Okay, a little late on this bit of news, but as you may know, the Writer’s Strike was brought to an end last week. Hooray! What was the cost of the strike (besides our unquantifiable suffering at the mercy of unspeakable reality shows)?
It’s hard to get a sense of whether one side actually ‘won’, but my general opinion on any settled labor actions or when cutting a piece of cake: if both sides think they lost, it probably was fair. For a nice recap of the various strike-related stories, go to the NYTimes here.
But now to the important matter at hand: What’s happened to the shows?
It’s a mixed bag: Some shows aren’t coming back until next season, others will see a limited run.
For NBC, “Chuck”, “Life” and “Heroes” are renewed, but won’t come back until next season. “My Name is Earl”, “The Office”, “30 Rock” and “Scrubs” will have new episodes starting in April.
Most CBS shows are coming back for a limited run in March, including “How I Met Your Mother” for 9 episodes starting March 19th and all those CSI shows starting in April. For complete roundup see this blog post by a reviewer named Alan Sepinwall (which by the way, is an excellent tv blog).
At Fox, “24″ is going to be delayed until 2009. Arrgh. I was excited for this season - apparently they actually move the show out of L.A.! Their rationale is that fans want to see the season uninterrupted. I guess that makes sense. While “House” (Apr. 28), “Family Guy”, “Bones” (Apr. 14) and “The Simpsons” are being rushed back into production.
And at ABC, “Lost” has six episodes taped, and will do a shorterned season of 11 total this year. While “Pushing Daisies” won’t be coming back this year, but it has been renewed for next fall.
For a complete list (or as complete as I could find), click here.
And a final note: NBC has announced that it is moving to a 52 week schedule. This seems…well…smart? Doesn’t it? I’ve never quite understood why new shows end in May. People still watch tv in the summer, right? Maybe I’m missing something. In any case, welcome back writers!
