Going Off Script: Can Hollywood Survive a Writers Strike in the Streaming Age?
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On January 2, 2008, Conan O'Brien, then host of NBC's 12:30 a.m. Late Night program, sat behind his desk with, uncharacteristically, little to say. He bantered with the audience, riffed with the studio band, danced a bit, and, eventually, spun his wedding ring on his desk like a coin, asking the live crowd to count the seconds before it toppled over.
In TV parlance, he was vamping. No prepared monologue, no bits, no sketches. Nothing was written. Why? Two months prior, the Writers Guild of America engaged in a strike, one that lasted 100 days and by some estimates cost the entertainment industry over $2 billion.
Source Fool.com