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The talks will resume on Thursday. But I’m told by a mogul that the reason the second half of the AMPTP proposal 
– which presumably contains an offer about electronic sell-through (ESTs) – has not yet seen the light of day is because “no one is prepared to put anything new on the table until there’s movement on other issues.” Oh, c’mon!
So the AMPTP had an internal meeting today about the WGA’s offer on streaming but didn’t bring any counter/counter-offer on New Media to the table. The WGA in an end-of-day statement tonight said “we are still waiting for the AMPTP to respond to … Internet streaming of theatrical and TV product and digital downloads.” The producers’ end-of-day statement tonight was generic, not detailed.
The largest part of today’s negotiations were taken over by the WGA’s small group discussion of jurisdiction for Reality TV and made-for-Web content as well as animation and cable. I’ve learned the WGA played hardball by demanding that network and studio CEOs no longer make deals with Reality TV producers like Mark Burnett Productions, Fremantle, Endemol etc unless those companies become signatories of the WGA. This is part of the WGA’s continuing campaign to ensure that Reality TV writers — often referred to as the story editors or story producers of the shows – start to receive the same benefits and pay and protections as guild members. 
(Of course, further complicating matters is that some Reality TV shows have signed deals with IA, the editors guild.) It’s also clear the WGA’s demand today was timed to this Friday’s big writers protest outside Fremantle Media headquarters.
Needless to say, network CEOs expressed disbelief and anger that the WGA would try to put Reality TV on the table today. I swear one mogul was going to have a coronary, sputtering as he charged that today’s talks were “going backwards”. (Did the producers not hear that Variety erroneously reported pre-strike that the WGA negotiators had dropped their nonscripted proposal? On the other hand, don’t the writers consider New Media formulas a more pressing issue? Am I starting to lose the will to live?)
Interestingly, the WGA’s demand that all made-for-web work be placed under the guild’s full jurisdiction didn’t seem to hit a nerve with either the AMPTP or its CEOs.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Well, well, well. As a frustrated member of the guild, FINALLY, through this and other sites, we can all see just how out of touch the WGA actually is when it comes to their own power and their own skill at the table. THe dirty little secret is out of the bag–Verrone and company are in way over their heads and have no sense of what their constituency really wants–and by “constituency,” I am talking about the group they have so uniquely annointed–the Showrunners, of which I am one. Many of my compatriots have secretly been waiting for the negotiating committee and it’s leaders to reveal themselves as the naive and egotistical grooup they are. Let the games begin. I truly don’t believe they can hold the union together if they insist on over-reaching for goals that, in general, even the rank and file aren’t concerned with. Come back to reality guys….
So Anonymous 10:04pm,
you’re saying that the WGA is the one trying to stall and annoy the AMPTP and not advance the bargaining to try to reach a deal quickly???
You’re all missing the point. That Survivor chick is HOT! Hello Mudonna!
Just one quick comment, the WGA is right to demand reality TV jurisdiction as long as the second half of a proposal promised by the AMPTP. This isn’t operation make strike go longer, but just a operation to force negotiations to get whatever you want. Has Nikki not told all of us that the Moguls are starting to crack. If the WGA starts piling on more and more demands unrelated to the main issues at hand, someone on the Moguls side is going to break down and force a settlement where the writers get more than what they are asking and I believe that someone will be NBC’s Jeff Zucker because he can’t really afford to go deep into the spring with NBC as the fourth place network due to American Idol. Mark my words, a deal will be done by next week at this time or we will be faced with Jeff Zucker’s funeral.
Take this reality TV thing off the table. ASAP.
I haven’t met one WGA member… walking the picket lines… willing to strike for “reality TV”.
This issue gives me a massive headache…
To editroid:
Of course, editors are people who write with video and have the physical ability to lock the show in the Avid. Editors are also people who have a really big stake in scripts not being terrible.
So, why is it that the editors and writers aren’t in the same union? Is the problem that the editors think letting the writers in would weaken them, or is that the writers are snobs, or is it that the writers have a much different compensation structure? Or is it just because of a rivalry between the various unions?
