As the strike starts, Pete is gone and FBoys are back

On the first day of the writers’ strike, two bits of news seemed especially ominous:
— “Saturday Night Live” is dumping this week’s new episode … and, probably, the rest of the season. It would have been a big night, with Pete Davidson hosting.
— “FBoy Island” – previously a summertime distraction(shown here) – will be in the regular-season line-up for the CW network. So will its spin-off, “FGirl” Island.”
That first one brings sympathy for “SNL,” plus disbelief. How could they NOT have see this coming?
Most of the show-business world knew that the writers would strike when their contract expired at the end of May 1; few crises (other than Jan. 6, 2020) have had such advance notice.
Still, “SNL” blithely scheduled Davidson for May 7. Had that been a week earlier, it would have drawn a big audience … and would have been a great build-up for “Bupkis,” the offbeat Davidson show that just arrived on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service. Instead, it vanishes, at least for now.
Then there’s “FBoy,” which basks in summertime foolishness. Each season, three women meet a batch of men. All of the people are young and swimwear-ready; half the men are considered nice guys and the other half are “fboys,” just in it for themselves.
(In the first season, two of the three women accidentally chose the latter.)
This is a sunny, cotton-candy sort of show, best aired in the summer – which is what HBO Max did for two seasons. It canceled the show, which was then grabbed by CW.
Now we learn the rest: This show will wait until fall and then will be followed by “Fgirl Island.”
That may be a coincidence, but it also may be a sign of things to come: Cautious networks skip some of the scripted shows and descend into reality ones, which aren’t covered by the writers’ contract.
For now we’ll wait and see … and hope that our TV sets don’t get filled with Ffolks.