TELEVISION - Strikes, Game Shows, Novel Adaptations

What we're watching, listening to, and doing this season.

- Rachel Syme

This fall television season is—to put it mildly—a weird one. The SAG-AFTRA and W.G.A. strikes have stretched on through the summer, turning Hollywood into a tense battleground for the very future of the television industry. The questions are both practical (how can the broken residuals system be fixed in the age of streaming?) and existential (how can writers and actors insure that A.I. doesn’t put them out of work and degrade the quality of entertainment for generations to come?). The studios and streamers and the W.G.A. are finally meeting about a new contract, but, as of now, there will be no fresh late-night shows, no new “S.N.L.,” and few scripted network débuts. The prime-time network schedule is thick with singing competitions, cooking battles, and game shows that sound like punch lines from “30 Rock”—if I told you that Fox has a new game show called