Sad news, fans of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report: Your beloved comedic news shows soon might be on hiatus.
Possibility of a writers' strike looms over these shows and hundreds of others that rely on the talent of scriptwriters. Variety, one of the leading trade publications for the entertainment industry, reported Tuesday that the reality of a strike is near because of contractual disagreements.
The organization threatening to strike is the Writers Guild of America, a labor union composed of writers for television, movies, documentaries, news programs and more. The WGA's contract expired yesterday, affecting nearly 12,000 writers nationwide.
No one's thrown in his pen yet, though. If a strike does occur ' depending how contract negotiations fare ' it could be anywhere from a few days or weeks to a months-long ordeal.
And what does this mean to you? Well, pretty much everything. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are nothing without their loyal minions scribbling political and pop cultural jokes behind the scenes. Favorites 24 and Grey's Anatomy might cease in the middle of a suspenseful string of episodes, and all of those new shows this season ' including CBS' The Big Bang Theory and Fox's K-Ville ' could fizzle away into oblivion.
You mean, no new episodes of anything?! Well, not exactly. Variety predicts that original episodes won't run out until December or January, but the strike would affect what happens to shows after those written before yesterday run out.But, there are a few solutions. Reality shows are cheaper to produce than scripted shows and require no scriptwriting (Yeah right). American Idol is slated to return in January for its seventh season. Then there's the plethora of CBS' reality shows, and they easily could fill all of the empty spots left by the networks' scripted shows. Or catch my personal guilty pleasure of the moment, A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila. It's so trash-alicious that it's awesome.
This also could be a great chance to catch up on those shows from seasons past. Scrubs reruns on Comedy Central entertain me for hours, and FX shows the defunct That '70s Show religiously. For the more serious viewer, catch The Sopranos seasons on A&E.
There's always the option to purchase a favorite show's season on DVD, too, to pass the time during the darkest (literally) hours of television. Or you could do something productive, like homework, but that's only in extreme desperation.
So, my fellow television fans, let's hope that the Writers Guild of America gets its act together so we don't go insane
Caitlin Price is senior journalism major and the senior writer for Culture Staff at The Post. Send her an e-mail at cp369004@ohiou.edu.
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Caitlin Price
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