As the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) continues to refuse to negotiate in good faith with the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, it is clear that the window for your favorite TV shows, including NCIS, 9-1-1, and Chicago PD, returning for the 2023/2024 TV season, is getting thinner by the day.
The network’s traditional business model calls for dramas to return every September, but the strikes have led many to assume we’ll instead be looking at spring 2024 premiere dates and a shortened 13-episode season for TV’s most popular series.
© CBSDiona Reasonover and Brian Dietzen on NCIS
However, with strikes now entering their fifth month for the WGA and third for SAG, it’s becoming clear that there may not even be room for a shorter season, and that many networks will push back the release of new seasons until September 2024.
Most writers’ rooms for television shows will resume in late May, after Memorial Day weekend. By the beginning of September, female writers will therefore be open again for shows such as Chicago Fire and Law and order in a few months, and these series will already record the fifth or sixth episode of the new season.
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9-1-1 Lone Star’s Gina Torres praises fans for ‘amazing’ support for the strikeThis year, Labor Day 2023 will come and go without a reasonable AMPTP deal on the table; A long time Law and order: SVU Showrunner Warren Leight underscored this point in a tweet sent on August 8 when he wrote, “If the strike somehow ended by Labor Day and filming began in early fall, the networks could salvage a 13-episode season. The clock keeps ticking.”
Why is a 13 season order less likely?
There is nothing preventing a network from airing a series during the summer months, but – traditionally – the regular season generally runs from late September to May, and during the summer months the network will air reruns or series that are expected to have lower ratings.
This is because people are often out of their homes more during these months or on holiday and the children are at sleep away camps. Reality TV is often shown at this time as well.
© NBCChicago Fire is set to return for its 12th season
Writers need at least a few weeks to begin pre-production on a series; work out the season arc for each character, determine the end point for each individual story, and then work on how the show will take viewers on that journey. They then need to write the script, get feedback, work with the rest of the team to start building the next episode, and then hand it off to the actors.
Generally speaking, most shows want to have at least four episodes completed before filming begins, which often begins after July 4th. This then gives the production companies around 10 weeks before the premiere episodes air in mid-September.
© Getty Images Mariska Hargitay is seen on the set of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
9-1-1 costs more than $10 million per episode
For some shows, such as comedies, production can be faster because they often require fewer technical elements, which in theory means a show like Abbott Elementary could still produce a 13-episode order for a spring 2023 premiere.
But for a show like 9-1-1, which can cost more than $10 million an episode thanks in large part to its A-list cast and the over-the-top emergencies it portrays, it couldn’t turn around so quickly; consider that the cast and crew filmed the 11th episode of the sixth season in November 2022, which aired on March 13, 2023. It was a five-month turnaround for filming, but the scripts would have been written weeks before.
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SAG and WGA are seeking better terms
As Natacha Karam, from 9-1-1; Lone Star recently told fans in an Instagram Story, “Once the writers make a deal, they need time to write the script for Lone Star. It could be eight, ten, 11 weeks, who knows how many weeks. before we actually go back to set — and assuming that once [the WGA] come to an agreement, the actors soon come to an agreement.”
Eddie and Marjan take a selfie in the 9-1-1 universe crossover
Because it is not only the WGA that is on strike; SAG also demands better working conditions including safety clauses from artificial intelligence.
This was an unprecedented period of negotiations with the AMPTP; this strike has now lasted longer than the WGA strike of 2007. But until the AMPTP agrees to reasonable counteroffers to the WGA and SAG demands, please continue to support the cast and crew – and donate wherever you can to the Entertainment Community Fund.
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Categories: Entertaintment
Source: HIS Education