UPDATED Strike Chart: How Long Before Your Shows Go Dark?
[UPDATED 11/12/07] There seems to be little doubt that the writers' strike will result in a shorter TV season, but just how short are we talking? Well, as you might've guessed, it varies from show to show. Those programs that are either highly efficient (Friday Night Lights) or have entered the season with a backlog of episodes (Men in Trees, Law & Order: SVU) will be in originals well into the new year. But series with tighter production schedules (i.e., nearly every half-hour comedy) will go dark almost immediately. Of course, figuring out how many episodes remain in your favorite shows' arsenals requires a lot of numbers crunching — and as I've come to learn, the only thing you Ausholes despise more than a Wednesday without AA is mathematics. With that in mind, I pulled together this incredibly handy (and 85 percent complete) cheat sheet. Keep in mind: The information below is subject to change, particularly if both sides get back to the bargaining table and resolve this frakkin' thing!
30 Rock: Ten episodes will be produced. Five episodes have aired, so there are five left.
Aliens in America: Seventeen episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are 11 left.
Back to You: Nine episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are three left.
Bionic Woman: Roughly nine episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are three left.
Bones: Twelve episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are six left.
Boston Legal: Fifteen episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are nine left.
Brothers & Sisters: Twelve episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are five left.
Chuck: Thirteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are six left.
CSI: NY: Fourteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are seven left.
Desperate Housewives: Ten episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are three left.
Dirty Sexy Money: Eleven episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are five left.
Friday Night Lights: Fifteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are eight left.
Gossip Girl: Thirteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are six left.
Grey's Anatomy: Eleven episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are four left.
Heroes: Eleven episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are four left.
House: Twelve episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are six left.
Jericho: Seven episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there are seven episodes left.
Law & Order: SVU: Fourteen episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are eight left.
Life is Wild: Twelve episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are six left.
Lost: Eight episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there are eight episodes left.
Medium: Nine episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there are nine episodes left.
Men in Trees: Nineteen episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are 13 left.
Numbers: Twelve episodes will be produced. Eight, so there are four left.
One Tree Hill: Twelve episodes will be produced. None have aired yet, so there are twelve episodes left.
The Office: Twelve half-hour episodes will be produced. Eleven half-hour episodes have aired, so there is one half-hour episode left.
Prison Break: Thirteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are six left.
Private Practice: Ten or 11 episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are four or five left.
Pushing Daisies: Nine episodes will be produced. Five episodes have aired, so there are four left.
Reaper: Ten to 12 episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are three to five left.
Samantha Who?: Twelve episodes will be produced. Four episodes have aired, so there are eight left.
Scrubs: Twelve episodes will be produced. Three episodes have aired, so there are nine left.
Shark: Eleven episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are four left.
Smallville: Fifteen episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are eight left.
Supernatural: Ten to 12 episodes will be produced. Six episodes have aired, so there are four to six left.
Ugly Betty: Twelve or 13 episodes will be produced. Seven episodes have aired, so there are five or six left.
Scoop! Daisies, Trees Prep Season Finales
Daisies creator extraordinaire Bryan Fuller informs me that the show's ninth episode — the last one for which a script is written — can function as a season finale in the event the strike extends into the new year and beyond.
"As we were scrambling to rewrite [Episode 9]," he reveals, "we added several elements that will put many balls into the air and hopefully encourage the audience to come back and see how they land."
Fuller confirms that production on the potential season finale got under way today, which means "our crew will now be able to work through Thanksgiving."
Over at Men in Trees, show-runner Jenny Bicks reports that prior to the strike, she prepared an alternate ending "in case the last episode we have written becomes our finale. We would be sad if this happened, but we are prepared."
As I pointed out in my handy strike chart, MIT — which came into the season with a backlog of unaired episodes — will be in the rare (and enviable) position of having nearly a season's worth of episodes in the can (19 in total) before it's forced to shut down production.
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