by Steve Paine
Featured Columnist
January 14, 2008

It’s two months into the Writer’s Guild of America’s (WGA) strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), and things are finally looking hopeful for out-of-work writers. After failed attempts at negotiations between the two organizations over residuals on New Media (i.e. writers not getting paid enough for their shows being broadcast online), the WGA is finally gaining the upper hand in this clash of David vs. Goliath.

The latest battlefield in the war between the two was last night’s Golden Globes, usually a highly-anticipated award season event and early indicator for the Oscars. Due to a threat from the WGA to picket the ceremony and a subsequent refusal by Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members to cross picket lines, broadcaster NBC found itself without writers, celebrities and, ultimately, a show. A week before the Globes were set to air, NBC pulled the event and replaced it with a two-hour  Dateline special on the event and a glorified press conference to announce the winners, followed by a rerun of American Gladiators.

It may not seem like a big deal right now, but if things continue like this for long, the AMPTP may be in some serious trouble. The de-glitzed and de-glamourized Globes may have attracted enough viewers to garner passable ratings, but NBC will be lucky if the press conference captured even a fraction of the expected $15 to $20 million in advertising revenue.

This is exactly the kind of damage the WGA hoped to inflict, and though it may be only a chink in the studios’ gold-plated armor, they still have to survive the Oscars, the biggest television event behind only the Super Bowl. If the Globes are really an indicator of the Oscars and advertisers decide to pull out of the Academy Awards, longtime broadcaster ABC could lose millions of dollars in ad revenue.

The solidarity between writers, actors and directors is the best thing the WGA has going for it right now. With upcoming negotiations with the Directors Guild and negotiations with the SAG in June, perhaps the AMPTP had best lay down its sword and surrender before it’s too late.