Looks like the ScreenWriters are going on strike - barring a last minute miracle in negotiations. That's going to mean really bad TV a few months from now, especially if it's prolonged. However, I suspect that both the writers and management are going to regret this if it goes as long (or longer) than the 1988 strike:

The writers’ union’s 1988 strike, which lasted five months and cost Hollywood an estimated $500 million, had a profound effect on the industry. It helped further fragment a TV audience already being seduced away from the big networks by cable and videogames; it is estimated that network viewership dropped 9 percent. And that was before the cultural onslaught of the Internet.

A nine percent drop is significant; I'd expect more damage this time around. Perhaps both sides ought to ponder the whole MAD theory...

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