Jan. 23 sounds about right... like I said, I was up there the last week of January when they were filming episode #16.

I just wish they could resolve things so we could get the back seven... it seems like no one is forseeing that as happening :(

So how likely is it at this point that we'll end the season with 15 episodes? 50%? 70%? 90%? And if we end in February, we won't have any more new episodes till September, right? Is that confirmed? Are we definitely getting another season?

So when does Gemini air?? Is it December 6th or December 13th?

According to K-Site, it's Dec. 13.

I can't see them possibly wrapping things up in another 7-8 episodes that have already been written. I wonder if the actor contracts have any contingencies for an incomplete season. Short of a full Season 8, it's conceivable they could do a Season 7.1 with the last six episodes. I bet that would still constitute work required in, say, Rosenbaum's contract.

I'm intensely curious about the actor's contracts as well in this situation.

According to pifeeback, "Blue" had 4.49 million viewers with a 1.9/5 in the 18-49 demographic.

Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? had nearly double that. I don't get it, but whatever.

Here's the numbers Craig just posted from pi-feedback.



Supernatural fell to 2.89 million....ouch! It seems like Smallville has leveled off to the 4.5 million range. Still great for the CW.

Great news everyone, there may be some hope of this ending sooner rather than later. Keep your fingers crossed...

LET'S STRIKE A DEAL! Both Sides Agree To Go Back Into Talks Post-Thanksgiving
Is this the best surprise announcement ever since the strike started?!

The date they return to the bargaining table is November 26th. I picked up rumors about this breakthrough about two hours ago, and I've just confirmed it from a WGA source. Now the Writers Guild of America has just issued a statement: "Leaders from the WGA and the AMPTP have mutually agreed to resume formal negotiations on November 26. No other details or press statements will be issued." The exact same statement was issued moments later by the Alliance Of Motion Picture And Television Producers, whose president Nick Counter earlier this week quietly dropped a demand that his side wouldn't go back into negotiations until the writers strike was stopped or at least suspended for a few days while talks proceeded. But tonight's statements from both sides indicate the strike continues.

Shortly after tonight's announcement, WGA president Patric Verrone emailed WGA members calling the breakthrough "a direct result of the hours you have spent on the picket lines, the days you've spent educating friends and colleagues, the boundless energy you've put into engaging with not only the Hollywood talent community, but people all over the country and the world."

He also claimed "a powerful strike means a short strike..."

Verrone added, "We have proven that bad news won't slow us down. It is equally important that we now prove that good news won't slow us down, either. We must remember that returning to the bargaining table is only a start. Our work is not done until we achieve a good contract and that is by no means assured. Accordingly, what we achieve in negotiations will be a direct result of how successfully we can keep up our determination and resolve."

This strike isn't ending until the studio's do what's right and give the writer's a cut of the internet profits that they are swimming in right now. Unless the studio's are prepared to offer them some percentage points, then don't look for this to stop when they get back together.


I am hopefull though.

I read about this in my local paper this morning. I must say that I am shocked that they are going back to the negotiations this early. I figured that wouldn't happen until the new year. There is still a long way to go, though, but at this point, a deal can't be made unless both parties are willing to negotiate. From that standpoint, this is a positive.

Yeah, that's why I'm hopeful. The studio's must be willing to give some ground if they are going back to the table. I think the news writer strike threat may have really put fear into them, that they can't let this get out of control. They still have to deal with the SAG contract and the DGA contract. They play hard ball with these guys for a bit is fine, but I doubt they will play hard ball with the actors.

Yeah, I think it's in the studios best interest to get this deal done with the writers well before the actors' contracts expire, otherwise, the two could join forces. The most telling thing, to me, is that they are willing to begin negotiations right smack in the middle of the holiday season. If they weren't serious about getting a deal done, you'd think that they would just blow off the negotiations until after the holidays, IMO.

And it's early enough so that almost every show's seasons will be saved. Most shows are on break anyway, so it would give the writers time to get things in order before they report back to work after the holiday's.

If they could get a deal done by the end of the year, I don't know what it would mean for all shows, but I do think it would save the season for SV since they are to be in production until well into January. Which means the crew is still locked in, and everything is still up and running. Shows that actually shut down will have a tougher time putting it all back together, and new shows that were on the bubble ratings-wise are probably going to be hurt.

Lets send some good thoughts, and hope everyone is willing to be reasonable and compromise. *fingers crossed*

If all goes well, this deal won't take long to get finished. The writers only have one stumbling block with the studio's. If the studio's give them something to accept then it will be accepted, the strike will end while the official contract is drawn up. So they could possibly be writing again by the first week of December. For Smallville, it won't have much of an impact. They would get to finish the whole season. For others, like DH, and the NBC comedies they will probably have shortened seasons..Possibly maybe 2 or 3 episodes shorter.

Lost would get to finish the season like it should, and 24 would probably just have to have 3 or 4 nights of 2 hour episodes to wrap up on time.



