"I can play Dragonforce on Expert."

In an interview with the New York Times, Lorne Micheals talked about the impact of the writers strike on Saturday Night Live. One point brought up dealt with the competition to SNL, which of course is nothing on television. Seeing as it is really the only new show to air late at night on Saturdays, there really isn’t anything pulling fans away from their TVs, right? Wrong, says Lorne:


“Our competition is not so much other television shows as it is Guitar Hero,” he said, referring to the popular video game. The strike wiped out nine scheduled “SNL” shows, and it came at the worst possible time.


I had never really thought of that, but it makes perfect sense. I have often decided to continue playing a video game instead of changing over my television to watch a new show. Hell, not that pretty much every episode of whatever I would want to watch is online and easy to access (with the writers getting paid for it, now) there isn’t really any reason to put down the controller. Part of this could be because we, as gamers, are used to reruns and mediocre reality TV shows that came on due to the writers strike that there really wasn’t anything worth watching.

Have you ever faced that choice? I know that there are very few shows that I could see myself turning off a game I am heavily into for. Battlestar Galactica, the Office, and Jericho being the few glaring exceptions to that rule. Do you have anything you would absolutely turn off the game for? Or would you rather watch what you want, when you want to?

 

Related Articles: 

Gamervision Guitar Hero Tournament

First Guitar Hero III Band Announced

Hollywood Writers Strike Good For Games