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The (Reality) Show Must Go On

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 14, 2008

It was a dark and stormy night, and all of Hollywood was a-twitter.

The three-month-old Writers Guild of America strike was threatening the entertainment world's biggest night, the Academy Awards, and everyone wanted to know: Would Hollywood's most glamorous cross the picket line?

The cliffhanger ended Wednesday, when the writers ended their strike. The big show will go on.

The writers won an important stake in the future of entertainment media and will get paid - a respectable but not huge amount - every time you download a movie or television show from the Internet.

The compromise is fair, considering that every show starts with a script. Writers deserve a portion of the profits if their creative work fuels the business of digital media. Industry analysts predict that within five years, nearly half of the entertainment industry's growth will come through Web and wireless technologies. Now writers have a stake in that shared future.

Still, the misery isn't over for television fans.

Production companies will scramble to produce shows for the end of the season, while also creating next fall's lineup. For some time, television offerings will probably be smaller and less avant-garde as studios go with tried-and-true series.

The popular "Grey's Anatomy" and "Ugly Betty" are network priorities. The cheaply produced reality shows also will play a prominent role. But some of the higher quality fare, such as "Friday Night Lights," that struggled to find audiences may disappear, deemed too risky to venture.

So while the writers wrote themselves a good ending, many television fans will still be wanting.

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