Posted on 03/26/2017 11:58:33 AM PDT by EdnaMode
As the number of scripted series and TV writers surge, shorter orders stall the volume of produced episodes and staff writer earnings, while screenwriters' wages drop 21 percent.
With scripted television booming — 455 series this season, more than double the number six years ago — it ought to be a great time to be a TV writer. And the ongoing Writers Guild negotiations should be a cakewalk, right?
So you'd think, but it's actually not Easy Street at all, because, as previously unpublished data reveals, growth in the labor supply has outstripped growth in demand, while shorter series orders mean writers, who are held under option from season to season, may be working yet making less than before.
That's just one of the issues that WGA and AMPTP studio negotiators are confronting as talks continue into a second week on a new three-year union deal. But it's one of the hardest on the agenda. Yes, screenwriters too are unhappy — their inflation-adjusted average wages dropped by 21 percent during the 2010-15 period — but more than twice as many writers now work in TV as in features, leading to a feeling that these negotiations are TV-centric.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
Youtube alone has thousands of replacements waiting for a chance.
Who watches network TV dramas or comedies anymore?
All the action is on Amazon and Netflix and the like producing their own series ... plus lots of series produced in the UK etc. Not to mention all the documentaries available.
Agree. Criminal Mind: Beyond Borders is good and we enjoy Blue Bloods, too. Too many good shows have gone PC and are now unwatchable. If you can find it, Hot In Cleveland (in reruns) is pretty hysterical for the older crowd, women AND men.
Try the reruns of Hot In Cleveland and then let me know what you think.
Will anyone notice?
That’s where I get my shows. Dont know if they’re old or original but I pick the ones I like
Watching WhiteChapel right now and love it.
Burn Notice worked well for me also.
Is that in reruns now?
RIP Jerry Doyle...
Some places...
I watched old shoes for a while.
Got sick of looking at them especially the loafers, plus they started to stink up the house so I threw them out.
YES, that’s how boring my life is that I actually posted this :)
The show bombed in the ratings.
There are hundreds of thousands of hungry would be writers, producers, musicians, actors bypassing Hollywood and crowdfunding their own projects as we speak. Hollywood is a zombie, it just has no self awareness that it has died, and many of its fans still look to it out of habit, but all the movement does nothing to conceal the stink of putrefaction.
Actors can make a tremendous amount per episode yet cannot speak if not for the writer who is paid a pittance in comparison.
Will anyone care if they do?
I assure you, it will affect me not one whit.
The crap they churn out is not worthy of the label "writing", it is more properly compared to a bodily function.
I really do not care.
The big networks are showing a lot of unscripted reality TV.
They'd show even more if they could get away with it. It's cheaper.
I'm guessing some basic cable outlets don't pay as much as a broadcast network or premium cable channel could.
Thanks for the update, I may not have noticed otherwise.
Love re-watching Burn Notice and Psyche on Netflicks! Person Of Interest was great in the beginning but the girls took over and there were way too many super-computers and bad guy mobs after a while. And Elementary also started strong but Watson quickly got smarter than Holmes. Like NCIS, they cannot seem to keep up the quality.
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