Why Actress Anne-Marie Johnson From "What's Happening" And "That's So Raven" Deserves To Run The Screen Actors Guild

Leno's New Show Puts Thousands In Hollywood Out Of Work

Up till now the big worry in Hollywood was whether in the midst of a recession and after the devastation of last springs Writers Guild Strike, would the Screen Actor Guild(SAG), representing Hollywood actors, have the nerve to call a strike. Well that possibility is now minor to television work, when you consider the jobs lost as NBC announces that Jay Leno will retire from the Tonight Show, but will have a new daily hour long show Monday thru Friday at 10pm each night.
This new show will wipe out five hours of regular NBC episodic production affecting thousands of television production jobs. And unlike the SAG strike possibility; this is a done deal.

It is all about bang for the buck and NBC trying to save money and embarrassment. If NBC had let Leno just walk away, he probably would have wound up on another network competing against new Tonight Show Host Conan O'Brien. The Tonight Show would have definitely lost a big chunk of it's audience to the competing Leno show and that would have been embarra
ssing.

But the "bang for the buck", is once again a network succeeding in finding programming that cost little to initially produce and does not give residual payments to producers directors, writers and actors. We see this now as reality TV programs are a main stay of television viewing 8pm to 9pm. The Monday thru Friday 10pm time slot, up till now, was still the one guaranteed television home for hour long dramas.

Right now it cost each network approximately 2 million dollars to produce one episode of an hour long drama. So the cost to NBC for 5 different hour long dramas(Monday thru Friday 10pm to 11pm) is approximately 10 million dollars. The networks recoup this money thru advertising and when the shows are sold in to reruns (aka syndication). The producers, directors,writers and actors receive residual payments for reuse of their services. It will only cost about 2 million dollars for the "entire week" of the new Jay Leno show. Saving NBC 8 million dollars a week.
Multiply that 8 times a 22 week regular schedule and that is a savings of $164 million dollars!

Further savings for NBC and job loss for industry workers will be seen during Pilot Season. More Math: For every one hour drama committed to a time slot, there are at least 4 other dramas made/produced, but do not get picked up. So on the conservative side, if 3 new one hour dramas are picked up for broadcast, there were at least 15 total pilots made. Those 15 shows are usually filmed when other production has stopped and everyone is unemployed. These 15 pilots and the jobs they'd bring are now lost.

For NBC, and also ABC, CBS there is an added bonus. With the loss of the 15 pilots, the 3 new shows, syndication/reruns; there are no jobs, no residual payments or pension and health contributions to unions. Therefore the unions and members are weakened for the next round of negotiations.

And just so no one thinks this article is union propaganda, lets not forget about the loss to other non union jobs that will be lost. Copying and printing, caterer, wardrobe shops, agents, managers, security, lumber sales for set construction, trailer car truck and light equipment rental, makeup, food and fuel sales, location scouting, bookkeepers and payroll services... just to name a few.

NBC has just put the first major hit on Hollywood for 2009, thanks and Oh', good luck with the new gig Jay.

ACTORS IN CLIFFHANGER AS STRIKE DEADLINE DRAWS NEAR

To strike or not to strike? That is the question dogging Hollywood.

But while filmmakers, TV producers, casts and crews are holding their collective breaths with the Screen Actors Guild contract due to expire at midnight, union president Alan Rosenberg says there is no immediate work stoppage in the, um, works.

"We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of the Screen Actors Guild," he says in a statement. "Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction."

For more visit E Online.

HOLLYWOOD ACTORS GETTING TWISTED, TOOK AND TRASHED BY THEIR OWN UNIONS

As if it wan't enough that the Democrats are loosing valuable resources and energy as they infight over Barack and Hillary. Confusion and frustration has now hit the two major acting unions on the dawn of their negotiations with producers for a new actors contract. And yes there could be another striike. This weekend a blow-up occurred after leaders of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which represents about 70,000 actors and others, learned that Screen Actors Guild leaders, who represent about 120,000 actors, had met with cast members of the CBS soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
Earlier in the day, The Los Angeles Times reported that the federation officials had accused the guild of encouraging actors who were trying to end the federation’s representation of the show’s cast. Guild leaders disputed the claim. On Saturday evening, however, federation leaders scrapped the planned talks, which have been conducted jointly for nearly 30 years, citing the soap opera incident as the latest in a series of attempts by the guild to undercut them.

“This was simply the culmination of what really has been a year-long campaign by SAG to discredit Aftra,” Ms. Reardon said on Sunday.

Mr. Rosenberg — who called the soap opera issue a “sham” designed to let the federation exit joint talks. — said his guild had pledged not to take up representation of the “Bold and the Beautiful” actors, even if the federation were decertified. Relations between the unions, often rocky, had become especially difficult after the actors guild earlier floated a plan to tilt its customary 50-50 position on a joint bargaining committee in its own favor, because the guild is larger and its members have more earnings. Read more By MICHAEL CIEPLY at THE NEW YORK TIMES

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