Good News For News As Strike Looms

In the movie The Player, a group of movie executives are lamenting how the writers in Hollywood have too much power. So one of the suits suggests that maybe the solution is to go to the newspaper and pull stories right from the headlines and eliminate the expense of having to pay someone to come with original ideas. Well, with the deadline of a writers strike hanging over their heads, it looks like the networks will be turning to their news divisions to fill some prime-time slots.

According to Variety , newsmagazines and long-form news programs will be making a comeback in the evening hours to fill the void left by scripted shows affected by the writers’ walkout. ABC has gone from pulling Primetime Live off its schedule altogether, to stockpiling five different versions of the show, in case the strike lasts long into the season. NBC has Dateline NBC once a week, but may have to return to the time of the 1990s, when it was on seemingly every day. CBS already has a Saturday night produced by its documentary unit, but may have to start coming up with new programs, to the point possibly reviving previously cancelled brands like 60 Minutes II.

Back in the old days, there was a different solution to all this. You know how reality TV started? When writers went on strike in the 1990s, the newsmagazines had to pick up the slack. But then the networks came up with “reality” programming like Survivor, which mixed the entertainment value of scripted television with the documentary style of news. But guess what? To keep up with all the reality shows on the competing networks, these “reality” shows started to hire writers to punch them up. Now they are no longer considered “real life,” which means the news units will be making a comeback, thanks to the writers strike.

If the news departments of the major networks are the measuring stick, then the two that will benefit the most from this development will be Fox and NBC. Although Fox has no network news department, or currently has a newsmagazine on the air, they do have the power of Fox News Channel in their corner. Can you imagine if they have Bill O’Reilly a prime-time special Or maybe they could revive The Pulse, which was Fox’s one attempt to bring Fox News’ reporters into the living rooms of non-cable viewers. NBC has an edge too because their prime-time MSNBC line-up already produces long-form documentaries, all which could be repurposed for regular television, in case of a strike.

One thing the networks also have going for them that it is 2007, and there are going to be more presidential debates than ever. CBS already have one planned for December 10th with Katie Couric as moderator. MSNBC and Fox have also done very well in the ratings with their debate coverage. You may see more campaign coverage crossing onto the main prime-time schedule, as Super Tuesday I and II get closer on the election calendar.

It’s a shame that with all the excellent scripted shows this year, a shutdown might derail some great shows, but maybe a dose of real life is what will be keeping the networks afloat in the coming weeks.