NEWS: Why Are The Studios Insane?

POLITICS: Why Are The Studios Insane?

Anyone with the slightest amount of brain matter who looks at the Writers Guild strike must wonder what in the fuck the studios are doing. Financial experts are dumbfounded. Anyone who witnessed the collapse of the music industry is feeling an odd sense of déjà vu as the studio's arrogance drives viewers and talent away. But maybe this is not about the writers at all. Maybe this is a game being played between the giant media companies and we writers are mere pawns.

It is becoming apparent that some studios are attempting to weaken others in hopes of gobbling them up. Let’s take a look at the players:

Warner Brothers is in the best position of all. They can handle a long, long strike and it appears their CEO is pushing for exactly that. The company’s television network, The CW, is a fucking joke and does not bring in profits. If this season tanks, or the next one, who cares? As the networks slip further and further into irrelevancy with the shift to the Internet, The CW is sure to die a miserable death and that would leave Warner Brothers without a network. Which is why this game is more about Warner gobbling up CBS than giving the writers what they want.
.
CBS is the #1 network and mostly consists of scripted TV. More than any other network, CBS stands to be royally fucked by the strike. The longer the strike drags on, the network will find itself in worse and worse shape and its stock prices will drop. CBS does not want this to happen but their partner in crime, Warner, very much does. Kinda stupid to join yourself at the hip with your enemy, isn’t it? That is why you shouldn’t let Les Moonves run your studio. He is a moron.

Sony is in the film business. They have a few TV shows. I recently worked on one of them and I can tell you it is shocking that those idiots can get anything onto TV. They are top to bottom a collection of complete morons. Sony expected to be more insulated from the strike, but we took them by surprise and walked out before they were ready, on the day our contract ended. The result is that Sony did not stock up on scripts and did not get polishes on the ones they had already purchased. They are now canceling film shoots, like Angels and Demons, and it will begin hurting their bottom line soon. Sony is said to believe not settling with the writers is “Crazy.”

Paramount is in the exact same position as Sony. They also think the strike is crazy and are getting more vocal about the studios position.

Fox is giddy as a schoolgirl who just got her first fingering. They have American Idol in the pipeline and that show is a juggernaut. Even in the best of times other networks cannot compete with this monster. Fox is also an enormous company with very deep pockets. They make most of their money from other businesses and plan on keeping this strike going for as long as possible in order to crush their network opponents. Plus, Rupert has been busting unions for years. Make no mistake about it; Fox and Warner Brothers are using this strike to crush their AMPTP partners. They would actually love to see other networks crash and burn.

GE owns NBC/Universal. GE sort of owns the world, so they are not doing too badly. But GE is also not playing the game. While other CEOs are running around telling everyone the strike is not hurting business and they are making no revenue from the internet, the GE CEO is telling stockholders that the strike is already affecting the bottom line. He clearly has no patience for whatever bullshit game the other studios are playing and is all about the making money, as a CEO should be. To GE the strike makes no sense. NBC has already given money back to advertisers, which is a first in the history of television. At the same time, the head of NBC, Jeffrey Zucker has been moving away from scripted series for a while now. His dream is to create a network of all reality and game shows. He is giddy and sees the strike as a great opportunity to ruin an entire network. Congrats to you, idiot. Can’t wait for "Housewives vs. Monkeys on Battle Island.”

Disney/ABC will not fare well from the strike, either. The networks new reality show, Duel, is a massive failure. ABC also has many scripted shows and is even rushing LOST back, even though it could permanently kill the show. It was determined last year that LOST should be run consecutively because the show dropped a large number of viewers in 2006 after a long break. The show’s producers/writers have begged the network not to air the completed 8 episodes, but ABC will, which is an indication of their desperation for profits. Fox, on the other had, has decided to hold 24 because the network can afford to. Disney is also in trouble with film scripts, having not stockpiled enough. Word on the street is that Disney is not thrilled with the hard line the studios have taken in negotiations.

UA and MGM are totally bummed. The amount the WGA is asking for would only amount to $500,000 each. They are going to lose much more than that as the strike rolls on. They could easily die in this mess.

So, you may ask, why are they sticking together? Good question. Nobody knows. These massive media monsters are competitors and have very different interests. It isn’t like the last strike, when Hollywood was owned by Hollywood and joining up made sense. It does not now. Some think the CEOs are afraid to break away from the pack alone. Leaving the retard herd can be scary, I guess.

I believe the real story is that the companies that will be hurt are falling for the Warner Brothers and Fox game. They are under the spell of their big brothers and they will lose because of it. All of these companies stocks will be downgraded in the New Year. Their business’ financial health is at stake.

