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Ed Bernero, exec producer of CBS’ Criminal Minds, emails me about my post, Networks/Studios vs Showrunners: Why They’re Now On A Collision Course:
“Your reporting on the showrunners meeting was dead-on. I think you sort of under-reported the most important thing that came out of that discussion, though. The story leaned on the fact that we would support each other in the event one of us is sued by the Companies. While that is true, the bigger story of that meeting was the (as I remember) almost unanimous agreement (which I don’t think the Guild leadership was completely happy with — this isn’t a ploy by them) that we hyphenate showrunners would absolutely go back to work to finish the episodes left to post if the AMPTP agreed to come back to the table. I think most of us would agree that it doesn’t even have to be them that makes the first move. If someone were to tell me that if I went back to my producing duties on Monday morning and the Companies would come back to the table Monday afternoon, I’d go. I’d trust them that much.
“They have to talk to our Guild if this is ever going to get fixed. People are being hurt in this — mostly helpless people who have no protection. We want this thing settled. We want to work. We still have episodes to finish and we will if they just agree to talk again. Just come back and talk.”
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that seems fair to me
as long as it is serious talking, not just small talk so the network can get more episodes of course
Let’s face it – many of them never stopped working in the first place.
And the whole: “I did it for my teamsters!” rings false. The crew would continue production until they ran out of scripts. Their work is not affected by how much a showrunner tweaks his or her cut of episode 9.
All this appears to be is an open willingness to CONTINUE to cave while the rest of their staffs keep marching outside.
Any talk will do at this point. These people should be forced to sit in a room together, silent if need be, until the whole thing is worked out.
That’s ridiculous, the Guild trusted AMPTP so much they took DVDs off the table, that worked out great.
“Any talk will do at this point. These people should be forced to sit in a room together, silent if need be, until the whole thing is worked out.”
AMEN! I feel that this should be a law – there are too many people being affected out there for this not to be happening already!
Jesus, Ed, maybe you should’ve held onto that information until it would’ve been useful. Now Counter will read it and spin it to his bosses as weakness instead of what it actually is, which is people being reasonable. Eh, doesn’t matter. Let’s play it out: showrunners go back to work, AMPTP comes back to table, AMPTP offers no movement on new media, David Young bursts a blood vessel and recalls showrunners and the showrunners tell him they’re not his “brothers and sisters” as he unfortunately likes to call us and to go piss up a rope. Now the TV machine is cranked up again and the only people screwed are the middle class writers who are still out of work and on the picket line.
Anyway, I’d like to add to the confusion with some half-baked theories.
1) The four congloms that own networks are crapping themselves right now. They want this over sooner rather than later. They must understand that this is the end of their network model if this goes past mid December. They know the audience they lose will never come back because there’s a precedent for that and God knows MBAs love a case history. They fear if there’s no upfronts in 2008, there will never be upfronts again.
2) The other congloms (and smaller members of the AMPTP) that don’t own networks are feeling less pressure and are content to wait us out.
The good news is the AMPTP is full of dissension. The other good news is the only thing they can agree on is that Counter and his team of flying monkeys mismanaged the negotiation.
Nikki, any rumblings from the AMPTP about what their thoughts are? They obviously struck first with spin about last Sunday… and since then it’s been all WGA, all the time. It seems like every writer willing to go on record is saying “just come back to the table.” What’s the hold up??? I know far too many people who live paycheck-to-paycheck who have lost their jobs (or will in a matter of days when various shows hit the end of their script stack).
I imagine it may be an ego thing… WGA has invited AMPTP to talk, so they’re balking. If that’s the case (and, really, what else could it be), would the people with private jets please get their heads out of the sand and see that in a week this has had a monstrous effect on the entire industry?
The ONLY place this mess will be resolved is at the negotiating table. If the Showrunners going back to work will get the two sides talking again, I support it.
It’s time for both sides to put the past behind them and make a fresh start of it. There’s too much at stake to allow this to drag on any longer. The failure to reach an agreement soon will devastate thousands of lives.
As the saying goes. “talk in cheap”! If they went back to work just as long as the AMPTP goes to the table to “Talk”, wouldn’t that just get more shows in the can and allow them to live with a strike THAT MUCH LONGER? It’s like giving a heroin addict just a little bit every day but demanding they clean up their act at the same time. Plus as it’s been brough up before, if you allow the networks to go longer, they will just let this roll into the period when SAG starts their negotiations. Seems to me you need to halt all product. Just a thought????
RESOLUTION NOW!
