Fox in best shape to weather writers' strike

By Nellie Andreeva

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Now that the Writers Guild of America's contract has expired, some networks are better placed than others to deal with a potential strike.

Writers have not downed pens yet. The union will brief members at a meeting in Los Angeles on Thursday night. The contract expired just after midnight Thursday with the union and studios deadlocked on key issues such as remuneration for DVD sales and Internet downloads.

With only 15 hours of primetime to program, Fox has a built-in advantage in case of a prolonged strike. Add to that the January return of "American Idol," which can go on as many as three nights a week, and Fox looks as strike-proof as one can be.

Fox already runs six hours of unscripted programming, and five of them -- "Kitchen Nightmares," the Thursday combo of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics" and Saturday's "Cops" and "AMW: America Strikes Back" -- are expected to continue beyond January, when most fall scripted series will run out of fresh episodes.

Additionally, Fox's staggered fall rollout left it with six fresh scripted series for midseason. Then there is the network's reality chief, Mike Darnell, who consistently has delivered reliable performers on the fly.

But while Fox is in the best position of all broadcast networks in face of a writers strike, it also faces the biggest predicament with the real-time drama "24." By week's end, the show will have completed about a third of its 24-episode order. If a strike starts as soon as next week and lasts several months, there will be no chance to finish the order, meaning that Fox has the option to either start Jack Bauer's new 24-hour day and cut it off somewhere in the middle or hold the series altogether. As of now, Fox is planning to premiere "24" on January 13. "24" has an added importance to the network this year, as it's being used to launch Fox's high-profile new series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

ABC'S BIG STOCKPILE

Coming in a close second behind Fox is ABC, which has its own multinight reality hit, "Dancing With the Stars," coming back, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" going strong, and an extremely deep bench of shows for midseason.