This strike is the most exciting thing these writers have come up with in YEARS….Good Show!
I’m torn. By getting reality “writers” into the WGA, the guild becomes much stronger. On the other hand, I worked a year in reality TV, and the majority of the “writers” couldn’t even manage a cohesive beat summary, much less story and dialogue. It’s just kind of a slap in the face to real writers…
the strike is hurting the studios because their advertisers are getting antsy. It’s a pivotal year for network TV–ratings are way down, lots of ad money is questioning why a TV eyeball is worth 10x as much as a web eyeball. the ad exodus/migration away from network is a HUGE pressure on the congloms right now, and the strike is greatly intensifying that pressure.
its true that the corps haven’t been hurt that bad yet, but the upfronts next year are starting to look VERY WOBBLY, and there isn’t enough scatter inventory for all the make goods they are going to owe after March. With an actor strike looming in June (more militant than WGA), we could be looking at 2 television seasons atomized at an absolutely PIVOTAL JUNCTURE in the transformation of the business.
The studios, I believe, are starting to realize its cheaper ultimately to give the writers what they want. The issue is how to save face.
So we’re asking for something the AMPTP can’t allow. Please tell me you understand the problem with that.
Writers. Sigh.
Amazing… all along reality and animation have been part of the pattern of demands. So why is anyone getting upset that it’s not being discussed. Look, I may never write on a reality show, but that doesn’t stop me from picketing along with the others over this. To start saying only one issue is important is the same reason we’ve failed in the past to get a really good deal. D.
Ah, we’re back to blaming the WGA for not bending over immediately. If the studios want to respond to our offer on streaming, if they want to negotiate fair rates on the internet, the strike ends in two days.
Until they accept the reality that this strike is real, and that over a hundred shows have shut down, this strike goes on. As a guild member, I feel very sorry for fellow writers, crew members, and staffers now out of work. But I know this strike is not something the guild wanted to do. It was forced on us by the studios. We’re taking care of our own. We’re not backing down.
Blaming us for a shutdown we didn’t want, that culd have been avoided, is some sort of magical thinking. The good studios will take care of all of us, as long as we do what they say.
Please, this is not grey. There are not two sides to this story. When we get our fair share, we go back to work. That is our right, and our obligation to our fellow writers (and actors, and dga members, and IATSE members).
You want this stke to end, put the pressure on the studios, any way you can.
Just when I thought they were closer to making a deal, this comes..
Isn’t getting a good deal on the internet more important?
All reality shows are rigged, as rigged as “An Ace in the Hole” starring Kirk Douglas…Good movie by the way but instead of a cynical reporter I put an even deeper cynical ‘reality writer/editor/producer’.
Animation writers should ABSOLUTELY be in the WGA receiving the exact same protection any writer. Whether the actor’s real face is filmed or the picture is animated has no bearing on the writers’ work creating the story and dialogue. Cable also should be covered.
My guess would be that they made the grab so that they could give something up. Reality writers mean the world to the producers. Let the demand go later in negotiations, give the producers either and apparently major concession or face saving one. Depending on your perspective.
You know who resolved the strike in 1988? Ken Ziffren. Not the WGA negotiating committee, but rather an attorney, a professional dealmaker.
I am not advocating the removal of WGA leadership, nor am I trying to divide the membership or dilute our resolve but everyone needs to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee.
Put simply, your house is on fire, call the fire department, don’t call the guys who wrote “Backdraft”.
I agree with Greatly annoyed here…as much as I hate Wife Swap, The Bachelor, and American Idol, (yes, I’m one of the few; and sorry to anyone who has worked or is/was working for these shows…), I would much rather indulge myself in Brothers and Sisters, ER, and The Colbert Report on any given day. But, at this point in time, it’s hard to deny the simple fact that reality TV is here to stay and is generally successful. This is an important issue, BUT let’s hammer out the logistics of the Internet residuals and get on with it, guys. I think all parties involved in all this need to keep in mind the hot-button word for this strike: negotiate.