Anyone want teachers to teach without lesson plans?
NASA to go to space without blueprints?
Pay the writers!
(PLEASE?!!!)
Let the headlines on Monday read:
“The studios return in good faith to the bargaining table”
Betsye and Anon are right. This won’t work. The AMPTP will just stall and equivocate while the showrunners fill out their episodes. Once they’re done, the AMPTP will walk out again, laughing how the showrunners cut their own throats.
Here’s an alternative: Showrunners should report back to work under the guise to complete episodes, then steal all the master footage and hide it. Hold it hostage until the AMPTP agrees to negotiate for real. Crying how you want to go back to work has no effect on these corporate swine. Get vicious.
Finally, an “Olive Branch”. This is the best thing that either side has done since the strike started.
A little gesture here and there, whether it is pure PR or not, will go a very long way toward showing those of us on the outside of this dispute who really does want these issues resolved.
Talk and rhetoric is cheap. I wanted to see actions. I am happy to see the showrunners taking the proper steps, in my opinion.
While I applaud the willingness of the showrunners to come back to the table if the AMPTP will, all these comments seem to assume that that AMPTP is willing to be reasonable. The bottom line is – the AMPTP wanted a strike and have no intention of coming back until they take their write-offs on all the crappy shows of the current season, cut all the production deals they wanted to get rid of anyway, trim their own dead wood internally, and otherwise take advantage of this situation for their own financial advantage. That should take – oh – about six months or so, conveniently timed to the other two guilds negotiations. In the end, I assume the AMPTP will give some kind of nominal back end just to get their hit shows running again – but they have some housecleaning to do first. They don’t give a s— about how this strike is affecting any individuals. They are not individuals themselves but corporations concerned only with the bottom line. That’s what happens when entertainment companies are run by MBA’s. This is not even personal. It’s just business!
By the way, on a separate note, Nikki, your blog is an example of why, in the end, the little guy will triumph. Thanks to the internet, any talented content provider can put their work out there and have a direct relationship with their audience, without needing some big media conglomerate to help them deliver their content. While it’s more expensive to produce a show than a wonderful column like yours, in the end, the writers/production people will be able to producd their shows directly for the net. Maybe the conglomerates can produce their pie charts. Let’s see how entertaining the public finds THAT!
Could it be that the AMPTP has been silent because the studio and network heads would like to remove/reduce Nick Counter’s role there? In this whole process he’s appeared to be stone-walling, conducted endless name-calling to paint the other side as children, either botched or was duplicitous in those 11th hour negotiations last Sunday, and broke confidence and lied to the press afterwards. Not exactly what studios want for a public face, especially with the wave of support writers have gotten in week one. Counter’s actions are appropriate if the studios really want to bust the union, and his reluctance to talk is a sign that they want to. But if, in fact, the studios want to solve this thing, it makes sense they would silence Counter and have another spokesman before the PR damage gets too severe. Nikki, you hearing anything?
I heard that only a handful of EP’s were dumb enough to float this idea and it was shot down. Why else would there be so much discussion about being sued? I don’t get the sense that most writers support a “half strike.” After giving up DVD’s what room does the Guild have for retreat, anyway? The Guild wants to talk, it’s the companies who are pretending they don’t.
I’m surprised by this public announcement by a showrunner. I wonder if this is truly what came out of the showrunner meeting or just what Ed Beneraro wants. I mean, if AMPTP wants to say “let’s talk” and the showrunners go back and finish shows and then the AMPTP never gives an inch, all that’s been accomplished is a weakening of the guild.
This to me dosn’t actually sound like a good plan at all but rather suicide by naivite.
The showrunners must hang tight until there is a deal pending… MUST or all this so far will be for naught.
In 88, the year all writers point to and say all our contract problems stem from, the accepted urban myth about it is we failed because a group of showrunners wanted to cross and go back to work. If that happens again, it really is the death of the guild and there will be no juridiction over the internet and therefore, no residuals. They must hang tough.
Please showrunners, don’t make statements that aren’t guild approved and/or that may give the AMPTP delight in the notion we’re weak and divided.
I have a question. If all I read is how one side can’t trust the other, how this side won’t do this and that side won’t do that and the studios can’t be trusted….How will this ever be resolved?
In negotiating, you ask high and accept you’ll get something in the middle but I don’t see either side accepting this simple truth?
The vitriole has to stop on both sides, and I mean both, if there is to be a negotiation. I don’t know who has to take the first step, but I do know at least the showrunners are trying something. Why do we have to crap all over it before it has even had a chance to work?
