Missing Late Night

The strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) starting around May 2, so it's currently about six weeks old.  The broadcast season (I have one streaming service, but I usually don't watch shows on it, only sports) was able to wind down without incident because all the episodes for all the shows I watch were, obviously, in the can for May Sweeps.  And since I usually watch sports, of course they're not affected by the writers strike.  With the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals now all done, well, there really isn't much for me to watch on anything resembling television (and I didn't really care about the Stanley Cup Finals this Year because fuck them both).  Sure, there's baseball and soccer and the Men's College World Series, but the summer is a relative dead period for sports.

As such, there isn't a whole lot of reason for me to watch TV this time of year, so in that case, the writers strike isn't affecting me much.  What is on television right now also has been fully produced and cut, so the strike isn't affecting what I want to watch on TV right now, which is, well, nothing.  People in the know speculate that the studios, whom the writers are demanding pay them more, won't go back to the negotiating table until they begin running out of content.  The thinking is that they run out, at a minimum, 90 days into the strike, which is about how long the last WGA strike, stretching from the end of 2007 into the early part of 2008, lasted.

That's a hell of a long time, but like I said, at least it's happening in the summer, when there isn't much scripted television I would want to watch anyway.  With one notable exception: Late-night TV.  I love watching Colbert and Kimmel and, well, Corden until he ended the show in April (and I don't think anyone's saying this, but I think he ended The Late Late Show then because he anticipated the writers strike).  It is scripted, but the writers on the shows have to come up with something new four days a week.  Add in interviews with people who entertain or inform me, and it's a great way for me to spend my night.

I miss it, and even moreso now that the WGA strike has lasted this long.  It is, in fact, very strange to not have seen any new late-night shows for so long.  They're topical, and a lot of stuff has happened and is happening.  The writers of these shows would be riffing on them like nobody's business.  I mean, come on, they would have had a field day regarding the indictment of Donald Trump.  And I would have tuned in.  But I'm not.  (Aside: What are the talk show hosts doing?  And how are they feeling?  They must feel totally isolated because they're not riffing on the news, and haven't for the past month and a half.)

That means that, starting around now, with the exception of the news, I don't think our TV sets are going to have much of a workout.  There have been a couple reality shows I have wanted to try out, but since I seldom turn it on much now, I usually forget.  I might remember if I could rely on new, fresh content on after the late local news.  But since there isn't, I probably won't remember.  And sadly, there might not be fresh content for some time.  And so this feeling of disconnection from both entertainment and the pulse of the news will, I'm afraid, continue.