On vacation
Diane Holloway is off this week. Her TV blog will return Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 09
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Live chat: Holloway in Hollywood
Hey, I’m heading for Los Angeles, where I’ll be getting the scoop on fall shows. Got questions? Need answers? Join me for a live chat on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Check you later!
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No strike (for now), fewer “Lights”
No actors’ strike — at least not for now.
The 70,000 members of the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists voted on a new contract with producers last night, and the deal was ratified with 62.4 percent of the vote.
The Screen Actors Guild, whose 120,000 members includes some 44,000 people who also are members of AFTRA, had tried to defeat the deal and support additional gains SAG is demanding in its negotiations.
That didn’t happen, but the ratification was hardly a ringing endorsement for AFTRA, which usually rallies 90 percent support for such agreements. About 37 percent of SAG members voting on the AFTRA contract rejected it.
SAG resumes negotiations with producers on Thursday, with less leverage than if AFTRA had rejected the producers’ deal.
But Hollywood’s future is not exactly secure. SAG members could still strike, assuming they cannot come to terms with producers and assuming they can muster 75 percent of their members’ support for a strike. And if SAG strikes, it’s hard to imagine that AFTRA and perhaps other guilds wouldn’t honor that strike in some way.
Coming on the heels of the devastating writers’ strike, however, another work stoppage seems less likely. Only the super-rich actors like Jack Nicholson can afford it.
“Lights” dimmer? Nah.
The shock over news that “Friday Night Lights” is scaling back participation of two of it’s main characters shouldn’t be shocking.
Gaius Charles (Smash) and Scott Porter (Jason Street) will return for the show’s third season as recurring characters. Doesn’t that make sense?
I mean, when last we saw him, Smash was heading off to college on a football scholarship, and Jason, who was a senior in the show’s first season when he suffered that devastating spinal injury, is working in a car dealership and expecting a baby with his girlfriend.
Shows set in high schools can’t keep the same characters forever. It makes no sense AND actors do age. The Panther football players are all in their mid- to late-20s now anyway.
If “Lights” continues beyond the next season (don’t hold your breath), we should expect other characters to graduate and move on — and new characters to be introduced.
Austin-based “Lights,” you may recall, is returning to NBC in February but arriving in October on DirecTV as a result of a production deal with that satellite company. The show, despite perpetually low ratings, is widely praised by critics and rumored to be a contender for an Emmy this time around … Nominations are released Thursday, July 17. Fingers crossed.
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