Winners and losers of the strike

 
Winners (top) and losers (bottom)

Television and movie writers are expected back at work Wednesday as the three-and-a-half-month work stoppage comes to an end, pending the (likely) ratification of a new three-year deal with the companies that run Hollywood. The deal won't be formalized until a vote of the 12,000-member Writers' Guild of America concludes next week. But it seems like a slam dunk.

So who were the winners and losers in this strike?

Winner: The viewers. By ending the strike when they did, the writers ensured that most of the shows we actually watch, record and stream online will be able to come back in time to finish their (shortened) seasons. “Lost,” “Boston Legal,” “Grey's Anatomy,” the “CSI” triplets, “30 Rock,” “The Office” and “House” are all planning at least a month's worth of new episodes, mostly pegged to the May ratings period. More ambitious schedules call for 7 to 10 new episodes to be written and shot between now and the end of the season. (My source for this information is Brian Stelter, the well-connected TV blogger for the New York Times.)

The late-night shows that didn't sign interim agreements with the guild during the strike -- basically, all of them except the two on CBS -- get their scribes back no later than tonight. Plus, the Oscars won't have to be called off in two weeks like the Golden Globes were in January.

Loser: The viewers again. The long hiatus forced the networks to take a hard look at some new series that were becoming fan favorites. The lucky ones will get to reboot next fall: “Chuck,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Moonlight” and “Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles” among them.

Some shows that are established hits won't be restarted until next season, like “Heroes” and “24.” But for many shows that were still searching for an audience, a second chance won't come, including three “C” shows: “Caveman” (hurray!), “Carpoolers” (aww), and “Cane” (is that still on CBS?). And yes, “Friday Night Lights” is in trouble again as well.

Loser: The trades and the Timeses. The journalists who cover Hollywood every day depend on sources inside the studios to dish scoops about who just signed what deal. But these allies came back to bite them on the ass once the strike began. Their sources sowed stories of a writers' guild that was about to crack under internal dissension, while projecting a united front for the usually warring studio heads. Certain guild negotiators, especially David Young, were painted as divisive rabble-rousers with little understanding of the ways of show business. As these journalists learned too late, it was all a smokescreen. When the Golden Globes cratered, the studios did a 180 and quietly worked out a decent deal with the writers, who remained remarkably militant throughout.

Winner: Nikki Finke. "She kept everyone else covering the strike accountable," was a typical comment I heard about the Hollywood Deadline Constantly Daily blogger. It wasn't that Finke took the writers' side so much as she let them tell their side of the story — something that the New York Times' Michael Cieply, to call out one name, rarely seemed interested in doing. In the end, she was right and they were wrong. The woman who told me that she was so not looking forward to a long strike wound up benefiting hugely from it, and her accounts will endure as the definitive first draft of this chapter of Hollywood labor history.

Winner: “Jericho.” Cancelled, then revived, the CBS thriller returned in a choice time period Tuesday night, a direct result of the work stoppage draining the network's pool of available shows to air.

Loser: David Letterman. He had a chance to really shine in the late-night spotlight, with his main rival Jay Leno working without writers and denied access to A-list talent (the actors' guild was honoring the writers' pickets). But Dave rarely rose to the occasion, while Leno's energy and resourcefulness allowed him to put on shows on a par with his pre-strike output.

Winner: The other two guilds, whose contracts are up later this year and benefited directly from the writers' hardline stance on getting paid for Internet streaming.

Loser: Whatever idiots at the studios thought it would be a good idea to get the writers angry at them. And speaking of which, has anyone heard from the studios' so-called chief negotiator Nick Counter lately? This week's deal appears to have been brokered without Counter, whose blustery run-ins with the writers' union leadership made for great news copy but had little effect on the outcome.

Winner: Reality-show producers. The February sweeps are lousy (in more than one sense) with unscripted TV shows, since the networks had very little scripted fare left by the strike's third month. And because the union dropped its demand that reality “producers” be represented, they can continue treating them as low-end tape editors (and subject them to 90-hour work weeks) instead of for what they really are.

Loser: Reality-show viewers. Sure, we enjoy “Idol” and even the occasional “Deal or No Deal.” But enough already. There's a reason most of the network TV shows people watch, tape and stream involve actors reading scripts. And in about six weeks or so, they will be back.

Letter to TV Barn: "Jay Leno is the big loser"