The WGA and AMPTP came to a last-second agreement to avoid a WGA strike. If it didn’t happen, how would a WGA strike affect Survivor?
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producerscame to an agreement very early this morning, with the resulting effect of the Writer’s Guild avoiding going on strike. A WGA strike would have had a multitude of effects that would permeate throughout pop culture, including loss of money in the hundred of millions per week.Survivorwould have been affected, but with some minor caveats, the show wouldn’t have encountered too many problems.
Since there are no writers attributed to each episode, there is no need to worry about the show’s filming schedule. Season 35is currently filming in Fiji right nowaccording to Jeff Probst on Twitter, and all of the content prepared for the season is likely crafted by both the props and challenge departments.
Additionally, as you will hear in multiple interviews, a lot of the planning and production ofSurvivorcomes from a brain trust of producers and executive producers of the show. You don’t need a writer to come up with the next game-changing twist, especially when so much of the entertainment comes from the honest, earnest reactions of the players themselves.
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Survivor,despite being heavily editedwith a slew of editors working to craft a cohesive narrative, remains part of unscripted television, and as of the last WGA strike,story writers remain ununionized. If there is anything likely to be affected by a work stoppage, it may be in Jeff Probst’s performance at the reunion finale, as he likely won’t have a CBS writer around to provide a script. Even though he wonSouth Pacific, I doubt even John Cochran would cross the picket line and help the show out!
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Should a WGA strike push through into July and August months, it would end up benefitting reality television. CBS will still be losing tons of money due to lost production on new and recurring show development, but this will force nonscripted television to take center stage.
Survivorratings are alreadyat the top of the charts for Wednesdays each and every week,but with scripted television programs taking up so many spots in the top of the ratings and share numbers, networks would likely have had to shift their programming focus until a WGA strike clears up. You could have a position where more networks are forced to go to reality competitions. The last thing we need is this generation’sThe Apprenticesetting up a grimmer future.
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Survivor Game Changersstarted up later than usual this year becauseHuntedaired between seasons. If a WGA strike pushed that far into a television season, I would expect yet another short run competition show squeezed in the middle to capitalize on unscripted content.
In summary,Survivorwould have done just fine if a WGA strike had happened. Hell, the show could have even received a ratings boost in the short term if the strike went on long enough. Whether or not reality television should be dominating the medium had the writers of the golden age of television fought for a fair piece of the pie remains to be seen.
Next: Survivor Winners: Ranking All 33 Sole Survivors By Season
Let’s just be happy it didn’t come to that.
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