In other news...Blue's final ratings..



Also, Smallvilles avg for the season is 4.74..ANTM is first with 4.77...I think that pretty much guarantees an eighth season

24 is currently on my shit list but I would like to see what they have to offer in season 7 without waiting a full year for it. As far as Lost goes, I definitely want to see more than 8 episodes for the season and then have to wait a year.

It certainly is a plus that the Smallville writers were able to complete 15 episodes prior to the strike. They will have less to write if the strike were to end in time. Most other shows only have about 9 or 10 scripts completed. If I were the CW, there is no way in hell that I am airing episode 10 on January 3rd. I'd hold it off until the end of January if I could, especially since there's a possibility that episode 14 or 15 would need to be tweaked a bit to pave the way for the last batch of episodes. This way they would have more time to do that. I also hope that the Broadway strike ends soon as well because I got my parents tickets to see a show in January. It would suck if Broadway was still dark at that point.



Absolutely. It does bother me that Blue took a small hit in the ratings. I would've thought that more people would've tuned in to see the conclusion of the Lara/Zor-El story. Let's just hope that Gemini does well. With a 3 week break, that episode might take a hit as well.

I'm not sure I would push the show back to the end of January. If you do that you are going to run right into LOST, which is moving to Thursday nights at 8. If anything I would try and get as many episodes in before that show comes back. There is going to be a lot of good buzz on LOST considering how it ended last year.

If they settle this, I don't think they will have to reshoot anything for GEMINI because Craig said they had to go back and reshoot certain parts so it could serve as a season finale. So they would just have to edit it again to accommodate the rest of the season..Or they could do nothing and give us one hell of a back 7 episodes starting with that cliffhanger.

I'm really looking forward to 24 after I saw that teaser. It looks like they may have done enough to get their mojo back after last year.

sounds like good news, nevertheless I am with Kahhhn, the writers deserve a fair share, so if the studios offer is as ridiculous as the last one, I'm also fine with a longer strike. That being said, if they actually agree on a deal, then maybe the whole thing turns out as a win-win situation after all.

Obviously, shows like 24 can just benefit from additional planing time, and this 3-4 weeks where nothing was written, were surely a nice vacation for the minds of the writers. Furthermore if you take into consideration the mental boost the WGA members would have to actually "win" this fight, one could hope that we are really in for a great spring season. Obviously, only if they really work this out.

Interesting info here.

It's how much Smallville charges per 30 second commercial. They charge $77,000. If their per episode budget is between 2.5 and 3 million dollars that means that they would have to sell 39, 30 second commercials for 3 mill, and 32, 30 second commercials for the 2.5 million dollars.

I'm not sure about the budget per episode, but I remember Deknight saying that Justice cost 3 million and it was a bit over budget.

So, Smallville probably doesn't make any money when it airs, unless somebody knows how many commercials they air. All the profits for the show must come from the DVD's. WHich of course are very big sellers.

I've heard that before. In fact I'd heard that without DVD sales factored in SV is a money loser.

No wonder they're all over the product tie-in.

BTW, in case anyone missed it Chloe's Yaris gets great mileage.

I can't tell you how many, but I do cut the commericals out of the episodes because I record them on dvd and it's amazing how they never produce episodes that are more than 41 minutes anymore. Blue didn't even reach 40 minutes, it was like 39 minutes and 45 seconds. Labyrinth, I believe, was even shorter. So they pretty much have a solid 18 or 19 minutes of commercials every week. I popped some of my other dvds in from seasons 1-3. Pretty much every episode was over 42 minutes and some were even over 43 minutes so I guess the way that they can have more money for effects is to trim the episodes down by a couple of minutes.

That can't be right, Rosenbaum was handed three-and-a-half million dollars to direct Freak.

I've noticed that trend as well, particularly this season. It's been our complaint since Bizarro that it seems like the stories are a bit rushed. Don't know if that's good or bad. I mean, sure, special effects are awesome and can bring people to watch it, but it's less SV... :( We always seem to have loose ends in the episodes ("Fierce" was particulary painful, "Action" had the Chlana cut scenes and I just recently discovered that "Cure" had a Chlark scene at the end that was cut, and I remember thinking that something was missing to tie the plot points). But then, if it means they can trim the Clana barn scenes from the episode, and replace it with special effects, I'm all for it. I just don't like it when the story fells rushed or incomplete.

Freak was over budget as well.

I think that it's good and bad. On the positive end, we've been getting some great effects. But as you said, the stories have been rushed. To me, the solution to that is to create two-part episodes. Rather than squeezing everything into one episode, it would be nice to see a "To be Continued" at the end of a middle of the season episode instead of just the finale. I also think that this could help the ratings as well. Cliffhangers are a nice way to keep viewers interested, IMO.

How could that possibly be? I've read that individual episodes average about $3-mil. How could the director's salary be that much?

Where is that information from? No director for a CW show would ever get 3.5 million dollars for one episode. No director for a CW show would get 3.5 million dollars for a years worth of episodes.

