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The writers strike is over but how many of our favorite shows will still be hurt and possibly gone. The ones that are having a problem with their ratings and on the bubble of being canceled are ABC’s Men In Trees, Women’s Murder Club and Boston Legal; CBS’s Jericho, which was already canceled once and brought back by popular demand; CW’s The Reaper, Aliens in America and The Wild; NBC’s Bionic Woman, Las Vegas and Scrubs. Other shows that will not return until September may find that there audience is no longer interested because the longer the series is off the air the more the viewer is likely to forget about it and find other programs of interest.  ABC’s Private Practice and Pushing Daisies are good examples of shows that could lose valuable viewers. There are other shows that are on the bubble of being canceled or are canceled but I listed the series that Viewers Voice is getting the most feedback on.

I personally am afraid of committing to any new shows on network TV in fear of losing them. This last season I fell in love with The Nine and lost it before it even had a decent ending to the storyline. I also am a big fan of ABC’s Women’s Murder Club and Men in Trees which in my opinion have a slim chance of being renewed. I was delighted to hear that NBC’s Lipstick Jungle and Friday Night Lights will be back

I’ve found myself going over to watching shows on cable TV because they are at least given the opportunity to pick up their viewers and finish out their commitments to the series storyline. For example I love USA’s Burn Notice, Lifetime’s Army Wives and TNT’s Saving Grace. If you don’t have cable and have not had the chance to watch these shows you’re missing some excellent television.

The viewers that are so found of reality shows or unscripted shows have no doubt got their fill of that type of entertainment and there’s more to come. The reason being they are so cheap to produce.

In November on my Viewers Voice TV show I had on a guest by phone from Los Angeles a veteran writer and executive producer of the new critically acclaimed hit TNT series Saving Grace, Nancy Miller. The show stars Academy Award winner, Holly Hunter as Grace Hanadarko, an intense and dynamic Oklahoma police detective.  Grace lives life hard, fast and on the edge. Wicked hard and tough she hits bottom one night when she slams into a pedestrian while she is driving drunk. Horrified at the realization of what she’s done, Grace uncharacteristically asks for help and receives it in the form of an unconventional angel named Earl. The journey for both of them is not an easy one. The show is fantastic but I would not advise it for the younger viewers. It is definitely adult entertainment and it would never be permitted on network television.   

I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy a number of times when she served as executive producer and creator of Lifetime’s Any Day Now. We had the opportunity of visiting the set many times and we were always treated with great respect. Nancy’s a firm believer that the viewers are important.

Saving Grace is Nancy Millers fourth original series she has created. Besides Any Day Now and Saving Grace she created The Round Table and Leaving LA. Nancy has been a co-executive producer of the hit TNT series The Closer, as well as The Profiler on NBC. She was a consulting producer on Threat Matrix, and supervising producer for both The Monroes and Against the Grain. She also wrote for Law and Order.

Against The Grain was one of the first shows that Viewers Voice campaigned to keep on the air. It was about a high school football coach and his son who played on his team. The son and player was a very young Ben Aflect. The series was an excellent show but the network never gave it a chance to pick up an audience.

When we interviewed Nancy on our show I asked her about the strike and I thought you might be interested in what she had to say. We did the interview in November and at that time she felt the strike would be a short one.

Sharon: How is the writers strike going to effect the production of Saving Grace?

Nancy: Well we were supposed to start shooting in January, which we won’t be able to do, but you know we don’t come on until June so we can start shooting later and still make our season.

Sharon: I don’t believe a lot of our viewers understand just what the writers strike is about, could you fill us in?

Nancy: It’s complicated but right now if one of our shows; like you can watch Saving Grace on the internet and you sit down and you’re going to see a commercial. Then you watch some of the show and then you will see another commercial. The producers are saying well we don’t know how much money we’re making and how much money we’re going to make and we don’t know what this is going to be like in the future. In the meantime they’re telling the stock holders well we’re making two billion dollars off the internet this year. They’re making money. Right now every time Saving Grace is shown I make like .037 of a cent. We’re asking for two and a half cents…OK. That’s basically what it’s a bout; it’s a bout the internet, the feature of the business. We’re not asking for much, we think it’s very fair you know. They’re making a ton of money off this. So it’s residuals. It’s like we’re getting residuals on television; if people are going to be watching TV on the internet we want them to share just two and a half cents of that piece of the pie.

To me that seemed reasonable; after all without the writers there would be no shows. Except reality shows don’t really need writers but then how many reality shows can one stomach. The 10,000-plus writers ended the strike February 13, 2008.

Until my next column let your voice be heard.