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Early Friday evening, the WGA announced that it had received strike authorization from 90.3 percent of its voting members, a victory the organization's leadership touted as an "historic demonstration of unity." What the Guild might not realize, however, is that when it returns to the negotiating table today, emboldened by the ability to take to the streets with the best-written picket signs in the history of labor strife, any renewed threats of a potential walkout on November 1 could be playing right into the hands of an evil cadre of media moguls excited by the prospect of having their fall TV programming mistakes wiped out by a work stoppage.

Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke separates the studio and network power brokers into two factions: Hawks (those hellbent on bathing in the blood of vanquished writers as all of Hollywood burns like the desiccated hills of Malibu; maniacal cackling optional) and Conservatives (those marginally less enthused by the prospect of daily blood-showers during a potential strike):

Hawks: Peter Chernin (News Corp/Fox), Bob Iger (Walt Disney/ABC), Barry Meyer (Warner Bros), Jeff Zucker (NBC Universal), Michael Lynton (Sony Pictures Entertainment).

Conservatives: Les Moonves (CBS), Ron Meyer (Universal), Brad Grey (Paramount), Amy Pascal (Sony Pictures Entertainment), Harry Sloan (MGM, which also reps United Artists in this), Jeffrey Katzenberg (DreamWorks Animation, and the most moderate of the bunch). [...]

As for Chernin, Iger, Barry Meyer, Moonves, and also Zucker, they actually welcome a strike because they believe the 2007/2008 TV season is dead on arrival anyway. So many new shows are tanking in the ratings and/or going over budget and/or having production problems (Fox's Back To You, Nashville, K-VILLE; CBS' Kid Nation, Cane and Viva Laughlin; NBC's Journeyman, Life and Bionic Woman; ABC's Cavemen, Big Shots, Dirty Sexy Money, and Pushing Daisies.) Even returning hit shows are losing their Nielsen luster (NBC's Heroes, ABC's Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, CBS' CSI:Miami and Cold Case) that they feel this is as as good a time for a strike as any. As one mogul told me, "We can get rid of the overhead and regroup and rethink everything. If we were having a great year, it might be different. But we're not, and this is like an automatic do-over."

These behind-the-scenes threats seem to indicate just how profoundly hurt the studios were by the WGA's refusal to throw the AMPTP a party to show their gratitude for abandoning their insane residual-readjustment proposal last week; should the Guild not make amends at today's renewed bargaining sessions, look for a frustrated Les Moonves to take out his own ad in Variety tomorrow reading, "Hey, Writers— Go ahead, wipe out my Fall schedule. You think I want any more episodes of Viva Laughlin? It'll save me a messy phonecall to Hugh Jackman. No one likes to hear a grown man cry. So make my fucking day. PS—My colleague Steve McPherson feels the same way about Cavemen. "