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Once again the Academy’s Board Of Governors makes a boneheaded decision because of pressure from Hollywood powers-that-be. Only this time, I’m talking about the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences, which bowed to pressure from the broadcast networks for a higher-rated Emmycast that screws writers from receiving live presenations of their awards. (Instead, the segments are taped.) Not only have the WGA West and East protested the changes (see way below), but now the TV showrunners are bitchslapping ATAS:
Los Angeles – Writers are overwhelmingly opposed to the short-sighted attempt by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to remove any of the live presentations of writing awards from the Primetime Emmys. The categories that the Academy seeks to exclude are key awards and must be presented live. WGA showrunners have issued the following letter of protest in response to the Academy’s planned changes to the broadcast:
We, the undersigned showrunners and executive producers of television’s current line-up of programs, oppose the Academy of Television Arts and Science’s decision to remove writing awards from the live telecast. This decision conveys a fundamental understatement of the importance of writers in the creation of television programming and a symbolic attack on the primacy of writing in our industry. We implore ATAS to restore these awards to their rightful place in the live telecast of the 2009 Emmy Awards.
Carter Covington, 10 Things I Hate About You
David Fury, 24
Alex Gansa, 24
Evan Katz, 24
Robert Carlock, 30 Rock
Michelle Nader, 100 Questions
Rebecca Sinclair, 90210
Claudia Lonow, Accidentally on Purpose
Mike Barker, American Dad
Jeff Melvoin, Army Wives
Ronald D. Moore, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Virtuality
Victor Fresco, Better Off Ted
Bill Prady, Big Bang Theory
Mike Kelley, The Beautiful Life, Swingtown
Mark V. Olsen, Big Love
Will Scheffer, Big Love
Hart Hanson, Bones
Stephen Nathan, Bones
Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad
Molly Newman, Brothers & Sisters
Matt Nix, Burn Notice
Tom Kapinos, Californication
Jane Espenson, Caprica
Andrew W. Marlowe, Castle
Chris Fedak, Chuck
Matt Miller, Chuck
Scott Rosenbaum, Chuck
Robert Munic, The Cleaner
Rich Appel, The Cleveland Show
Jennifer Johnson, Cold Case
Greg Plageman, Cold Case
Garrett Donovan, Community
Neil Goldman, Community
Ed Bernero, Criminal Minds
Carol Mendelsohn, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Naren Shankar, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Peter Lenkov, CSI: New York
Pam Veasey, CSI: New York
Rick Eid, Dark Blue
Doug Jung, Dark Blue
Matt Berry, Desperate Housewives
Marc Cherry, Desperate Housewives
Bob Daily, Desperate Housewives
Clyde Phillips, Dexter
Melissa Rosenberg, Dexter
Charles H. Eglee, Dexter
Maggie Friedman, Eastwick
David S. Rosenthal, Eastwick
Doug Ellin, Entourage
Thania St. John, Eureka
Jill Franklyn, Failure to Fly
Steve Callaghan, Family Guy
David A. Goodman, Family Guy
Mark Hentemann, Family Guy
Seth McFarlane, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, American Dad
Chris Sheridan, Family Guy
Marc Guggenheim, Flash Forward
Luke Reiter, The Forgotten
Jason Katims, Friday Night Lights, Parenthood
Jeff Pinkner, Fringe
J.H. Wyman, Fringe
David X. Cohen, Futurama
Ira Ungerleider, Gary Unmarried
Michelle King, The Good Wife
John Altschuler, The Goode Family
Dave Krinsky, The Goode Family
Patrick Sean Smith, Greek
Shonda Rhimes, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice
Steve Peterman, Hannah Montana
Michael Poryes, Hannah Montana
Glen Mazzara, HawthoRNe
Adam Armus, Heroes
Garnett Lerner, House
David Shore, House
Brad Kern, Human Target
Jon Steinberg, Human Target
Colette Burson, Hung
Dmitry Lipkin, Hung
Michael B. Kaplan, I’m In the Band
Neal Baer, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Rene Balcer, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Walon Green, Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Samuel Baum, Lie to Me
Shawn Ryan, Lie To Me
Daniel Voll, Lie to Me
Janet Leahy, Life UneXpected
Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, Lincoln Heights
Carlton Cuse, Lost
Adam Horowitz, Lost
Edward Kitsis, Lost
Damon Lindelof, Lost
Matt Weiner, Mad Men
Holly Sorensen, Make It or Break It
Glenn Gordon Caron, Medium
Todd Slavkin, Melrose Place
Darren Swimmer, Melrose Place
Michael Royce, Men of a Certain Age
Gretchen Berg, Mercy
Aaron Harberts, Mercy
Liz Heldens, Mercy
Jeffrey Lieber, Miami Trauma
