Black Monday : Studios using “force majeure” to fire writers, producers and directors
By fred | January 15, 2008
After ABC started using the “force majeure” clause of cancel contracts of some of their writers, producers and directors, four of the major studios – NBC Universal, CBS Paramount, 20th Century Fox Television, and Warner Brothers Television – did the same yesterday putting an end to over 60 development deals altogether.
ABC Studios let go nearly 30 overall people on Friday, CBS Paramount and 20th Century Fox each dropped half that number, and NBC Universal and WBTV stayed in the single digits.
And there are many big names on the list of people whose contracts were ended, including writer-producer Rene Echevarria, who co-created The 4400, Barry Schindel of Numb3rs, K-Ville creator and executive producer Jonathan Lisco and co-executive producer Lawrence Kaplow, Kevin Falls, creator of co-executive producer of Journeyman, Paul Redford of The Unit, Barbie Adler of My Name Is Earl, or Kristin Newman co-executive producer of How I Met Your Mother.
Now don’t ask me what this actually means for those shows, I honestly don’t know. Quite obviously, for K-Vile and Journeyman, and despite the absence of official announcement from NBC (and, in case of Journeyman, fans’ campaign to save the show), it seems a strong indication that those shows are done. Not that it’ll came as a surprise to anyone, though.
For producers on shows like How I Met Your Mother or My Name Is Earl, I’m really not sure, but I guess they could be hired back once the strike is over, or not, depending on the studios feelings at the time. And since it most definitely does not look like they care about their shows…
Of course all studios did blame the WGA strike for the terminations, which will obviously save millions of dollars to studios, especially since the next pilot season is basically dead, as no script will be written.
Production companies in the entertainment industry continue to feel the impact of the ongoing writers strike. As a result of this change in development and production activity, we have made a difficult decision to discontinue overall deals with a number of writers and producers whose talents we greatly value and respect.
Because of the adverse effects of the ongoing WGA strike on our business, we have been forced to terminate overall deals with a number of talented writers and producers. We regret these circumstances and wish these creative individuals the best.
The duration of the WGA strike has significantly affected our ongoing business. Regretfully, due to these changed business circumstances, we’ve had to end some writer-producer deals.
As an unfortunate but direct consequence of the strike, we have been forced to release some of the valued members of our roster from their development deals.
And things don’t end there, if the strike extends into February, and clearly studios wouldn’t mind if it did, there could be another round of contract terminations. So unless you don’t mind watching stupid crap every day, I would suggest to stop watching reruns, games or any unscripted programs out there until the strike is over. If you don’t made it clear to the networks that you don’t want to be treated like crap, they sure will treat you as morons…
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