"Writers Guild of America members gave a resounding thumbs-up to the guild’s new contract agreement at membership meetings held Saturday in Gotham and L.A., clearing the path for the three-month-old writers strike to end by midweek.

At the L.A. meeting at the Shrine Auditorium, WGA West leaders told the crowd of more than 3,500 members that the WGA West board and WGA East council would meet Sunday morning to formally recommend the deal for ratification, and to approve a special 48-hour vote among members about whether to end the strike. The boards are also expected to begin the process of holding a 10-day ratification vote for members to formally seal the new three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Word of the 48-hour vote on ending the strike caught many by surprise on Saturday night, given the expectation that the WGA’s governing bodies would vote on a back-to-work order that could take effect on Monday. The guild’s Saturday meetings were closed to the press, and guild leaders would not comment on the specifics of the 48-hour voting process. Many members who attended the L.A. meeting said that the back-to-work order was pro forma and that they would resume work immediately on TV shows and film projects left in limbo when the WGA strike began on Nov. 5.

More at Variety.

Brief info on the reasons for the strike:

- "The only reason for the strike - and don't believe anything to the contrary - is that the studios have refused to pay writers (and screen actors, and directors) residuals on new media. When you download a movie from Amazon or a TV show on iTunes, the people who created that content, who devised it, wrote it, acted in it, and directed it, get exactly 0% of the profits. And the studios want it to stay that way.

The WGA was asking for an increase in the residuals made on DVD sales (unlike new media, creators make a small percentage off of DVD and VHS sales, pay-per-view showings, TV sales, etc). For months now the studios have said that this was the reason the contract couldn't be closed. However, at the 11th hour - last night - the WGA took that off the table. It came down to new media and only new media. And the studios refused to budge.

This strike is absolutely not a matter of the rich getting richer. We're not striking because of guys like me who have made numerous feature films, or guys like Greg Daniels who have created popular TV shows. This is for middle-class writers - your regular TV staff writers and people who may have done one or two small feature films. Residuals are a way they can make perhaps a few thousand dollars a year between gigs. This is a way they can put food on the table and pay the rent during downtime - and downtime is something almost all writers (and actors and directors) have."

- - -

- My first thought personally?  'Finally they can start shooting the rest of Lost and Battlestar Galactica.'

i want more Moonlight - asap.

Hopefully the writers didn't really stop writing and can give us new stories immediately

Maybe they'll cancel most of these reality shows....

Yay!!

Quoting Erik:

Quote:
- My first thought personally?  'Finally they can start shooting the rest of Lost and Battlestar Galactica.'

According to TV Guide, at this point it looks like Lost will get 5 more episodes.  Hopefully they'll find a way to do all 8, but 5 is better than nothing (was 6 yesterday).

Quoting Dr. Killpatient:

Quote:

Quote:
Bionic Woman
No new episodes expected. Ever.

%&#&!

Did you really like it? I only watched a few episodes but the entire story (especiallay the pilot) felt constructed. She adapted far to easily to what happend to her (and others) in the pilot IMHO.

And the stories weren't that interesting either.

Both NBC late night shows, Jay and Conan, said last night that their shows would first have written material on Wednesday.  This leads me to think their material is written about 24hours before showtime.