Writers Strike: Should Lost Air This Season?

Thanks to Lyly for the info.

US, November 7, 2007 - Yesterday we reported that thanks to the Writers Guild strike, Lost's fourth season will likely consist of only 8 episodes -- half of the intended 16. But one possibility that could occur is to hold the show completely, not airing any episodes until the 2008 - 2009 season. If the strike continues and no more episodes can be produced this season, Lost executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof think that's the way to go.

I spoke to Cuse today, who was standing among a group of the most notable showrunners in television, picketing outside the Walt Disney studios. When I asked him if ABC was intending to air just those completed 8 episodes, he replied "I don't know yet. I think it'll depend on how long [the strike] lasts." But as to whether he'd want to see those episodes air without their intended second half ready, he firmly said "No. We'd rather them hold it. It would be like reading half a novel."

Lost aired a brief 6 episode run in the fall of 2006, which wasn't a popular move with fans or critics and Cuse thinks that while fans would be frustrated by the longer wait between seasons, it would ultimately be a bigger disservice to air only half a season. However, it's believed that ABC is likely to decide to air the episodes in the spring as originally intended, especially given how few scripted series will be available at that point, thanks to the strike.

Carlton Cuse (partially obscured)
on the picket line Wednesday. His sign says
"Do you want to know what the island is?"
Cuse explained that when it came to the reasoning for the strike "The crux of the issue is that the studios don't want to pay writers residuals for new media. And everybody understands where movies and television are going. Internet is the new TV and that's going to be the primary distribution mechanism for films and television shows."

Cuse said he felt the networks and studios were "using a technological change to try to skip out on the legacy of residuals, which has been a way that people who create products like movies and TV shows are connected in an ongoing way financially to the work that they create that generates billions of dollars in revenue for the studios. Without the residual system, basically the 11,000 rank and file writers can't make it."

"Most writers don't work all the time," Cuse noted. "They go long periods between jobs. It's residual checks that allow them to exist between assignments. It's the same with actors. That's the crux of this issue. It's a real, working class basic, fundamental kind of issue for the rank and file members who need residuals to keep performing their craft. It was residuals from Golden Girls that allowed Marc Cherry between jobs to come up with Desperate Housewives, which had made a billion dollars for the Walt Disney company."

Turning back to his own show, Cuse noted "Lost is a great example of how new media has changed. Lost is a show which is a top ten show, but it doesn't repeat on network television. There are no network reruns. People watch it on DVDs, they watch it on their DVRs, they watch it streaming on ABC.com or they download it from iTunes. And none of those formats pay traditional residuals."

Source: IGN UK