If this strike goes on for a long time, eventually we’ll all be responsible for it, not just the studios.
Don’t do it, showrunners! It’s a trap!
Wow, are you kidding me? is this how you play poker, Ed. Show your hand before you make a call?
This is bad business, my Friend. The whole point of going on Strike is to gain leverage, not give it away.
Doing what Ed suggests would weaken our position. The efforts and sacrifices made by showrunners has thus far helped our cause, although it is only a dent in the overall scheme of things, a good start but only a start to get AMPTP to seriously think about bargaining fairly with WGA.
I am now quoting what the WGA NegCom stated to us at the time talks broke down last Sunday. I’m sure Nick Counter and Co will only consider this as gleeful additional leverage to them to offer us even less.
The Latest Word — Negotiations Updates
(11/4/07)
Contract 2007 Negotiations Statement
The WGA Negotiating Committee, on behalf of the Writers of Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), has issued the following statement regarding Contract 2007 negotiations:
Early today, the WGA completely withdrew its DVD proposal, which the Companies said was a stumbling block. Yet, the Companies still insisted on the following:
• No jurisdiction for most of new media writing.
• No economic proposal for the part of new media writing where they do propose to give coverage.
• Internet downloads at the DVD rate.
• No residual for streaming video of theatrical product.
• A “promotional” proposal that allows them to reuse even complete movies or TV shows on any platform with no residual. This proposal alone destroys residuals.
• A “window” of free reuse on the Internet that makes a mockery of any residual.
The AMPTP made no response to any of the other proposals that the WGA has made since July. The AMPTP proposed that today’s meeting be “off the record,” meaning no press statements, but they have reneged on that.
This is a bad idea, badly proposed, that will end in a longer strike.
The companies are indeed crapping themselves right now. Let’s keep those pants full of crap, shall we?
We want to talk. Come back to the table, AMPTP.
You know, when I first read about the showrunners’ offer – I thought it was rather significant. I’m glad to see it get more exposure on this forum.
It’s the only productive idea to come out of either camp since this mess started. I’m inclined to believe that the showrunners are willing to defy their guild in order to make progress with the negotiations. Good for them.
We need more of this attitude from smart people on both sides of the fence if this strike is to be stopped before irreparable damage sets in.
To quote a gifted writer on 30 ROCK (and I have no idea which one), “This is going to be one hardcore negoshe…Let’s skip the foreplay and get right to the penetraysh…”
It’s no trap for the thousands of below the line employees laid off for all of this.
This a bad idea.
I’m one of the so-called middle-class writers. I support the strike 100 percent as do the other industry people in my neighborhood. They include A.D.s, set-dressers, electricians, and other writers. At it’s core, Hollywood is a union town.
But we want the strike to be as short as possible. That means we need to shut down the town now. Going back to work, even on this limited basis, will only serve to lengthen the strike.
I can’t afford a long strike and neither can my neighbors. Let’s make this an effective strike. We shouldn’t be going back to work, we should be getting feature directors and actors to join us.
We should be stopping the Eddie Murphy film from shooting in Studio City. We should be stopping the Star Trek movie from shooting.
At the same time, we should be getting anyone willing to speak to the AMPTP to speak to them about coming back to the table. We’re waiting.
I am a single dad crewmember on a show that will shut down this Friday. I live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t have a home to use to take out a nice loan to live for months and ride out the strike. I am going to have to ask two of my wealthier friends for personal loans, which really helps the pride let me tell you. I think everyone who is in a similar situation to mine needs to come together and let both the WGA and (especially) the AMPTP know (as if they don’t already know) how many lives they are hurting by not going back to the bargaining table. It really is amazing to me how the leaders of both parties cannot get back in a room. Why is it so hard? I cannot for the life of me understand why!
This from the EP of Criminal Minds? Aren’t you supposed to know something about psychology? And guild history. This is NOT how you get AMPTP to the bargaining table… by sweet-talking and by promising to keep giving them concessions BEFORE they’ve even given us ONE THING!… Who is in charge of WGAw communications and pr?! Damage control? YES, YES… we ALL want negotiations to begin IMMEDIATELY… of COURSE, EVERYBODY wants that. But the AMPTP is playing hardball and we have to fight back. FIGHT back, Ed! Wake up!!! This will end VERY badly for the writers unless we are UNITED and STRONG. Ed, you can keep yourself busy with backchanneling, otherwise keep your “surrender” thoughts to yourself…