Hollywood Writers Strike Is Over

Guild Members Vote To End 3-Month Walkout That Crippled Hollywood

(CBS/AP)  Striking Hollywood writers are going back to work.

The Writers Guild of America said its members voted Tuesday to end their devastating, three-month strike that brought the entertainment industry to a standstill.

Writers will be back on the job Wednesday after voting in Beverly Hills and New York.

"At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry," Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press.

Moonves was among the media executives who helped broker a deal after talks between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, collapsed in acrimony in December.

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Photos: Entertaining A Strike

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CBS announced Wednesday morning that new episodes of scripted shows will be back on the air in March, beginning with "How I Met Your Mother," "The Big Bang Theory," and "Two And A Half Men" on March 17.

Residuals for TV shows and movies distributed online was the most contentious issue in the bitter dispute involving the 12,000-member union and the world's largest media companies and other producers.

Under the agreement, writers get a maximum flat fee of about $1,200 for streamed programs in the deal's first two years and then get 2 percent of a distributor's gross in year three.

"These advances now give us a foothold in the digital age," said Patric Verrone, president of the West Coast guild. "Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as television migrates to the Internet."

One winner in the vote was the Academy Awards that can now be staged on Feb. 24 without the threat of pickets or a boycott by actors that would have dulled the glamour of Hollywood's signature celebration.

The strike's end will allow many hit series to return this spring for what's left of the current season, airing anywhere from four to seven new episodes. Shows with marginal audience numbers may not return until fall or could be canceled.

"It will be all hands on deck for the writing staff," said Chris Mundy, co-executive producer of CBS' drama "Criminal Minds." He hopes to get a couple of scripts in the pipeline right away, with about seven episodes airing by the end of May.

The combined New York-Beverly Hills count was overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike: 3,492 voted yes, with only 283 voting to stay off the job.

Writers did not vote on the tentative contract agreement that already has won approval from the union's board of directors.

The guild will mail contract ratification ballots to members over the next few days. Writers can also vote at meetings. All ballots must be cast by Feb. 25.

The walkout stopped work on dozens of TV shows, disrupted movie production and turned the usually star-studded Golden Globes show into a news conference.

The strike also dealt a severe financial blow to a wide range of businesses dependent on work from studios.

The strike took a $3.2 billion toll in direct and indirect costs on the economy of Los Angeles County, the home of most of the nation's TV and film production, according to a new estimate from Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

The last writers strike, a 153-day walkout in 1988, caused an estimated $500 million in lost wages.

Members of the guild gathered Saturday in Los Angeles and New York to get details of the proposed agreement. The meetings were arranged after a Feb. 1 breakthrough by union negotiators and studio executives.

The strike began on Nov. 5, but formal negotiations broke off on Dec. 7 after the guild pushed to unionize writers on reality and animated productions.

Informal talks began on Jan. 23 between studio heads and the union, which extended an olive branch by withdrawing its proposal to organize reality and animated shows. It also decided against picketing the Grammy Awards.

Pressure to reach an agreement mounted after the studio alliance reached a tentative contract deal on Jan. 17 with the Directors Guild of America.

Among the executives who took the lead in breaking the impasse were Peter Chernin, chief operating officer of News Corp., and Robert Iger. chief executive of The Walt Disney Co.

"A union in the United States of America stood up to corporate America and said 'We're not going to take this anymore," documentary filmmaker Michael Moore told The Early Show on Monday. "I wouldn't have thought it would be the writers."

[plusbbcather]

It was nice to turn off the tube or watch the older shows.

Maybe they should strike more often. _______________
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[dogband]

OMG, I just like, so happy, you know its like, I now have my life back.

You gotta me kidding me.

Who gives a rats *** about 90% of the *** on my cable channel. Give me some good PBS, a few choice National Geographic specials, the occasional ........... *** ........ can'' think of much else worth watching.

Play an instrument, get outdoors, get a pet, read a book and KILL YOUR TV for the most part.

[ladyjaneg]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugly Betty, Grey''s....my Thursday nights will have meaning again!!!! :D:D:D ;)

[jetlizhan]

praise the Lord!! now can we get on with some good/funny shows like ''my name is earl'' and ''desperate housewives'' - i''m so sick of these ridiculous so-called reality shows i could just puke.

[hermit22]

"flat fee of $1,200"! grrrrr! they OUGHT to get a $2000 FINE for every time they put one filthy word into some little yes-mans mouth!

[hermit22]

now that these fools are going to get paid EVEN MORE, are they going to be able to write a decent exclamitory sentence instead of all this sick swearing and swearing and swearing and swearing and tedious swearing and swearing and swearing? duh!

[vet999999]

oh goody, now we can get fresh trash....

[smiley676]

Finally, although I agree with strikes in some circumstances, this is not one of them. This is a strike of rich people looking to get richer. And frankly, they don''t do enough work, or good enough work, to deserve any more than they were already getting.

[gmond]

I am so relieved.

[shortmama2]

Thank goodness -- looks like American democracy
is still very viable. Kudos to people like
Les Moonves who helped in creating a solution.