Television’s biggest mystery: how long will pipeline for new programming be closed?

NEW YORK — For decades, the week in May when television executives revealed what new shows were coming and which old ones were going spoke to the power and influence that ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox had over popular culture. Michael Strahan tossed autographed balls into the audience with Rob Gronkowski, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez at Fox’s event, and kibitzed with fellow “Good Morning America” host George Stephanopoulos at ABC’s. “With the writers strike and everything, there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement about the upfronts this year,” said Alan Wolk, co-founder of TVEV, a media consulting business. ABC, where an executive privately said it would be “miraculous” if the strike was settled in time to allow business as usual, released a fall schedule that relies almost exclusively on unscripted programming. If the strike lasts into the summer, look for CBS, for example, to offer expanded versions of shows like “Survivor,” “The Amazing Race” and “Big Brother,” prime-time versions of game shows like “The Price is Right” or “Let’s Make a Deal,” and reruns of scripted shows from previous years.