Steven Maeda, Miami Trauma
Eileen Heisler, The Middle
DeAnn Heline, The Middle
Steve Levitan, Modern Family
Shane Brennan, NCIS; NCIS: Los Angeles
Jeff Astrof, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Kari Lizer, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Andrew Dettman, Numb3rs
Ken Sanzel, Numb3rs
Greg Daniels, The Office, Parks & Recreation
Paul Lieberstein, The Office
Michael Schur, The Office, Parks & Recreation
David Hudgins, Past Life
Ellen Kreamer, Plummer
Jon Cowan, Private Practice
Stan Zimmerman, Rita Rocks
Michael Rauch, Royal Pains, Love Monkey
Shaun Cassidy, Ruby & the Rockits
Marsh McCall, Ruby & the Rockits
Tom Hertz, Rules of Engagement
Matthew Carlson, Sons of Tucson
Nancy Miller, Saving Grace
Neil Goldman, Scrubs
Al Jean, The Simpsons
Matt Selman, The Simpsons
Kurt Sutter, Sons of Anarchy
Michael Feldman, Sonny with a Chance
Steve Marmel, Sonny with a Chance
Steve DeKnight, Spartacus: Blood & Sand
Ann Biderman, Southland
John Wells, Southland
Danny Kallis, Suite Life on Deck
Eric Kripke, Supernatural
James Duff, The Closer
Jay Kogen, The Troop
Thomas W. Lynch, The Troop
Carol Barbee, Three Rivers
Eric Overmyer, Treme
Michael Hirst, The Tudors
Susan Beavers, Two and a Half Men
Lee Aronsohn, Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory
Jill Soloway, United States of Tara
Jeffrey Bell, V
Scott Peters, V
Jack Kenny, Warehouse 13
David Simkins, Warehouse 13
Roberto Benabib, Weeds
Jenji Kohan, Weeds
Todd J. Greenwald, Wizards of Waverly Place
Peter Murietta, Wizards of Waverly Place
Matt Dearborn, Zeke & Luther
Tom Burkhard, Zeke and Luther
Patric M. Verrone
John F. Bowman
David Chase
David Milch
Phil Rosenthal
—
Los Angeles – Writers Guild of America, West President Patric M. Verrone today issued the following statement regarding the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ decision to remove the live presentation of two writing awards from the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards telecast:
“This action of the board of governors is a clear violation of a longstanding agreement the Writers Guilds have with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences regarding their awards telecast. It is also a serious demotion for writing and a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of writers in the creation of television programs. Last year’s Emmys suffered a tremendous decline in quality and ratings because of a lack of scripted material. That the Academy would then decide to devalue the primary and seminal role that writing plays in television is ridiculous and self-defeating.”
—
Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), issued this statement in response to the announcement that the Emmy Awards will timeshift key writing awards:
“The writers are the storytelling stars of television, and we are disappointed that the Academy chooses to diminish our members’ invaluable and essential contribution to the medium. We ask that they reconsider the decision for this and future Emmy broadcasts,” says Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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The only peps who should be concerned are those running the bad series that always get nominations.
But by all means Numbers, Lie To Me, Navy NCIS, CSI and Human Target… make your voices heard!
it’s been said a million times and will be said a million more but the disrespect for writers in this town is astonishing. not only is this entire industry fueled by scribes but these goddamned award shows, of which there are far too many, are all founded on the sweaty backs of unrecognized writers.
award shows can’t exist if there’s nothing to award, where do they think the content comes from? the prevailing stupidity is mind-blowing.
This is insane.
Thanks Nikki, now I don’t have to put a list of show runners and TV writers together.
Hell, let them produce the Emmy Awards without any WGA writers to write the show… Oh, wait a sec, that won’t work. Hmmm, maybe not such a good idea to cut out the creators of the medium after all.
This is just another sign of Hollywood’s obsession that celebrity is all they need, and that the last thing the great unwashed of the nation need to know is that someone actually has to put the words into the actor’s mouths.
Why’d you think the networks love “reality TV” so much? Because it’s all about making someone famous without any actual creativity involved. It’s celebrities without all the extras.
why do writers continue to think they are as important as actors and producers? when will they learn?
