Let the speculation begin.

The Writers Guild of America is going to strike, and it could be as early as Monday. The current contract expired midnight this past Halloween and unless a new contract can be reached before Monday we could see an immediate impact. This would be the first strike since 1988 when a 22-week strike cost the industry $500 million. Daily scripted shows such as ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘The Jay Leno Show’ will be affected immediately. Their writers will be on strike and while Leno and Letterman can try to wing it if the strike lasts too long, reruns would begin to take over as early as Monday.

Scripted TV shows such as Pushing Daisies will be able to make it through the end of the season but depending on how long the strike lasts next season and the movies of 2009 could be in trouble. Depending on how far a show has been written in advance is as far as they’ll be able to take it until the dispute is resolved.

This brings me to what has caused this impasse in the first place. The WGA is not willing to settle like the last time their contract was updated their primary goal is to increase salaries for writers stake from new media. The current contract is outdated and doesn’t include proper compensation for writers when their work is sold via iTunes or is streamed through ABC.com. Until the producers and networks are willing to accept the fact that revenue from new media is where the future lies, we could see a dramatic shift in television content in as short as 5 months. Will reruns spell summer like ratings for the networks and will advertisers abandon traditional television content? With reality TV and live sporting events the only thing new on TV people could abandon their normal TV viewing habits and never return. While that end-times scenario is highly unlikely any loss of viewership could spell trouble for the future of network and cable television.


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