As Scripts Run Out, Reality Kicks In

The Hollywood writers' strike, which has been wreaking havoc on late-night TV since early November, is now breaking out in prime time like a bad rash.

Pockmarks created by vanishing scripted shows are being filled with reality-series concealer. Beloved Oscar-walk-up trophy shows are succumbing -- the Screen Actors Guild said on Friday that its members would not cross picket lines to attend this weekend's Golden Globes ceremony broadcast on NBC.

Mid-season scripted series are so short of episodes that they'll play like miniseries with missing endings -- you know, like that final season of "The Sopranos."

On the bright side, some of those mid-season shows -- once thought of as the flotsam and jetsam of the 2007-08 TV season -- are now being fussed over like precious cargo with which the networks hope to salvage this season and possibly next, as this pilot season is on the verge of cancellation.

When the Writers Guild of America went on strike Nov. 5 in a battle with studios over residuals on films and TV shows that appear on the Internet, among other issues, the networks had original episodes of enough scripted shows to muddle through the November ratings sweeps. (Notable exceptions were sitcoms, which, like Aesop's grasshopper, did not sock away finished scripts to prepare for the upcoming strike because, somehow, comedy is funnier that way. Worst hit: CBS's new "Big Bang Theory," which launched so strongly it had industry navel-gazers cautiously whispering that the sitcom genre might not be so dead after all. Established sitcoms like CBS's "Two and a Half Men" can reasonably expect to get their audiences back when original episodes return, but the future of "Big Bang Theory" grows less rosy with each passing week.)

December, with its annual holiday consomme of series reruns, dusted-off animated specials and treacly flicks, plus football, was not much of an issue either.

January is another story.

ABC's "Pushing Daisies" already has been replaced by "Wife Swap," and the once-promising "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff, "Private Practice," has had to cede its time slot to "Supernanny."

And starting tonight, where "Heroes" once reigned on NBC, "Deal or No Deal" will preside, and "American Gladiators" takes over for "Chuck."

In about two weeks, watch for the cataclysm of reality shows in the Wednesday 8 p.m. hour, when CBS's "Power of 10" meets NBC's "Deal or No Deal" meets ABC's "Wife Swap" meets Fox's "American Idol" meets CW's "Crowned."

CBS has recruited its summer skankathon, "Big Brother," to step in for three hours of prime time that formerly housed such scripted series as "The Unit," starting in February.

Fox will enlist summer screamfest "Hell's Kitchen" to take up the plum post-"American Idol" time slot where "House" thrived in seasons past and was scheduled to thrive again, starting in April.