Just one step away from moving the writer’s to the ‘technical awards’ portion …
Um, the shows are all about the writing. I don’t get it.Is this to people please the audience while dumbing them down at the same time and making them think this all happens by magic? I won’t be watching unless the writer’s awards are on the prime time Emmy show.
Unbelievable that the ATAS would kick drama writers off the telecast and keep drama directors. Nothing against drama directors, but the move shows a fundamental and willful misunderstanding of the fact that writers run television. And is almost certainly a fuck-you to the writers for daring to differ with the PGA about what constitutes a writer-”producer.”
This is absurd. Writers deserve credit for the work they do. That work is so valuable but treated as if it were easy to come by. The focus seems to be only on pretty people and pretty things. Those are well and fine, but we need to recognize who created the lines for those pretty people to say. All artists are important.
These shows would not even EXIST (and therfore no freakin emmy show) if it weren’t for the writers who create them and write them every week. This is so offensive it just boggles the mind… just another slap in the face by an industry that seems to enjoy dismissing the writer at every possible opportunity it can afford itself…
Writers are dull squat hairy bald men who don’t deserve camera time.
Seth McFarlane and I are the sole exceptions.
Writers is da n’s of da world.
No need to express concern at this late stage in the game…
When will the Powers That Be in Hollywood ever learn that without writers, NOBODY else in this town would have a job, including the moguls?
At the risk of stating the obvious, you can’t make a movie or TV show without a script, even so-called “unscripted television.”
Wait a minute! They already know. That’s why they constantly try to downplay the importance of writers through tactics like this.
No writers = no show. Even I can do that math. Let them have their moment.
Gotta agree with them. Without writers we’d all be out of a job. Let ‘em have their awards onscreen. Most of them have a lot more interesting things to say than the actors, after all.
Oh my god, the writer’s guild’s whining again. Is this really an issue anyone cares about???
Face the facts, showrunners, writers are pretty much dorks who will look crummy no matter how much prepping they do, and they talk too much. Viewers want to see stars, not the ink stained wretches who write the scripts. The petition writers can do all the imploring they want, but these writers should be more concerned that scripted TV shows are dwindling away. Soon, Jay Leno will replace five hours of NBC’s prime time schedule this fall, costing writers about a hundred hours worth of hourly scripts. Now that is something to complain about, as opposed to a few minutes in the limelight for a couple of writers at the Emmy award telecast.
Wow that’s a long list of people that needs some serious props from their peers.
Do you get it yet?
The Academy and the studios do not want writers to get any credit, and therefore money, in this industry. They want to perpetuate the myth that the actors make it all up.
Have you ever listened to an actor talk? If you didn’t want to kill yourself, it was because a writer wrote their fascinating/hilarious story for them.
C’mon Nikki! At least get the “journalism” piece correctly. Only TWO writers award are getting this treatment. Your piece clearly misleads to suggest that writerS are getting “screwed” (your words). There will probably be equal treatment (or, in your lingo, “screwing”) of performers and directors and producers. But you really should insure your readers understand that the primary impact is to save broadcast air time traditionally wasted as winners work their way up to the podium. ALL winners AND their full acceptance speeches are, I understand it, still going to be there—just not live as they happen. Of course, if you watch the broadcast in the home town of “Deadline Hollywood”, you are watching three hours after actual “live” awards (i.e. 5pm PDT/8pm EDT)–so none of it is “live” on the West Coast!
What’s amazing to me are the “writers” who comment on this page. One minute shows like 30 Rock and Samantha Who are lambasted for horrible writing (along with bundles of other projects), the next minute the industry can’t survive without writers. On one hand you tear apart all award shows and in the next breath, the minute you feel slightly mistreated by one, you’re up in arms. I really get the feeling that the only people that comment here are the perpetually unemployed.
Wow. Even Scabtastic Johnny Wells signed this! I’m surprised he’s not telling us why this is a GREAT DEAL for writers.
Is there any show-runner NOT on this list? This should send a message loud and clear!
Unbelievable. This is not “whining” at all! The actors should boycott the awards. This is completely demeaning and downright wrong.
And just a newsflash for those snarkers out there: Writers have to eat, so they’re forced to write drivel! Do you think that anyone in their right mind would want to write an episode of Hannah Montana or The Suite Life with Zack and Cody if they didn’t have to? Come on. Those shows are hardly resume enhancers.