NBC's "The Office" had to shut down production because plenty of staff, including star Steve Carell, are scribes for the show and are walking the picket line.
CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine" also shut down because star Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a Writers Guild of America member who wouldn't cross the picket line.
Three more CBS shows, "The Big Bang Theory," "Rules of Engagement," and "Two and a Half Men" closed up shop due to the strike. At Fox, " 'Til Death" stopped shooting. "Desperate Housewives" shut down Thursday. And January's premiere of the new season of "24" was postponed indefinitely.
That's in addition to all of the late night talk shows that went into reruns immediately because they rely on writers to create topical sketches and monologues every day.
It hurts, if you're a TV fan. But the writers must win.
Big media companies believe they can outlast the strike. Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone said last week that his Paramount studios and CBS network could withstand the strike for a long time, pointing out that shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" can do well in reruns and that they have movie scripts stockpiled to last well into next year.
Media conglomerates are in a better position this time around. Twenty years after the last writers strike, the studios and networks are bigger, have more money and can hold up to a strike longer than when writers walked the picket lines in 1988.
Media consolidation and corporate ownership give the studios and networks bigger and firmer ground to stand on. Today, fewer companies own more of the broadcast and cable networks. Most of the television landscape is run by four companies: Viacom (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central), Disney (ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel), NBC/Universal (NBC, Sci-Fi, Bravo, USA) and News Corp. (Fox, FX).
Because of that (and no thanks to the FCC), creativity gets stifled even more in Hollywood, independent visions become more rare, and we get a flood of reality shows (they cost much less to make than scripted shows but can sometimes yield big profits).
Worst of all, the people who make these series are getting shafted. All they want is their fair share of revenue from the Internet and new media. Last year, CBS president Les Moonves made $24.5 million in salary, stock options, benefits and other compensation, which one guild writer from Salt Lake City told me is more than what the members of all Hollywood guilds combined - writers, directors and actors - made in residuals last year.
Yes, as a TV critic, it hurts to see some of my favorite series go on indefinite hiatus. But it hurts me more to see hard working people not get what they deserve.
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* VINCE HORIUCHI can be reached at vince@sltrib.com or 801-257-8607.
