Writer’s Guild Members Picket Against Fremantle…Again
A while back, when the abomination that was Temptation was still relevant, there was a story about writers and WGA West members picketing against Fremantle because of unfair conditions. I’m starting to get the feeling this is a reoccurring trend for the popular game show production company. Last night, WGA West members picketed against Fremantle Media outside of the American Idol stage because of unfair treatment during game and reality shows.
“We’ve got men and women writing reality and game shows for a lot of very successful companies and not getting the basic protections — pension, health insurance, credits and things — that writers in this town routinely get,” WGAW president Patric Verrone said. “We’re hoping we can achieve that with Fremantle.”
Recently the guild signed a contract with Fremantle to work on the revival of Match Game which has been stalled after a not-so-hot pilot. However, according to Reuters, “Fremantle claims that the guild’s ongoing allegations are without merit because the company does not have writers on all of its shows.”
Oh, come on. Temptation was never relevant. ;)
If Fremantle chooses to classify game shows as reality TV and produce them as non-union, that’s completely within their rights. And, if the job conditions are crap, everyone knows where the exit door is, and I’m sure no one is willing to fill their recently vacated desks. If no one fills the desks, then the show fails.
Where Fremantle DOES run into trouble is when they do stupid stuff like violating basic wage and hour laws, and in those cases, of course they should be (and have been) smacked down.
The average American Idol viewer neither knows nor cares about the writing on the show, and so the WGA are wasting their time.
A couple thoughts:
1) I must have a different view of “basic” than most people, because I don’t think people are automatically entitled to retirement accounts and health insurance just for working. Those are things you deal with yourself. That said, I don’t like the practice of calling writers “segment producers”. That’s just opportunistic lawyer-driven BS. Just call them writers and if they cost more, hire fewer of them.
2) I don’t think that writers for game shows/reality shows get enough credit. When I think of bad conditions, I think of the story someone from your sister site mentioned where the people making the pilot for the proposed revival of Catch Phrase wanted them to do a ridiculous amount of CPs (like 1000) in the space of a weekend. It made me wonder, “Are they concerned about quality of the material at all, or just the quantity? Don’t they realize that sub-par writing reflects badly on the show as a whole?”
Well during these times right now, it’s gonna be much harder to find a job than quitting. That’s all I can think of saying for now.
I know that most picket lines are about money and, in this instance, about dignity and respect. They work hard to write shows (abeit, in some’s opinion, crappy), but they want the rights and benefits that we have when we work.
And when was Temptation ever relevant?