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Strike Has Soaps Swirling The Drain, Too

Daytime soap operas may end up going down the drain in coming weeks as the networks resort to episodes penned by writers not on strike. The Writers Guild of America, on strike since early November, has been picketing in front of ABC headquarters in New York to protest the nets airing of "All My Children" episodes written by non-WGA members.

The Alphabet Network is the only one that produces all of its own soaps as "Days of Our Lives" on NBC is produced by Corday Prods. and all of CBS' offerings are produced outside the network, two by Procter & Gamble and one by Sony. The nets and production companies are silent as to how many scripts they still have from WGA staffs, with writers saying it varies from show to show.

"Our daytime shows have remained in production and have continued to produce original episodes" says Chris Ender, senior vice president at CBS. And at ABC, "the shows are staffed, and we have people in place to continue producing original programming." Courtney Simon, who writes for "As the World Turns," produced by P&G for CBS, says she has heard scripts written by her team will run out this week.

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