The Writers Guild of America strike, which lasted three months, irrevocably changed the TV landscape. There were victims, of course, and not just in Hollywood. Faithful viewers were deprived of favorite shows, and new programs lost potential followings.
But in any war (and this was war), there are profiteers, too. During the past three months, some shows and personalities gained something from the strike.
Here's a rundown of some of the strike's biggest winners and losers.
Winner: Fox Thanks to "American Idol," the Super Bowl and the new game show "Moment of Truth," Fox weathered the best. The network always plans its season in two parts, stockpiling scripted and unscripted shows for January and spring launches to ride "Idol's" coattails, and it is used to having to rely on strong mid-season material after its usual substandard fall fare fizzles. Plus, most of its Sunday animation block of programs wasn't affected by the strike.
Post-strike outlook: If shows such as "House" and "Bones" can get a few more new episodes filmed by season's end, FOX and its viewers will do OK.
Loser: CBS Thanks to a slew of crime procedurals that repeat well, CBS doesn't usually have to rely on many strong midseason entries. So when it was faced with filling a suddenly open schedule, it was forced to unleash a new season of "Big Brother" upon the world.
Post-strike outlook: The upside to having so many crime procedurals is that fans don't have too many long-running storylines to worry about, so catching back up with Horatio and the gang on "CSI: Miami" will be a breeze.
Winners: Network late-night talk-show hosts. David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Craig Ferguson were welcomed back to TV in January with a substantial boost in viewership. The strike gave us a reason to watch them again — not their guests. We wanted to see how Leno and O'Brien would waste time without scribes. And we wanted to take a closer look at just what it was writers brought to Letterman and Ferguson. The latter's decision to return with no guests — just scripted sketches — created the night's most entertaining return and biggest tribute to the cause.
Post-strike outlook: Once shows are back in production, the guest lists will beef up, the spotlight will be off the hosts and these shows will settle back into their pre-strike existences.
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}The "Indecision" election coverage are these shows' bread and butter, and they need their writers to cover it right. Besides, how is Colbert expected to properly argue for his rightful place as Huckabee's running mate without writers feeding him his lines?
Post-strike outlook: Once they have their writers back, these shows will once again offer the best election coverage on cable.
Winner: Corporate synergy With holes to fill on their schedules, networks looked to their corporate partners for help. CBS will start airing episodes of Showtime's bloody good "Dexter," and in March, NBC will import episodes of USA Network's crime-fighting duo "Monk" and "Psych" to Sunday night. It's a wonder ABC hasn't filled its schedule with reruns of Disney's "Hannah Montana."
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Post-strike outlook: Networks are always looking for cheap filler, so if these trial runs go well, viewers could see more of the cable shows on the networks. But the big boon here could be for the cable shows. "Dexter" and "Psych" deserve much larger audiences, and this exposure could give it to them.
Loser: "24" The strike presented this popular Fox show with a choice between two evils: Air a partial season now of completed episodes with no set date for when that season would be completed, or wait to air any episodes until a full season can be scheduled. Fox wisely chose the latter option, but it still has yet to decide how it will proceed. Will viewers get two seasons next year, or will fans have to wait until January 2009?
Post-strike outlook: Reception to the sixth season was cool, and if fans have to wait more than a year and a half between seasons, interest in the aging show might wane completely. Still, one should never count out Jack Bauer.
Winner: NBC
The network with the least to lose lost the least. NBC, which was mired in fourth place at the start of the season, has found moderate strike successes with unscripted fare such as the nostalgic "American Gladiators" and the just-plain-getting-old "Celebrity Apprentice."
Post-strike outlook: NBC still will likely finish in fourth place, no matter how well its midseason schedule shakes out. But at least it can blame the strike for messing up its schedule. Which brings us to ...
Losers: NBC scripted series
"Heroes" was trying to recover from a sophomore slump when it ran out of new episodes, and its proposed spin-off, in which viewers would select a new hero from new options each week, was canned back when the strike was just a threat. The promising new series "Chuck" was picked up for a full season, but the strike kept it from generating momentum as it, too, ran out of new episodes.
Both of these shows will return with more episodes eventually, but now NBC also has more of the cheaper and potentially more popular "Gladiators" and "Apprentice" in the pipelines as well, threatening their time slots.
Post-strike outlook: If the scripted shows don't come back big, their returns won't last long.
Winner: "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Fox's action drama benefited from a perfect storm of scheduling. Its premiere got the slot that would have gone to “24,” and it premiered opposite the Golden Globes, which almost no one watched because the strike forced NBC to cancel the party and instead devote an hour to Billy Bush. And the premiere followed a post-season football game. Out of new episodes of their favorite shows and with little new scripted stuff worth watching, viewers rewarded "Terminator" with an amazing 18.4 million viewers, making it the season's highest-rated new show premiere.
Post-strike outlook: Fox has found another high-adrenaline hit whose success should continue.
Loser: "Pushing Daisies" The fall's best new series earned respectable ratings, which could have grown thanks to positive word-of-mouth and three Golden Globe nominations. But after the strike, it could air only nine episodes, and its big exposure at the Globes was dashed as well.
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}Winner: "Comanche Moon" This mediocre mini-series was supposed to be dumped onto the schedule in late December, just an afterthought of CBS' development slate. Once the strike hit, though, the three-part "Lonesome Dove" prequel became a highly promoted cornerstone of CBS' January schedule, where it delivered solid ratings for the script-starved network.
Post-strike outlook: This could serve as a reminder to networks that made-for-TV movies and miniseries still have value outside cable. But it won't.
Losers: New CW shows After establishing itself last year as the new network on the block, The CW desperately needed a new breakout hit this year to cement its identity. And it launched a surprisingly strong slate of new shows to do it. "Aliens in America," "Gossip Girl" and "Reaper" all could have been the show The CW was looking for, but the strike ruined their chances. Even if viewers liked "Aliens in America," the same few episodes have rerun so often that the fresh and funny show now just seems tired.
Post-strike outlook: The CW would be wise to keep all of these shows on its lineup next year and start again.
Winner: "In Treatment" HBO's mesmerizing half-hour weeknight drama about a therapist and his patients requires a big commitment from viewers. But thanks to the strike, some viewers with little else competing for their time at 9:30 discovered the under-the-radar gem.
Post-strike outlook: Once "Heroes," "House," "Private Practice," "CSI" and "Women's Murder Club" return, who'll have time for therapy?
Jeff Hidek is the entertainment editor at the Star-News in Wilmington, N.C. Contact him at or through his blog at .