This strike has already cost each of the companies far more than what we're asking for spread out over the term of the contract. If you assume that they're rational actors (and they are), you can only come to the conclusion that the strike itself is not really what they're concerned with. They are battling each other, but some of them don’t even realize it yet. When they do, they will break off and quickly make deals with the WGA in an attempt to recoup their losses.

It is all a sceme to create One Nation, Under Fox.

Jebus help us all!

Now here's my question; is it even possible for studios to break away from the AMPTP to make individual deals with the WGA? Or does this violate some collective bargaining rule?

What's the deal with Leno and Conan coming back; are they just going to sit around and stare into space for an hour?

thats a great line

No, they can do so, but I believe they have to pay some sort of fine. I have been told there is a "poison pill." But the WGA is negotiating with individual companies at this point. Not one of the big six, but some of the top 15.

Leno, Conan, Stewart and Colbert.

Interviews, interviews, interviews.

But we will push actors to not cross the picket line. Anyone who does will be sacrificing future work, mostly in television.

Conan's a master of the awkwardly-goofy but hilarious ad-lib, but I doubt even he could manage to fill the 20-25 minute void of a monologue and skits, 5 nights a week.

It's going to be painful.

So expect Leno to be doing a lot of fruit cake lady and wild animal trainer interviews.

Does anyone actually watch those shows for the interviews? That's usually when I change the channel. I wonder if any political candidates will have the guts not to cross the picket line as well.

So what's the WGA's party line on their early restart, then? And what about the shows' party lines regarding same?

Stewart and Colbert were forced to return by Viiacom. They both said they were "ambivalent" about coming back. I can't imagine two shows that are more reliant on their writers.

The WGA East has said that if Colbert and Stewart do any segments on the show that was previously written, then they are scabs. And I happen to agree.

WGA West will explain to all the hosts what their limitations are. They won't be able to do a lot.

Are Stewart and Colbert even allowed to write their own material? I can't get my head around how Viacom thinks this is going to work.

I've read talk of studios using english speaking writers overseas, from Britain for example. Not specifically mentioned in terms of The Daily Show/Colbert Report, but it was an idea that studios were floating.

I wonder if that would violate any WGA rule, seeing as Stewart et al. are members.

This smacks of an old-school American fight for the working man against the corporations, before America became all about corporations.

Of course in this case the "working men" are people who are being payed more than I'll probably ever see to do a job I would crawl over broken glass to have, but eh... semantics.

Hope it works out in your favor, FTR.

Now that is a plan let's out-source comedy writing to India. (Dun and Bradstreet commonly known as D&B is now known in my company as "DNB" thanks to outsourcing)

This whole thing seems to be two groups of overinflated egos arguing about who's in charge. Both are paid way too much for such mediocre work. Hollywood hasn't done anything but remakes in the last 20 or more years anyway. Altho, "The Final Remake of Beau Geste" was pretty good. Can't think of anything else worth seeing.

I sort of figured that sooner or later one or two studios would cry uncle, and the rest would have to follow. The ones being hurt, who think the standoff is nuts, should negotiate with the Guild separately, if necessary.

FTR - is there really an issue with Leno, et. al., as long as they don't use scripted material? (Granted, they'd have to scrap the monologues and skits and turn themselves into Larry King...)

Whether the writers get a better cut or if the industry continues to pay them the same way they always have, we still get the same shows. I'm not trying to be a pescimist, and I'm inclined to side with the writers of course, but what difference is it going to make either way for those of us who are only in the audience.

Whether the writers get a better cut or if the industry continues to pay them the same way they always have, we still get the same shows. I'm not trying to be a pescimist, and I'm inclined to side with the writers of course, but what difference is it going to make either way for those of us who are only in the audience.

it depends on what kind of TV you like to watch but like FTR said, if Fox and Warner Brothers come out on top then you can bet there will be a lot more programming like "Idol" and a lot less intelligent programming (And the news will be on at 9 o clock. )

I'm not saying there isn't a lot of rubbish out there, I'm just saying that a lot of it happens to come from the studios who seem to be the most vocal WGA opponents.

hey FTR I heard a great quote about the strike last week .... at sony.

"I realize you need to get your peice of the pie, but did you have to shut down the bakery to get it?"


I think thats pretty much my opinion.

how much do you think writers make?

Excellent story, Fear...as always!

Nevertheless, I kinda wanna see "Housewives vs. Monkeys on Battle Island."