The effects on late-night TV were felt immediately, and most scripted shows are running out of new episodes, if they haven’t already. Rather than cancelling iffy new shows this fall, the networks let them run out, and will bring out the replacements in January – though not “24,” which wasn’t finished when the strike started. The “big” reality shows take a while to put together, so I don’t think they’ll rush a quick season of “Survivor,” though apparently they’re casting a midwinter “Big Brother.” We can expect a bunch of game shows and “ephemeral” reality shows after the holidays, most of which won’t be terribly good.
How are you, personally, getting through – or planning to get through – the strike? I’m not a huge TV watcher any more, so this isn’t creating huge holes in my evening schedule. I just upped my bare-bones Netflix account from one-at-a-time, two-a-month to one-at-a-time, unlimited – but that’s partly because I’ve recently taken up knitting, which makes sitting in front of the TV more enticing than hanging out online reading the Dope and chatting on IM – not sure if that impulse would have led to picking up a couple of “new” TV shows or not, had there been new TV shows available to pick up.
This is gonna wreak havoc with my fantasy teevee game, though, I’ll tell you that.
I desperately miss Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert!
The hardest part has been that we don’t have anything appropriate to watch in the evening together while the little one is still awake. The Daily Show and Colbert Report used to fill that niche, because she thought they were “funny guys” and anything inappropriate just flew right over her little head.
Other than that, I’m actually glad that some of the shows I like that probably would have been canceled in any normal season (Journeyman, um…that vampire detective thing that isn’t Angel, *Chuck *the Reaper) are being given a full shot (at least until the run out of episodes.) I’m not quite sure how it happened, but our DVR is nearly full - I think last night we finally got it down to 80% - and we’re just now getting to episodes that aired two months or more ago. We’ve got quite a cushion of genre TV to get us through these trying times!
If these run out and there’s still nothing new, then we’ll increase our Netflix quota as well.
I’m going through major Daily Show and Colbert Report withdrawal, but otherwise I’ve not felt much effect. Now that the shows I regularly watch are winding or wound down I’ll probably feel it more, but it seems like there are new reality shows popping up come January, along with the return of Lost and some other series, so I’m not too worried. Maybe I’ll finally get around to seeing all the extras on the DVDs I rent. Or, hopefully, maybe I’ll start pre-packing in hopes that we can find a house to buy.
Oh, and on the subject of Survivor,
they just finished filming season 16, which, according to spoilers, is half- ASSed - in that half the castaways are former contestants (All Star Survivor II) and half are new ones. It airs in March, same as every year.
I’m making heavier use of Netflix. I’m just about done watching Firefly for the first time. At 11pm, I often catch repeats of Futurama while I am waiting for TDS & Colbert Report to return. I have the Futurama movie to watch soon.
I wasted two hours watching the Hog Father movie on Ion last night and discover the piece of mediocre is a two nights. I am recording the second night, but I am not sure if I will watch it.
There is always TCM, it has so many good movies on so often that it is often a good fallback. I only need to make it to March when Baseball is back. I will be watching pre-seasons games then.
So far, I’ve not been affected. I just don’t watch the kind of shows which were affected immediately. And its December, where I kind of expect reruns and holiday specials anyway. Should the strike continue, I’ll probably start borrowing more movies–maybe even renew my membership at Blockbuster and start renting more movies. But it depends–I go through spells where I watch tv/movies frequently, and then through spells when I can’t be bothered, so who knows.
Does anyone else find it rather meta-ironic that the writer’s strike is likely to INCREASE sales and rentals of DVD’s and downloads - the very things the suits claim are still uncertain technology?
I’m sad because I fell in love with a couple of new shows (Chuck and Pushing Daisies) and I don’t know when they’ll be back.
The only other show I really make a point of watching - Supernatural - apparently has scripts for about 17 episodes, which is almost a whole season anyways. So I won’t be missing too much on that front if the strike drags on.
When there starts to be nothing but a glut of obnoxious reality programming, I’ll just turn off the TV.
I absolutely love “Pushing Daisies” and I have been enjoying “Chuck” & “Reaper”. “My Name is Earl” was good last week. I guess that is all my network shows. I just got so use to watch “The Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” 4 nights a week, that this is the gap I am filling with DVDs and Futurama.
I miss John Stewer and Stephen Colbert. That hour used to be the perfect pause in studying to hang out with my housemates before bed (or unfortunately, more studying). Now … we watch Law and Order reruns instead.
I’m using the time to catch up on great series that I missed the first time. Currently we’re in the middle of watching the first season of ‘Heroes.’ We started out watching it on Netflix, but then we got hooked and didn’t want to wait for the next one to arrive. So Santa self-servingly gave my daughter the first season DVD last weekend at our first Christmas party.
After that I’ll either start watching Season 2 of “24” which I bought last year but haven’t watched yet OR I’ll re-watch Seasons 1-4 then continue with Seasons 5+ (which I haven’t ever watched) of “The Sopranos.” I love that series so much that I don’t want to watch it until I have a big old chunk of time to devote to watching it.
While I sympathize with the writers, who I think should receive residuals for all venues, I also sympathize with the gaffers, lighting crews, etc., who I think are equally deserving of residuals and who are now unemployed as a result of the strike. It’s a shame that the producers aren’t more willing to share the wealth, but that’s capitalism for you. You put up the capital, you enjoy the return. Everyone else is just a schlep at the office.
I’m not really affected at all. About the only day I sit down and turn on the tv is Sunday nights, and that’s for TAR.
There are shows I want to watch, but I always seem to forget about them or I tape and then never watch… or buy the dvd’s and take forever to watch (example, I’m only on season 2 of Buffy, I haven’t watched all of Firefly yet, only about half of the first season of Supernatural and 1/3 of the first season of Heroes).
Never got in the habit because my brother always hogged the tv, so even now that we don’t live together I never think of it.
It doesn’t help that certain shows I’m interested in don’t air in Canada until well after the fact, so you guys all talk about them and I forget when they really do come on (Top Chef and Bloodlines). I’m not going to pay double or more than I do now for a couple of shows.
Not for internet downloads. They’re currently making zero money off those, so if there are any increased online sales, it’s all going to the producers.
I watch very little TV already, and I was aware months ago the strike would probably happen (the entertainment conglomerates have been hardly circumspect about their union-busting mood), so I didn’t start watching any of the new shows this season, knowing they’d most likely be off the air before long. The only thing I watch that will be affected is Battlestar Galactica, which will get to the midpoint of its fourth season and then stop. But then, that’s the way the two previous seasons have been deliberately programmed, so I don’t consider it any more annoying than it was then.
ETA: I do watch The Office and a couple of other things, but I’m not really in love with them like BSG. That’s the only show I’ll really miss.
