The handwriting is on the wall for the end of the Writer’s Guild of America strike that has disrupted television schedules and thrown hundreds of technical people out of work since December 7th. The WGA says they will no longer ask for the union to have jurisdiction over reality and animation writers. This demand was summarily rejected early on by the producers and was one of the key reasons the sides had not been holding any type of negotiations for more than a month.

Variety is reporting that informal talks between WGA leaders and a few entertainment company leaders like Robert Iger of Disney and Peter Chernin of News. Corp were held on Tuesday with the hopes of restarting formal negotiations in the near future. This is good news as the WGA is still rattling sabers towards picketing the February 24th Oscar telecast. If that happens, the awards will probably be missing many of the nominees who belong to the Screen Actor’s Guild and the show will be even more boring than usual. If that’s possible.

The breakthrough was likely facilitated by the deal the producers were able to strike with the Director’s Guild. The WGA would have a hard time continuing to claim to their members that the producers were unwilling to make a fair deal in regards to new media when they put one together in about five days with the directors. The key here, of course, is that they get moving so “LOST” will have a satisfactory conclusion.