Can we really blame Trump (and the reality boom) on the 2007 writers’ strike?

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The start of the first writers’ strike in 15 years brought with it a reheated myth: the WGA’s 100-day strike in 200708 sparked the explosion of reality TV. It’s an idea that seems right at first glance. But I was on TV for a local California newspaper at the time, and in reality, there’s very little truth to that idea. (Disclosure: I have since become a WGA member myself, through a former job at Vox, and am currently on strike from my job as a TV writer.)

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First, let’s recognize what is true about this idea. Whenever there’s a big entertainment union strike, TV networks grab the cheapest programming they can find and put it on the air. The 1988 writers’ strike, for example, saw TV stations disguise their thin fall lineups with sports, unscripted programming like the then-newCops and political advertisements for the 1988 election.

The same thing happened during the strike of 200708. As original programming began to dry up in the early months of 2008, networks began to fill their lineups with programming from their sister cable networks (Dexter on CBS; Monk on NBC), game shows and reality shows.

Yet if you look at the top 30 shows of the 200708 season, they look barely different from the top 30 shows of the 200607 season or the 200809 season. strike, you are left with only Foxs. You will tell embarrassing truths about yourself to make money. Moment of Truth, which became a hit largely because it aired after American Idol. He landed 13th in the 200708 season; in August 2009, he had finished his run.

Of the 32 shows in the top 30 that year, there was a three-way tie for 30th place, only 12 are unscripted, and that includes several episodes of American Idol and Dancing With the Stars (which occupy the top five first places). Additionally, the unscripted shows in the top 30 are mostly mainstays like Survivor, 60 Minutes, and Sunday Night Football. The other 20 shows are scripted series like Grays Anatomy, CSI and Desperate Housewives, all of which have held their own in the top 30 despite several months off the strike.

Almost all of the most popular reality shows of the 200708 season had been on the air for several years at that time. and we should), then it debuted on September 24, 1968, just 14,286 days before the strike began on November 5, 2007. Needless to say, the strike had little to do with the popularity of any of these shows; they were already popular and remained so for several seasons thereafter.

A show that comes up often in these discussions is The Apprentice, usually with the explanation that the Donald Trump vehicle, which debuted in 2004, was saved from cancellation by the 2007 strike, allowing Trump to continue to have a prime-time platform that would lead him to the presidency. . The truth, however, is more hazy. Yes, The Apprentice wasn’t on NBC’s fall 2007 schedule, but only because the network had yet to strike a new deal with Trump and producer Mark Burnett. Once he did in late May 2007, production on The Celebrity Apprentice would begin. This extended the life of the franchises, although they were never as popular again.

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