WGS STRIKE CENTRAL: DAY 5
Unless the WGA and AMPTP resume negotiations, reports Carat, it’s looking less and less likely that an end to the strike will happen anytime soon. Late Night Talk/Variety which was the first genre to experience immediate consequences, has already been thrown into repeats as of 11/5. (Saturday Night Live and Mad TV will go dark this weekend). Since national ratings results for the current week won’t be available until late next week, Carat decided to take a look at the historical ratings differences between late night originals versus reruns to predict potential ratings impact during the strike. Typically, repeats of talk shows air while hosts take time off, and that is generally one week at a time, So the fall-off for shows like Letterman and Leno, isn’t as dramatic as opposed to variety shows like SNL and MAD TV, which air repeats throughout the summer. If the strike persists into 2008, the ratings gap between originals and repeats for talk shows will widen. Only Nightline will remain in originals.
