Posted on 01/30/2008 4:02:59 PM PST by bahblahbah
American TV networks have lost almost a quarter of their audiences because of the Hollywood writers' strike, according to new figures, and executives fear that “orphaned” viewers may never return.
The Nielsen ratings organisation found that US viewership for last week's opening of the 2008 TV season was down 21 per cent compared with the same week last year, when new episodes of hit shows such as Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy were aired.
Because the strike has shut down production of all scripted shows, the networks are now almost completely out of fresh material to broadcast, instead relying on reality TV franchises such as American Idol.
The channel CW - home of Gossip Girl and America's Next Top Model - lost 50 per cent of viewers in the 18 to 49-year-old bracket sampled by Nielsen. “It's hard to ignore the declines,” the Hollywood trade magazine Variety said. It said that last week's figures were the first real evidence of the damage from the strike because previous weeks had been skewed by sporting events and Christmas holiday programming.
Not everyone lost out. Perhaps because of the controversy over her pregnancy, Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old sister of Britney Spears, saw her sitcom, Zoey 101, on the Nickelodeon children's channel attract a record six million viewers.
The show was filmed last summer - before the strike and before Spears revealed that she was pregnant.
The Hollywood stoppage is costing the Los Angeles economy an estimated $20 million (£11 million) a day. Thousands are out of work. Small businesses, such as the props suppliers along Hollywood Boulevard, are struggling to stay afloat. The organisers of the Golden Globes lost $6 million in one night when their event was turned into a press conference because actors refused to cross writers' picket lines to attend the awards.
There is some hope, since talks between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood studio bosses resumed last week after a long and acrimonious stand-off over the Christmas holidays.
“I'm hopeful,” said Devon Shepherd, a writer for Weeds and Chris Rock's Everybody Hates Chris. “We're all just hoping that with time passing, cooler heads will prevail.”
The biggest issue remains the royalties paid to writers for TV shows and films streamed over the internet, as well as content downloaded on iTunes. So far, the writers have had the support of the Screen Actors Guild, which will face the same issues when its contract runs out in June.
Writers as well as studios are worried that lost viewers may never return to TV, instead finding new ways to entertainment themselves, such as YouTube, Facebook or video games. The most recent figures show that YouTube has had an 18 per cent surge in traffic, while visitor numbers to other websites, such as Crackle, have seen doubled, albeit from small bases.
During the last writers' strike of 20 years ago, about 10 per cent of network TV viewers never returned, most of them going to subscription cable channels such as HBO.
Google Video Search (http://video.google.com/) is one of my new best friends. Lots of good stuff out there— be it classic or original.
I knew the writers were shooting themselves in the foot. I haven’t even bothered looking to see if there were any new episodes of the shows I watch since the strike started. I’m buying and watching DVDs instead.
I wonder: are the networks having to give concessions to advertisers because ratings are lower than the advertisers are paying for?
Hasn’t been anything worth watching in years — I think.
and I find I could do without the TV altogether - ditto a radio..and many other things - but not my hot water spigot and my 'puter
The Writer’s Guild strike hasn’t affected me one bit. I thought I’d miss the one show I watch “The Office”, but the writing of the show this last season stunk so bad, I say “Good Riddance”.
Got myself an e-book reader for Christmas (thanks to my wife!), and have been reading instead.
But our family has never been TV junkies. We watch things like “Dirty Jobs”, or “Mythbusters”, but thankfully nothing that needs a “writer”.
In fact, were I a writer for Hollywood, I’d be ashamed to ask for more money given the crap that they churn out.
Yep. The real danger isn’t that people are outraged by the strike and will boycott, it’s that they’ll find out they don’t really need to watch TV so much or at all. I cut TV to about two hours a week a couple of years ago and cut it off altogether last July. Won’t be going back. Now I have time for productive activities...like FReeping...
A writers strike? Who knew? /s
Got myself an e-book reader for Christmas
A Kindle (I hope...)??? How do you like it? Was considering getting one. How is the contrast and legibility compared to print?
I switched off years ago. I don’t see any reason to go back. If a TV series gets good buzz, I will check it out on video when it’s released. If it’s good, I will see it all. Otherwise, I’m not investing my time valuable time viewing so much %$#& + advertising for stuff I don’t want or need.
I think the only shows I’ve watched in the last 5 years that required writers were “24” and the Sopranos. I watched the Sopranos on DVD. I could’ve done the same with 24.
In our house, the TV is either off or it’s tuned in to a documentary of some kind. We watch a lot of A&E, The History Channel, etc. The recent documentary on the History Channel about the revolutionary war was outstanding. Being a sports fan, I can also usually find a game to watch. I get most of my entertainment from playing with my kids or FReeping.
I disagree. While I think the premise of the show is beginning to wear thin (so when is this documentary ever going to air, anyway?), I think the writing has been pretty good, especially with Michael. In seasons past, he had really been a one-dimensional character but they really started to grow him over the past season. He's not just a clown-boss any longer; he's actually a human being, and it's starting to be revealed as to how he ticks.
The one character that has really bothered me throughout this past season is Jan. I can understand her behaving oddly after she was fired, but it appeared that she turned the corner, so to speak, in the episode where we found out that Michael had the second job--to support Jan's spending habits, no less--but then, in the last episode, she was right back to "Old Jan," who didn't seem at all to care about Michael.
While some of the story lines have been weak (again, I think a problem with the premise of the show), I've been impressed with some of the things that we've been shown the last year.
I stopped watching the tube in 2000.
I just finished the great Glenda Jackson portrait of 'Elizabeth R' done for Masterpeice Theatre in 1971 on video. I had watched the series several times growing up but this was the first time I could watch the episodes back to back.
Somebody asked me the other day if I missed not watching my favorite TV Shows. And I replied.....Network TV???? What's that??? Hahaha!
Writers are on strike? I had no idea. Who cares?
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