Comedy Central's
The Daily Show is among those scripted shows suffering from the writers' strike. Early Monday, the series' writing staff took to the picket lines in front of Rockefeller Center, and while all of them are dedicated to the cause of the strike, correspondent and writer John Oliver admitted he was hoping things would have turned out differently.
"It's hard to believe, because part of you wants this not to be happening," he told the
Los Angeles Times on Monday, gesturing to his co-writers marching behind the barricades. "You just assume common sense will prevail."
Your Take
oscardahl said:
John Oliver is the man. Losing late night TV might be the worst result of the entire strike.
Guest said:
Me too. I've not bothered watching this week.
Oliver and the rest of the
Daily Show writing staff had in fact been working on material as late as last Friday, hoping the strike would be averted.
Unfortunately, the strike did push through, and now John Oliver is busy standing his ground in the picket lines, all for the sake of achieving a more secure environment for writers.
"When you usually spend your whole week knocking sincerity, coming out here is a bit of a gear shift," John Oliver acknowledged. "But it's best to make a stand now, or it will get out of hand very quickly," he added, referring to the writers' lack of protection in this new media landscape.
Because of the strike,
The Daily Show, along with a number of late-night programs, has been forced to air past episodes in the absence of new scripts. However, according to the
New York Times, the Jon Stewart-hosted series, as well as its spin-off
The Colbert Report, will be revamped should the strike carry on for a prolonged period of time. The revamped shows will focus more on interviews and ad-libbed segments in place of scripted jokes.
“[
The Daily Show and
The Colbert Report] are a big source of news for a whole generation that was not around for the 1988 strike,” the
New York Times quoted Writers Guild of America East president Michael Winship as saying. “Losing Stewart and Colbert is something like losing Cronkite during the Vietnam War. And because they are accessed in any number of ways both on television and on the Web,
The Daily Show and
The Colbert Report are exactly what we are talking about at the bargaining table."
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: LA Times, New York Times
(Image Courtesy of Comedy Central)