TV's Endless Summer

Talks have broken off between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The sticking point is over future revenues from the Internet and any kind of new media to come. No new talks are planned. With the strike entering its second month, this has been the fallout:

• The TV season has, for all intents and purposes, been killed. Scripted shows have been (or will soon be) running out of episodes. Shows like "Cavemen" and "Bionic Woman" that didn't deserve a second chance will probably get one next fall, once the strike is settled. The networks are filling their schedules with reality shows (meaning "American Idol" will be number one by default), game shows and newsmagazines.
• The late-night talk shows have been in reruns since the strike began. Only one, Carson Daly, has gone back on without writers. The rest--Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel--are paying their laid-off staffers out of their own pockets. One has to wonder how their absence (and that includes Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and "Saturday Night Live") is affecting the presidential campaign, given that some people have been getting their news from the late-night monologues.
• Speaking of politics, CBS had to cancel a debate between the Democratic candidates because they refused to cross picket lines. Writers from the news division, which covers radio and television, have voted to authorize a strike.
• The possibility that the longer the strike goes, the more likely it is that local stations will be pre-empting network programming for movies and syndicated reruns. Infomercials in prime time? Could happen.

Right now the writers, networks and movie studios don't care that you're suffering through reruns, reality and the lack of jokes about Oprah supporting Obama. There's something more important going on here, and it's going to affect every man, woman and child in Couch Potato Nation.

It's about survival.