I understood he had 3.5 millions to work with for this particular episode.

He was handed 3.5 million for the BUDGET of the episode. It wasn't his salary. Although, I bet he got a few thousand more. Whatever they pay the directors he probably got as well.

Oh! The original post made it seem like he was paid that much, which would be insane. 3.5 million seems like a lot for an episode, but still in the realm of reality.

Kahhhn, I thought DeKnight mentioned that the budget for "Justice" crept up as high as six million.....do you remember that?

There is other revenue beyond commercial spots. Product integrations into Smallville average around $500k, and would include a few mentions in the script (a la Chloe's Yaris) and some internet promotion or sweepstakes. I'd guess that Sprint's sponsorship is around $1 million for the season, not including their commercial spots. And really - there is almost no production cost associated with those product integrations.

How could it have? Honestly, the effects really weren't that much more extensive that an average season six episode.

At least the product placement with Sprint is well intergraded into the episode. I didn't even realize I was seeing product shots until the second time I watched. The clunky "my Yaris gets great milage" just sticks out like a sore thumb, but to have the characters use the product to check the forecast or get a text message feels very natural. I wish the show runners would court other gizmo and gadget people then maybe more money would make its way to the budget and just maybe better ratings might follow.

I read that the CW has a lot of reality shows planned if this strike were to continue. I wonder if they are going to use the month of January to premier these new shows and then if the strike doesn't end, mix them in with the new episodes that they have left with their current shows.

The original scheduling plan had "Persona" on Jan. 3, "Siren" Jan. 10, two weeks off, and then the last four starting on Jan. 31. I liked this idea better because they'd be avoiding the possibility of Lost returning in mid-February.

Oh well. :( Maybe it'll change yet again.

And I imagine other networks as well.

That reminds me. I need to renew my library membership.

January 31st? Man, that's a LONG hiatus. I think this is bad news for the show and the network. Is Lost going to be on Thursdays after all?

Depending on how long the strike goes, I've heard the possibility that LOST may not be on at all this season. They definitely didn't get all their scripts done and they were only doing 16 anyway.

The writers on Lost are all telling ABC not to air the 8 episodes that they have completed because they feel that it will ruin their season without showing the back 8. ABC seems to want to show the episodes anyway. I guess the question that I would have is whether or not ABC would hold off on Lost until April so they can have the 8th episode air during May sweeps instead of in the middle of March. If Lost does move to Thursdays, this scenario could save Smallville from having to go up against Lost even with the January 31st start.

I still don't understand the logic of waiting 3-4 weeks, having a lonely episode on Dec 13th and then nothing again for a long time. Why even show this now? Why not wait until next year and clump it in with the the second half?

Maybe there's holiday stuff in the episode, like "Lexmas."

Yeah. They seem to have these holiday episodes stuck there in the middle before the long hiatus.

Yep, Omar's right. There's holiday stuff in the episode.

Supernatural's also airing its Christmas episode on Dec 13th. But I do worry that with the poor advertising both shows get, people might not even remember to tune in. I remember a lot of people missed "Subterranean" last year because they didn't even realize there was going to be a new episode smack in the middle of hiatus.

You have to understand that CW must pump their money into their highest rated shows. I mean who can live without all the promotion for ANTM, BATG, Gossip Girl and now Crowned. Those just rock. Radio ads, clips, print ads, posters, a load of promos and stills. Gimme more.

Btw that was sarcasm.

CW figured Smallville has it's core audience anyway. And some of them would filter over into Supernatural. So no reason to really promote either show right. *rolls eyes*

One can only jope that if the writers strike goes on SM/SN will be almost the last actual fall shows on TV and CW should do everything they can to make people aware of that. But then again it's CW.

Somebody just reported in the PI feedback forum that LOST will be airing on Monday's at 8 pm. So if this is true, then that means that Smallville doesn't have to worry about them, but my new favorite show is going to get clobbered...NBC, please move CHUCK and Journeyman (another great new show that nobody is watching) off of monday nights.

Kahhhn don't worry, it certainly appears like NBC is about to cancel Journeyman anyway (fuck NBC), and I guess Chuck will have ended its run when Lost begins (if it will even air at all).

I really think that Journeyman would be great on USA network..It can't be that expensive, and it could really benefit for their 13 episodes seasons

Technical question IF we get the 22 epsiodes season....the season finale would be like alwayas around May 15th either way with less hiatus????

Something like this:

January 31st Persona
February 7th Siren
February 14th Fracture (Happy Valantine's, cause nothing say better "I want you/I love you" than Lex Crazy)
February 21st Hero
February 28th repeat
March 6th Traveler
March 13th Veritas
March 20 Cliffhanger aftershock
March 27th 7.16
April 3rd 7.17
April 10th STOP
April 15th 7.18
April 25th 7.19
May 1st 7.20
May 8th 7.21
May 15th 7.22

or the season would end much later....like June??