikki, it’s the AMPTP lawyers. They alone are holding this deal hostage.
It comes down to this:
Right now, the writers have a solid bargaining chip or two. The Oscars hang in the balance. Pilot season too. And whatever might be salvaged of the current season of originally scripted shows will be gone after this weekend. If this deal isn’t done and presented to membership tomorrow, you can kiss it all goodbye. The studios have a reason to get this done before Monday. If it isn’t resolved then they may just bunker in for the nuclear option. At that point the writers will likely hold out until SAG strikes in June and who knows how long it will last?
We’ll just have to wait and see. The moment I hear any news I will post an update.
02-09-08 2:45am: The email with the contractual details has finally been sent out. To read the details go to www.wga.org. The language of the agreement is specific to New Media and doesn’t include the full contract. But what they posted focuses on the big deal breakers. Now we wait to see what happens. It does look like the meetings will take place later today.
02-09-08 4:00pm: Word coming out of the WGA East confab is that thing are looking positive, for the most part. Nikki Finke’s source tells her:
“East meeting was insanely civil. Not one chair thrown. I was at the meeting in the same ballroom the second week of the strike, when the same people were sitting up there and were characteristically defensive about why we had gone out and if they knew what they were doing. Today, those same people were not only confident, they were not in the least defensive about the deal — they were realistic, 180 degrees from the chaos and disarray I smelled three months ago. And they ain’t actors. I think if they felt they needed to ram something down our throats, you would have picked up on that immediately. The two big moments for me came very early, when each member of the negotiating committee spoke briefly. Terry George said, ‘We have defeated a tradition of rollbacks that began with the air traffic controllers.’ That crystallized what we were up against and how far we had come and changing the dialogue. A couple minutes later, Melissa Salmons said, ‘For years, I have lived in fear of that DVD formula, that it would be with me for my life. Now we have a deal that have movement in it.’ (Later on, she told a daytime writer that the staff of Days of Our Lives, who had all been fired last week, were getting their jobs back. And that a striking writer, if fired, had to be replaced by a striking writer. Not a scab, and not a fi-core member. Big ovation.) I’ll stop short of calling it a love fest, but not all that short. Legit questions were raised and respectfully answered. Again, no defensiveness. There was an informal applause poll, and the room was overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike before a membership ratification vote.”
However, there is still a major issue on the table that has the potential to stop things dead in their tracks. During the informal negotiations, the WGA claims they were promised a “Favored Nations” clause in the contract by Chernin and the other studio bosses. This means that if one of the other major guilds(SAG/DGA) were to negotiate better terms in their contract that those terms would automatically be applied to the new WGA contract. In other words, if SAG negotiates an increase in DVD residuals in their contract, the WGA would be given the same increase without having to go back and negotiate. At the moment, it looks like the studios are balking at this deal point. They have only agreed to give “Favor Nation” status to increases in New Media and not things like DVD residuals, heathcare benefits or pensions. And even then, the studios have yet to put anything in writing. We’ll have to wait and see if this is enough to detonate the deal.
02-09-08 9:00pm:Â Maria Elena Fernandez on the LA Times Strike Blog is reporting:
“About 7:30 p.m., the meeting opened with an ovation and WGA West President Patric Verrone saying, “Good evening.
Welcome to the Grammys. We have a deal! More importantly, you have a deal.” The deal, he said, took until 1:30 a.m. to come about and until about 6 p.m. tonight to get signed.
“I am personally recommending that we ratify this deal,” Verrone said.
In urging the members to accept the deal, he said that although there were concessions, “it is the best deal the Guild has bargained for in 30 years. Admittedly, the contract has some holes.”
The writers succeeded in getting jurisdiction in new media and higher pay for work distributed on the Internet. Verrone said the guild would continue to push for rights in animation and reality.
The strike isn’t over Monday, he went on to say. The decision to lift the strike will be up to the membership after the vote on the contract.”
02-09-08 9:15pm: Nikki is now reporting the strike is, for all intents and purposes, OVER! Here’s what she said:
“I’ve received word from inside the Shrine Auditorium meeting that the WGA West membership seemed “very positive” about resolving the strike as soon as possible and accepting the deal negotiated by the guild leadership. A writer attendee just left the confab and told me: “There was cheering and standing ovation after standing ovation for all the leadership, especially Patric Verrone and Dave Young. Patric said the strike would be lifted 48 hours after the WGA boards meet Sunday to recommend the contract, but it was very unclear exactly what day we all go back to work. He said we would go back to work in 48 hours after the deal is recommended, so that may be Tuesday or Wednesday, and then the membership vote would be taken 10 days later. There is no question in my mind that because of the atmosphere in that room this strike will be called off. It’s over.”
