Walking Dead Writing Staff takes a Hike

I'm not exactly getting the jump on this story, but the writing staff of AMC's hit zombie series, The Walking Dead, have been fired.  En masse.

Writers being fired from shows -- hits and otherwise, isn't exactly front page news.  Entire staffs from new hit shows are a bit of an anomaly.  The series had an order of six episodes this first season.  Even before last night's finale, the show was renewed for a 13 episode second season.  Six million viewers tuned in for last night's record breaking season one finale.

Season two's built on the premise of relying entirely on freelancers to get the job done.

Having worked on scripted TV shows for a number of years, managing 13 eppys with no in-house writing staff... um, yeah, Frank Darabont, the showrunner can expect to live in his office for the next year.  Cause that's what it's going to take to pull that off.  Since he'll be doing all of the development, writing, casting, budgeting, final say on production and editorial choices, not to mention all those hiccups that happen during day-to-day operations, dealing with the studio and networks... yeah, welcome to hell.

Now, not being part of a TV writing staff currently, the idea of freelancing is very appealing.  But being the realist I am and knowing there are all kinds of folk lining up to take those vacated spots... a combo platter of writing staff and freelancers is more than likely.

Ah, the business of show.  Don't you just love it...?   

YouTube Dips Toe and $5M into Content Creators...

Looks like Google via YouTube wants to help some of its more prolific and brand identified content creators create, well... better content.

They've created a $5 million fund to assist producers who may not have the wherewithal to upgrade production values with equipment, actors, writers, even directors.  The first class to participate is by invitation only.  Google will roll out the invites to a broader audience if this model proves to be successful.

And to be fair, Google's not doing this out of the kindness of their hearts.  There's much money to be made here.  Display advertising, a $20 billion business, is something Google wants a bigger piece of.  Google is on track to book as much as $600 million, all of it from display advertising -- on YouTube.

For more specifics, read the AdAge article here -- http://bit.ly/aJHz8Z

Let's hope other video distributors will be just as incentivized to help their producers help them.