Writers strike sinks the TCA press tour
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The writers strike has claimed another victim: the TV press tour slated to begin early next month.
After weeks of desperate wrangling to keep the event alive, the Television Critics Assn. pulled the plug late Monday on the winter press tour that would have started Jan. 8 at Universal City.
The semiannual TCA events, attended by hundreds of critics and reporters, are key opportunities for the networks to expose new shows to broad audiences.
After the strike began Nov. 5, TCA officials had hoped to deliver a smaller tour devoted to networks’ altered midseason schedules. Those lineups now will be composed of reality shows and repeats, with a smattering of scripted dramas mostly completed before the work stoppage. But the networks, worried that reporters would pelt executives with questions about the strike, cooled to the idea of a stripped-down tour, according to PR officials interviewed in recent weeks. The networks also believed that actors and writers would not show up for promotional activities during the strike.
‘The TCA would prefer, and has steadily advocated for, a full January tour whether the strike is still on or not. Many members have expressed to me that the value of a strike tour would actually be greater than a typical January,’ TCA President Dave Walker wrote members in an e-mail. ‘The networks disagreed.’
Walker had originally hoped to delay a final decision until this Friday. But the rancorous breakdown in talks last week between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers put the writing on the wall.
Representatives for ABC and the CW declined to comment on the cancellation. Other networks could not immediately be reached for comment. A representative from Fox, the network with the strongest midseason lineup because of ‘American Idol,’ wrote: ‘It’s disappointing and we look forward to this summer’s tour.’
-- Scott Collins
