Writer's Strike?!
Question: Will the current writer's strike have an effect on Soaps?
Answers: Will the current writer's strike have an effect on Soaps?
Hard to say. There's about a two week gap between production and air date. I suppose the strike COULD be settled by then, but it seems unlikely. The producers could always hire scab writers to fill the gap, but that could easily make matters worse. On the other hand, non-SWG writers couldn't possibly do a worse job than the striking writers on GH. We may see some characters reverting back to who they're actually supposed to be.
Soaps will be one of the first things affected. I HATE that!!! grrrrr........ but hopefully it will be over. And soaps are done far in advance so we really won't see re runs until January or something.
The writers strike will affect soaps after they have gone through the one week's pre- recorded ones they have done.
The strike will go in cycles regarding to shows. First the late night talk shows will go into reruns, which they have already done, as theirs no one to write that night's monologue for Leno, Letterman & others.
The last writers strike was in 1988 & it lasted 22 wks.{5 1/2 months} & cost the industry around $500 Million dollars.
This time their gripe is on the percentage they recieve for Downloads & DVD'S etc.
If the strike goes into January/2008 the Primetime shows will be affected, but for now they are alright, as they have about 2-3 months of shows on pre -recorded.
This strike will affect Canadian programs as well [especially Global & CTV], as the shows on these stations are based on the USA schedules.
I hope this answers some of your concerns. REBELCAT:****
The writer's strike will have an effect on the soaps, but not one that will really be noticable to most viewers. All the writers on every American Soap opera belong to the Writers Guild of America (WGA). They are on strike, but today it was announced that several of them will NOT have to go on strike, because of something called the "financial-core" agreement, bwtween the writers and the guild. Basically, it means that the writers on the soaps are not getting an residuals from the soaps anyway, because they air only once, there are no repeats and they are not released on DVD. The biggest issue of the strike is that the writers want more money for the sale of DVD's and the soaps are not on DVD. The writers that want to come back for the most part can. Three writers have returned to work at "The Young and the Restless", two have returned to "Days of Our Lives" and at least one has come back to "As the World Turns" Even if no writers returned to any of the soaps, the show would go on. The networks stated that they have enough storyline and scripts to take all of the soaps up through February 2008. Most of the shows have long range plans that go through May. Even if the writers strike lasts that long such as the strike of 1988, the shows would continue to tape new episodes to air each day. In 1988, the producers, Network and Studio executives, and in some cases, even the actors themselves were writing scripts, and doing the shows. In 1988 the WGA strike lasted 22 weeks, but all of the soaps continued to air all new episodes, every day.