Friday, February 08, 2008

The Rumor Mill: The Strike Has Ended!!!
Word has it the writer's strike will end this weekend, with the guild meeting tomorrow to look at the proposed contract, largely rumored to be something happy for both sides. No news on what deal they eventually settled on, or confirmation that the rumors are true, but the networks seem to be pretty confident, since they've all announced what shows will be coming back, how many, and when. Michael Ausiello at TV Guide has posted the complete list of shows here (thanks for the link, fb!) but I'll pull the ones usually discussed here, along with my comments in red:

Bionic Woman
No new episodes expected. Ever.
WHEEEEEEEE!!!

Big Love
Expected to go into production on Season 3 in March. Airdate info is TBD.
I cannot WAIT. Great thing about HBO? They're not stuck in regular network seasons.

Chuck
No new episodes until fall.
I'm so sad about this one... I love Mr. Bartowski and Friends.

Dirty Sexy Money
No new episodes planned until fall; three remaining pre-strike episodes will undergo some tweaking and kick off fall run.
Wah... just when I was getting into it. I wonder if this will kill the show?

Friday Night Lights
No new episodes expected for this season. Future TBD.
Excuse me for a moment.... I need to go off into a corner and SOB.

Gossip Girl
Expected to shoot up to 9 new episodes to air in April/May/June.
Wow, do they film an episode per day?? They'll pretty much finish their season.

Heroes
TBD.
What are they determining? Whether the show is still any good?

Lost
Six pre-strike episodes remain. Six additional episodes could air this season.
Oh please please please please....

The Office and 30 Rock
Expected to shoot 5 to 10 new episodes to air in April/May.
Come on TEN. Let's see TEN! I vote for TEN!!

Pushing Daisies
No new episodes until fall.
Must return to my sobbing corner... WAAAAAHHHH....

Ugly Betty
Expected to shoot 4 or 5 new episodes to air in April/May.
This is good news, and they'll have a fuller season than most shows, too, I suspect.

11 comments:

Crissy Calhoun said...

And that's why Anna Friel was free to do the Land of the Lost movie. I was wondering how they could confirm her casting when Pushing Daisies was up in the air... THEY KNEW.

I hope-hope-hope this goes through and the strike ends with a fair deal for the writers.

poppedculture said...

Can't say I'm too broken up about Bionic Woman either. Of all the shows to have spent time watching on the PVR list...

Harsh on Heroes, Nik! Have you truly given up?

Yay Lost and 30 Rock and may I add my own yay for My Name is Earl and much sobbing for Chuck.

Of course why can't they just extend the season? The April/May end is so artificial to begin with.

Anonymous said...

Double yay on Lost! If they could give us 6 episodes, I'm sure they could squeeze out the other two!

bluecat said...

I hate that Bionic Woman was such a stinker. I had high hopes for the show when I found out Michelle Ryan would be on the show. I really hope this strike is over, I miss my shows! Boo hoo hoo.

K J Gillenwater said...

I think it is interesting that the new shows this season are being pushed until next fall, but the old tried and true stuff is getting more right away.

I am DYING to hear that LOST is getting 6 more before the summer. It HAS to be.

Thank the Lord the strike is over. I hope it's another 20 years before this comes up again. The last few months have been horrible!

I watched an old re-run of "The Office" on TBS the other day...the one with the Benjamin Franklin 'stripper' showing up for the bachelorette party. Oh, I miss "The Office" so much!!!!!!

Deanna McFadden said...

That's the saddest news of all, no more FNL, they haven't remotely wrapped up the season, nor had the chance to bounce back from the unfortunate Landry/Tyra debacle. Sobbing, indeed.

Anonymous said...

It's not a done deal, and many writers are concerned about the 17 day window of airplay for internet downloads before residuals can even kick in. The 48 hour vote starts on Tuesday, so the earliest the strike can be over is Thursday or Friday, if that's the way the vote goes.

Anonymous said...

I think I meant the vote has been called for 48 hours from now, so they could be back earlier than I thought. If they vote yes.

Anonymous said...

Any word on the status of Cane? Richard Alpert is one of the most intriguing characters... the way he fulfilled Juliet's macabre request in recruiting her. . . and even though we haven't seen much of the character, already I can hardly imagine another actor in the role of Richard.

Nikki Stafford said...

Jeremy: Hey, I never said I'd given up on Heroes. I was simply wondering aloud if they were determining if the show was any good anymore. As in, should we be rethinking it and starting it in a different spot? That's what I meant.
I totally agree with you about extending the season. Most fans would be happy to watch the season into June, at least.

bluecat: Are you an EastEnders fan?? How caught up are you? We're SO behind in Canada, but of course I've seen spoilers that made my head hurt. :(

Kristin: I'm with you... I miss The Office so much... I'm going to watch some season 3 deleted scenes tonight. :)

hip_ragdoll: see my post from today, I SO agree.

cartographer: From what I've heard about Cane, they haven't officially cancelled it, but they haven't ordered any more episodes for the season, either. So that leaves Carbonell in a tough spot: If CBS doesn't cancel it, then he's still bound by his contract to stick with the show, but if they don't order any episodes, he's stuck at home twiddling his thumbs. Maybe CBS will cut him a break and let him go over to Lost.

bluecat said...

Nikki, I am sooo far behind on EastEnders it's not even funny. Our local PBS station only shows 2 episodes a week, on Sunday nights, so right now it's sometime in the middle of the year 2002. I don't know how far behind you are, so if you're later than that let me know and I'll tell you our latest goings on. Sometime last year I was googling EastEnders and found their page on BBC.com and started reading and found out more than I wanted to know. I'm a bit up to date on a couple of things.