Hollywood on Hold As Writers Prepare Strike

Hollywood's writers were told to get ready to leave its famous studio lots yesterday as the likelihood of a strike increased after months of negotiations.

Talks between the two sides, the Writers Guild of America and producers representing the major studios, abruptly broke off on Wednesday night.

Should the 12,000 members of the WGA go on strike America's television viewers will be the first to notice. Popular late-night talk shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman and Tonight with Jay Leno will be among the earliest casualties. An institution in the US, the shows' selling point is the topical patter produced by teams of writers. Without them the shows will be pulled.

In their place viewers will be treated to repeats and a glut of hastily assembled reality shows. "If the strike happens we are very likely looking at repeats for both shows," said a spokesman for Comedy Central, home of the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.

Film production would not be affected so quickly, with studios having stockpiled scripts. But should a strike endure the result could be a bunch of even more substandard films at the box office in 2009.

With no further talks scheduled a strike could be called as early as today - the first in nearly two decades. The last strike lasted 22 weeks and cost the studios an estimated $500m. Negotiations have foundered over the writers' demand that they be paid more for the sale of DVDs.