Fantastic news!! Looks like everyone should be back to work by Wednesday at the latest. When I hear more details I will post them. Also, I am still trying to put together an accurate list of shows and their status/return dates. Should have something by midweek on that.
Posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 by Hooper X
The last two weeks came and went with little in the way of information coming from the informal talks between the WGA and the AMPTP. Friday, several media outlets including Dave McNary at Variety were reporting that talks had essentially broken down and an announcement from the AMPTP of its intent to walk away would be forthcoming. I confirmed this story with one of my studio sources. Then late Friday, suddenly something changed. Nikki Finke reported that there had been a breakthrough in the negotiations and a deal might be around the corner. By late Saturday, UnitedHollywood.com, the unofficial website of the striking writers posted the following:
“UH has confirmed from off-the-record sources that progress is indeed being made in the informal talks, and that creative solutions to the biggest differences between the AMPTP and the WGA have gotten the tentative and cautious approval of both sides.
This does not mean there is a deal in principle yet. It means we may, finally, be very close to one — as close as days away.
And while we’re cautiously optimistic about what we’re hearing, it comes with a real caveat.
Just as happened with the DGA deal, points that are agreed to in informal negotiation can be thought of as points on a deal memo — but it’s the drafting language that comes from hammering out those points that makes them legally binding. And our sources say that draft language doesn’t yet exist. That’s a big part of what will be happening in the next few days, as negotiations continue.”
So, what does this all mean? Who knows? From the sound of things we may be coming to the end of this strike soon. I for one will start holding my breath when a contract is put to a vote and not a moment sooner. However, it looks like we might not have to wait for formal negotiations to take place. Michael Cieply of the New York Times is reporting both sides have said that they don’t see a need to have a formal negotiation process with the progress they have made and the next several days of informal bargaining should be enough to strike a deal.
The negotiations have long been held up by the disagreement between the WGA and AMPTP over internet usage. Apparently, both sides have finally found a way around these roadblocks and it’s down to the overall contract language. But I have to wonder how all this happened in such a short period of time. How did we go from the sides nearly walking away early Friday to a near deal Saturday? I have my suspicions and can only speculate but I think it’s no surprise that a week after Peter Chernin left the negotiations for his trip that things were about to fall apart. And it’s equally curious that Friday, the day he returns to the table, we might actually have a deal. Chernin has been considered a moderate among the producers and has been key to moving things along during these informal talks. Once he left there was nobody to fill that void. Once he returned, things got back on track and here we are. I’m sure the real story will come out one day.
Once there is confirmation that the strike is in fact over I’ll be putting a list together of which televisions shows are done for the year regardless of the contract and which might be able to produce some additional episodes before the end of the season.
So let’s all hope for the best! Perhaps the war is finally over.
Posted on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 by Hooper X
Alright, now what?
Well, in the way of significant events during the 2 ½ month old writer’s strike, this week probably takes the prize.
Forced Out
Since the beginning of the strike, speculation has run rampant that the studios would use the work stoppage to clean house.
For the uninitiated, it is common practice for studios to give what are called “overall deals” to A-list writers. In exchange for healthy pay checks, writers are asked to develop new programming and in some cases this pays off for the networks. On average, the vast majority of these writers never generate anything that makes it to air. This means that the studios are paying a lot of people, a lot of money with little or nothing to show for it. Another circumstance involves these same production deals that manage to produce a show that becomes a series. Take shows like Journeyman or The Bionic Woman as examples. Both became shows and were developed by writers with overall deals. When the ratings were less than stellar, these projects became albatrosses around the necks of their respective studios. They invested all that money to produce shows that didn’t generate anything in return. Both were or are likely to be cancelled due to the low ratings but the writers still receive paychecks from the studios even after the show is cancelled because they have “overall deals”. Typically, these deals are setup with 2 to 3 year contracts which means whether the writer generates a hit or not the studio is on the hook until the end of the contract. Now you may be asking yourself “what’s in it for the studios”? Well, when a writer does manage to churn out a hit TV show, the studio has them under contract and has the rights to anything he/she produces during the contract. It’s a calculated gamble that rarely pays off but when it does it can make the studio a HUGE return on their investment.
