The strike strikes more (real-life) victims

* As we surmised yesterday, a truncated season of "24" appealed to no one: Fox yanked it from its January schedule late Wednesday.

* But some shows will be disappearing sooner than the networks expected. Like "Family Guy," whose creator Seth MacFarlane sternly warned Fox against making minor tweaks to make essentially completed episodes ready for air, or "The Office," whose producers offered this online video to explain why other online videos they made actually led to them embracing the strike - it'll go into repeats after Nov. 15, far sooner than expected.

* Meanwhile, while Variety reports that Fox's "House" will still occupy the highly sought-after post-Super Bowl position on Feb. 3, though it - and the network - won't likely be able to capitalize on it much, as the show will have precious few, if any, remaining episodes to be unveiled to viewers.

Instead, reality shows will come thereafter. And, on Fridays, per Variety, chaos reigns:

"(T)he sked will rotate every few weeks: As already announced, "Bones" repeats head to 8 p.m. starting Jan. 4; on Feb. 22, new [series] "New Amsterdam" replaces "House" repeats at 9. Then on March 7, half-hours "'Til Death" and "The Return of Jezebel James" take on the 8 and 8:30 slots. And on April 11, "Canterbury's Law" will replace "Amsterdam" at 9.

"One more change: New [sitcom] "Unhitched" will take over "American Dad's" Sunday night 9:30 slot for six weeks starting March 2."

Got all that? I'm sure Fox's viewers will figure it all out.

* The strike will likely affect next TV season, as well: We're entering the period in which new shows are pitched to the networks and either receive development or pilot deals. Needless to say, none of that is occurring right now, and if the strike continues, as expected, for a few months, no new pilots will be produced meaning the networks will have few if any new scripted shows to announce at next May's upfronts, where the fall schedules are unveiled for advertisers and the media.

* TBS's "Frank TV," a late-night comedy show starring celebrity impersonator Frank Caliendo, will debut, as previously announced, on Nov. 20. Its initial order of eight episodes had been written before the strike, even though most of them had not been shot. (Generally speaking, launching a show during the holiday season is considered a bad idea, since viewers are otherwise occupied and you're burning off original material during a period most of us have come to understand is when a lot of repeats air, so there's no real urgency to tune in.)

* Even the January Television Critics Tour is endangered: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and The CW are telling the Television Critics Association they're reluctant to participate because A) they'll have precious little to promote, B) they don't want to put forth the cash necessary to feed and booze up critics during a time of tight financial strictures, C) their executives will invariably be asked tough questions they won't want to answer, and D) they understand how depressed and soul-weary I personally am during each TV press tour and want to spare me that kind of emotional baggage, or E) A), B) and C), only.

True, I find these semi-annual exercises in bald publicity-whoring truly self-abnegating, and should by all rights be delighted were they to be cancelled, as that means I can sleep in and not bother to locate a dogsitter. But the possibility of being able to hold network executives' feet to the fire come January - that is, to be given the opportunity to do some genuine reporting about what this strike is really about - is irresistible.

Trouble is, TV Press Tour has never been held for L.A.-based journalists; it's always been for the benefit of TV critics throughout the country whose editors wallow in the possibility of a glamorous name or two appearing below a local byline. Newspapers are constantly tightening their belts and tend to value celebrity quotes over actual news, as the press tour's current structure perennially underscores.

So, hey, do you think that any newspaper that has ignored underreported stories about former U.S. Acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin getting fired for informing the Bush Administration that he found waterboarding to be torture after having himself subjected to it personally or a former AT&T employee declaring that his former employer enabled the Federal Government, against Constitutional provisions championing the right of privacy, to investigate each and every one of us, down to the websites we've visited really cares about the strike's down-and-dirty? At least entertainment reporters are supposed to be lame.