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So you'd think, but it's actually not Easy Street at all, because, as previously unpublished data reveals, growth in the labor supply has outstripped growth in demand, while shorter series orders mean writers, who are held under option from season to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 ...
Could we be so lucky?
Strike. Please. But only for the next decade or so ...
I predicted that when they went on strike in late 2007-early 2008 that TV would never recover, and I was right. This will kill it for good.
Too many writers? So glad the Dems aren’t in control anymore or they would create an Entitlement for the Writers Guild of America, so no writers will go unpaid. Only kidding about the Dems.......maybe.
Plenty of good old stuff to watch...
OH NO!!! Who will bring us such value as threesomes with little kids, little boys wearing bondage ball-gags, or little kids coming out as transgendered? Who will entertain us?
Robots programmed with random number generators or chimps with Etch-O-Sketches would produce better material than the current crop of “writers.”
Considering that a person who writes for Hollywood makes about 1% of the jerks who act in the show, I can’t believe anybody does it for a living.
455 series this season abd not one worth looking at same old garbage.
What will the lamestream media news organizations do without their fiction writers?
The last writer strike that I remember was birth of the reality TV show specifically Survivor. How else do you put on a show with a complete script? So it kind of back fired on them.
I hope they do.....we watch mostly sports, and old shoes anyway....its spring, and we need to get our outside work done anyway....
There is some very good writing out there these days. Sure, some series are poorly written, but there are some wonderful gems.
I thought that Person of Interest had exceptional writing. Elementary also.
A writers strike could be a big win for PRESIDENT Trump. Without writers, those wacked out Hollywood celebrities running around shooting off their big mouths won’t know what to say.
I can eat a big breakfast and crap better material than these hackneyed dolts produce. That they get paid at all for their dreck is a crime.
Strike. Please. But only for the next decade or so ...
It’s hard to put into words exactly, but I get the idea, that TV shows of the past were written better, with more intelligent storylines, better plots, more character development, etc.
Compare the comedy of a show such as I Love Lucy, with sitcoms today in which the comedy revolves around smart mouth kids, or some character who is gay, or some zany character whose job it is to spout one liners that are supposed to make us all laugh. There’s a world of difference, in my opinion, in the shows today and shows of the past.
JMS did really well with Babylon 5 and Jeremiah. His script writing book is good reading.
A hundred channels and nothing on...
We only have cable again after many years, because internet + TV was way cheaper than internet alone.
They have to rig it so disinterested people will subscribe to the propaganda and hopefully watch.
No thanks, not the least bit lured. I watched CSPAN for the inauguration and related events, and then again for the President's speech to Congress some few weeks ago.
I suppose the TV might have entertainment value if the media covered the fall of its own depraved Establishment, but I'm not holding my breath.
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