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)?

As of Tuesday afternoon, a running tally by the producers’ alliance estimated that the walkout had cost writers about $285 million in lost wages and had cost workers in other film unions nearly $500 million.

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!

We congratulated Conan, and made fun of Carson, for their respective stances on the Writers Guild Strike. But now comes news that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are going to return without their writers in January.

In a statement, the two hosts said they would prefer to return to work with their writers. “If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence,” they stated.

This is disappointing news, even more so because they are two people who are clearly intelligent and understand the issues involved (sorry Carson Daly, we just get the feeling you don’t read the newspaper). Their move will probably embolden studios and networks to continue to take a hard line against the writers. And it’s hard to imagine the shows will be very good without the writers. Seems like a double-whammy. It’s also frustrating that Steward and Colbert didn’t articulate their reasons for coming back. If anyone can find a link that explains it, please post in comments.

The Writers Guild Strike continues. Some news from the Associated Press that there is “progress being made” in contract negotiations, and that talks over the past few days have been “substantive”. Hard to know what that actually means. I take substantive to be code for “we aren’t arguing over who pays for coffee anymore”, so don’t hold your breath. Full article here.

The continuing strike also means your favorite shows are going to start going to reruns. Here’s an updated list. Of my favorites, The Office is all out of new shows, House has three left, as does 30 Rock.

Speaking of 30 Rock, does anyone else think this show is just getting better and better? Jack (Alec Baldwin) is an incredible character. He recently had an affair with a Democratic Senator played by Edie Falco. Hopefully she returns in future episodes. And in last week’s episode he decided to impose American values on a Bronx little league team. He gave them new uniforms and equipment, they pulled down a statute in the park like it was Saddam Hussein, and he had a huge banner displaying “Fun Times Accomplished”. Of course then the kids started fighting among themselves so he ordered a surge, which sadly was ineffective. As the New York Times points out here, it’s odd that it’s a show like this that’s the most political. If you haven’t watched 30 Rock before, give it a chance. It’s absolutely hilarious.

And finally, I’m generally skeptical of comments on news sites. I like comments on blogs of course, but on news sites I worry that comments from crackpots gain legitimacy simply by appearing on a mainstream media site. Still, I have to share an exchange in the comments section on the New York Times from a story talking about how many episodes each show has left:

In response to the list of episodes left for each show, someone named “Rob Barry” writes:

Considering all that mankind has to contend with, this “story” is not worthy of notice. If Family Guy never ran another episode, I seriously doubt that a single additional life in Darfur would be lost…

Alright, fine Rob Barry. It’s not serious stuff. Although one wonders why you’re bothering to comment on it. But anyways, a few comments down, a hero named Jose puts Rob Barry in his place:

Litle did you know there is a huge Family Guy follwing in Darfur so the strike is only adding to their suffering by taking away one of their few joys in life.

Thank you Jose. And God bless Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane.

Three cheers for Conan. He’s funny and generous.

“Late Night host Conan O’Brien will pay the salaries of some 75 of his show’s non-writing production staffers from out of his own pocket, according to an NBC rep. The late-night host will pick up the tabs starting next week and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. NBC had only guaranteed its late-night crews’ salaries through the end of November. O’Brien’s move stands in contrast to the decision by fellow NBC late-nighter Carson Daly, who this week crossed the picket line to shoot new episodes of Last Call, which will air next week.”

Full story from Entertainment Weekly here.

The Writers Guild Strike continues. Visit their strike webpage at www.unitedhollywood.com, and click on the video below to listen to some writers and actors from “The Office” talk about the strike.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hqP0c0_gw]