The speculation I alluded to above relates to a clause in all of these overall deals that allows the studios to invalidate their contracts with writers and incur no penalty in the event of a major work stoppage. It’s called “Force Majeure” and it started last Friday. ABC began the process and was quickly followed by all the major studios by midweek. Dozens of deals were axed, essentially cleaning house of what all the studios considered to be dead weight. The speculation has always been that the studios had no reason to return to the bargaining table until they could use force majeure to jettison these deals and start anew. With this move the studios have wiped the slate clean of these costly deals and can go back to the bargaining table, strike a deal, then bring the writers they cut loose back when it makes financial sense. However in reality, it’s more likely that many of the writers who lost their deals won’t be back anytime soon.
DGA Strikes a Deal!!
Last week I reported that both the Director’s Guild of America and the AMPTP (the producers) had agreed to begin formal contract talks this past Saturday. And to pretty much no one’s surprise, Thursday saw a formal agreement announced. Both sides had agreed to a media blackout and the week saw little in the way of leaked information about the status of the talks until Thursday’s announcement. The initial terms of the deal that were disclosed included:
* Increases both wages and residual bases for each year of the contract.
* Establishes DGA jurisdiction over programs produced for distribution on the Internet.
* Establishes new residuals formula for paid Internet downloads (electronic sell-through) that essentially doubles the rate currently paid by employers.
* Establishes residual rates for ad-supported streaming and use of clips on the Internet.
These were the major issues that had held up a deal between the AMPTP and the WGA in their own contract negotiations. So now comes the $24,000 question, what will the WGA think of the deal and can it lay the framework for a new agreement between the two? Reactions from the various factions of the WGA have been mixed. Some seem to think it’s good enough and want to strike a similar deal now so they can get back to work. Some think it’s a good starting point. While others have panned the deal insisting that it was another example of the DGA’s poor bargaining skills. Obviously, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The fact is that the AMPTP and studios have played their game according to the playbook everyone assumed all along. First they let the WGA strike and waited things out until they could use force majeure to cut loose the deals they didn’t like. Then they gave the DGA a little more than they were willing to give the WGA in their negotiations and got a deal done. Finally, they announced to the world that they were ready to return to the bargaining table with the WGA once the deal with the DGA was in place. Obvious? Yes. Effective? Maybe. This puts significant pressure on the WGA to get back to the table and hammer out a contract. The real question is whether the WGA can stomach the basic framework of the DGA’s deal and use it as a starting point for legitimate negotiations. Nobody but the WGA leadership can answer that question. The next week should bring us some answers.
I for one believe that the DGA’s deal, while not optimal, should be enough to get things jump started. At the very least it should setup new bargaining sessions that actually have the potential to generate a contract, unlike the last session back in early December. I believe the studios got what they wanted with force majeure. Now that it’s done they are likely to be serious in future negotiations. I can only hope that the WGA isn’t so inflexible that they decide not to get down to serious bargaining.
Posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 by Hooper X
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Episodes: Pilot & Episode 101 (Gnothi Seauton)
Much of what had made the two original Terminator movies special was their ability to combine groundbreaking special effects with very well thought out stories. Both films were action packed but maintained a character driven thread that made them compelling and even to this day make them unique in a world of poorly written, special effects spectacles.
In 2003, Jonathan Mostow(Director) and John Brancato(Screenplay) brought James Cameron’s Terminator franchise back to the big screen with the lackluster effort, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. This time, Cameron stepped down from writing duties and the director’s chair. The change in leadership showed. This movie was everything that the first two weren’t. It was loud, clumsy and lacked the heart that made the first two special. Gone were the human elements, replaced by gigantic car chases, tons of robots, a hot blonde as the new Terminator and an aging Arnold.
Now, the Terminator franchise has returned (without Mostow and Brancato) to bring us a weekly hour-long drama, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  The Sarah Connor Chronicles stars Lena Headey (300) as Sarah Connor and fills in the timeline between the event s in Terminator 2 and Terminator 3. Sarah has raised her son John (played by Thomas Dekker) on the run, moving from one town to another in order to avoid capture by law enforcement for acts committed during Terminator 2 and the ensuing years and to steer clear of a regular stream of Terminators sent from the future to kill John.
Read More »
