It has almost been a week since they walked out and the consequences are already trickling everywhere.

On Monday morning before the sun rose, the Writers Guild of America went on strike and immediately brought talk-comedy shows to a halt.

The late-night shows went into repeats (“The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show,” “Last Call,” etc.) and so did the comedy-talk shows “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.”

They were the first of what could be several casualties.

The 12,000 writers of the Writers Guild of America are on strike after failing to reach a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The writers say they want a larger piece of the pie when it comes to revenue from Internet reuse of TV episodes and movies and more money from DVD sales. The producers say the medium of Internet availability is too young to know how successful it will be.

Several movie and television studios have stockpiled scripts in case of a prolonged strike. However, some did not or the crew is siding with the writers and not working.

Production of “The Office” ceased on Wednesday, which means next week’s episode will be the last until the strike ends and production resumes. Stars Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson refused to cross the picket lines.

Also on Wednesday, Fox announced its midseason lineup that set premiere dates for “American Idol” and new shows such as “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” What was missing? “24.”

Fox says the seventh season is indefinitely postponed.

The show has a small handful of episodes completed but the network will only let the show run if the season can air uninterrupted. If the strike keeps up too long though, “24” may not even air this season.

“Lost” could face the same dilemma, but ABC has yet to say anything about its fate.

“Desperate Housewives” ended production up this week, meaning the last new episode will air in December. “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Pushing Daisies” will also soon end production.

“Scrubs,” entering its final season, is in jeopardy of getting the lights shut off early.

The NBC show has 12 episodes available to run, but that is six short of the planned 18 episodes, and with a prolonged strike, the show could be pulled early without a series finale.

“Heroes'” 11th episode ends with a cliffhanger in case it ends up being the final episode of the season. “Smallville” has done the same with its final scripted episode.

Chances are, no matter how long the strike lasts, reality programs will make a big comeback during the winter and begin to overtake several scheduling holes networks find. Same for news programs such as “20/20” and “Dateline NBC.”

The writers of reality shows – yes, reality shows have writers – are not covered by WGA contracts and the networks have several backup reality shows ready to go or are rushing them into production.

Soap operas are well off, according to the networks. They say there are enough scripts to keep new episodes on through January.

News writers are not affected since they are a part of a different union and some animated shows have writers that are also part of a different union.

It will take some weeks to get production ready again, and drama series, especially single-camera, can take more than a week to shoot one episode.

Late-night talk shows may come back on if one of the hosts decides to go at it. Chances are David Letterman would be the first, others would follow.

In a season where ratings are already soft, both sides shouldn’t want the strike to last too long.

In 1988, the writers strike lasted nearly five months and by the time it ended, damage had been done.

Programs such as “The Cosby Show,” “Cheers,” “Miami Vice” and “Full House” didn’t begin their new season until late October or November.

It is estimated the entertainment industry lost about $500 million because of the strike and ratings were down 10 percent from the 1987 season – and that was when repeats still performed well and before the days of cable and YouTube.

The television industry runs the risk of losing viewers to the Internet and especially cable, which already has most shows completed or scripts in hand for filming.

This strike may also be a foreshadow of what comes next June when both the actors and directors’ contracts expire.

And keep in mind, no new talks are yet scheduled between the producers and writers.

&#8212 Anthony Capps is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Oskaloosa.