One week into a walkout, and plenty in the entertainment business are already feeling the pinch. Late night TV writers are being warned they’ll be laid off next week, a slew of sitcoms-new and old-are quickly going dark and those who work outside the union’s jurisdiction are refusing to cross picket lines, forcing an even earlier demise than expected on some shows.
As of last week the showdown between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers was at an impasse with no end in sight. Most networks continue to say mobile content won’t suffer as a result of the strike, yet some of the programming that plays on mobile TV services is already heading toward shutdown.
The WGA has urged members who also work as producers or actors (typically referred to as “hyphenates”) to stop working on their shows. The union argues that the more content networks have in the can, the longer the strike will last.
NBC’s “The Office,” for example, which was made exclusively available to AT&T Mobility subscribers, has several writers who also act in the hit show. Those hyphenates are faced with the option of either crossing a picket line or being under breach of their contracts with the networks if they don’t show up for work.
Content draught
Most visibly missing from all screens, regardless of size, is the variety of late night TV shows. Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert and Craig Ferguson have all gone dark since the strike began, airing repeats in lieu of new material. NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” which is also exclusively available on the No. 1 carrier, also cancelled last week’s spot on the air.
“Remember, we publish well over 1,000 clips per month-more than any other company in the world,” Greg Clayman, executive VP of MTV Networks Digital Distribution, wrote in an e-mail response to questions. “Right now our post-strike and our pre-strike feed look the same but for the ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ and ‘The Colbert Report’-those are both clips from the re-runs we’re running on air.”
For those two shows, MTV Networks is using clips of previous episodes that were not previously aired on mobile. Additionally, both shows planned to go dark during the last two weeks of December and will take a break during the holidays as planned, Clayman added.
MTV Networks has a variety of original content for mobile in full swing, including “Samurai Love God” on Comedy Central, “Sway’s Hip Hop Owner’s Manual” on MTV and “Pop Up Video To Go” on VH1.
Original programming from other networks’ mobile and digital arms also appears unaffected. Shows like CBS’s soon-to-be launched “Danny Bonaduce: Life Coach” won’t meet any early cutoffs.
Some insulated
The networks rarely produce video just for mobile. Instead they view mobile as one of many delivery platforms available in the digital world. However, there is some content reserved exclusively for the small screen.
CBS Mobile has a behind-the-scenes look at CBS shows called “This Week on CBS Mobile,” a merging of the day’s funniest stories and entertainment updates called “CBS Mobile Daily Delivery,” and “Hangin With.,” an insider’s look at the Hollywood elite.
NBC News produces breaking news, original newscasts, features and in-depth stories especially for the cellphone, and has done so since 2004. NBC Mobile also produces other features specifically for the cellphone including entertainment news, technology news, fashion stories and wine reviews.
Fox and ABC both declined to comment for this story.