@Anonymous 10:04
The AMPTP thinking it’s strike-proof is the sweetest gift to writers. That kind of arrogance and myopic vision will be their downfall. As soon it’s all-reality all-the-time on network, viewers will have their fill and flee even faster than they already are.
What a laugh! As a WGA member who works in scripted and has produced reality, i just love the venom that other WGA members have towards the latter medium. Here is a thought… hate reality all you want, but all your Havard educated asses aren’t doing anything new.
Thats why the sitcom is dead.
This is like that scene in the GI Joe animated movie, when Golobulous (voiced by Burgess Meredith) was trying to kill Lt. Falcon (voiced by Don Johnson).
He asked Falcon is he ready to die, and Falcon told him all he has to do, is hold out for “five more minutes.”
Once we reach the sixth week of the strike and notices go out to the under-performing actors, writers and producers that their development deals are over, the strike will end at the end of the week.
These seem like stalling tactics from afar to me just to get to that date.
Lt. Falcon saved the day and destroyed Cobra-La, with the help of Sargent Slaughter by the way.
It is a great advantage to this Bush regime to have the writers out on strike. And don’t think Bush et al don’t know it. No Daily Show or Colbert skewering their pathetic lies.
All writers should get a fair deal…
To read some of the comments in here you’d think people want to take any kind of a deal as long as it’s quick. Yeah, why muddy up negotiations by demanding that writer’s be recognized. After all it’s just game shows and reality shows. Who really cares about those? I’ll tell you who, the companies that are flooding the airwaves with lots of cheap to produce programming and making even more profits off the backs of the writers. In case you haven’t notices, just about every other prime time show is either a reality show or a game show.
Reality needs to be addressed. Game shows are already covered in the guild’s MBA but the companies give the finger to it and remain non-union even though those same shows have union hosts, directors, and crews. It’s WRITING and they are making lots of money from the writer’s work. It’s an important issue and they are violating writer’s rights – many of whom are WGA members – by treating them substandard and not recognizing them as writers.
Keep this in mind. Today they are not using guild writers for their reality shows and game shows and tomorrow they will start doing that with scripted shows. How long will it be before they just stop dealing with the WGA altogether? ALL writers should be treated fairly and work under WGA contracts.
Really? Reality TV? Really? That’s what we’re fighting for now? The people who suggest that maybe Whitney should ask L.C. how her date was, or script the words, “And the gold star goes to…”
Really?
On whether or not reality shows should be covered and whether story producers are really writers:
First, fellow posters… whether or not you like a show shouldn’t affect whether its writers should be covered. Reality tv and game shows are an easy target, it’s true… but as long as American Idol and Dancing with the Stars are trumping incredible shows like HOUSE in the ratings, someone’s watching, money’s coming in, somebody wrote it, and that’s why we’re all here.
An editor here posted his or her take that story producers are merely support staff, neglecting to mention that in most cases, they are responsible for the generation of the content being worked on.
Story Producers and Editors work well together, and in the rare absence of a titled Story Producer, the editor is often asked to step up and fill that void, as was the case with Next Top Model (to my understanding). My take on it has always been that if you’re a lone editor on a show and dropping in title card after title card of “suggested VO” for your host, making lists of action you need picked up and spelling out interview bites you’d like someone to go back and shoot for you, then it doesn’t mean the show has no story people… it means you’re writing as a hyphenate.
Most of the time, my terrific editors arrive on the scene only after I’ve spent weeks on a paper script and/or created a basic assembly for them, and we collaborate from there. Sure, I’ve written that first draft, but “rewrites” are the fruit of our teamwork in the bay. Something doesn’t edit together well, I’ll change my VO or request new interviews. My editor may browse thirty seconds to the right and find a shot that suddenly makes one of our story points work better. I appreciate them, and I’d like to think they appreciate me. We’re working together, and neither of us is merely the “support.”
Personally, I think Story Producers are often perceived as support staff by editors as a result of being paid far less as nonunion workers.
Thanks for the effort, WGA.