After the 1988 writer's strike the studios were inundated with original screenplays that writer's got to while on strike.

According to a report today in Variety, this time it didn't happen:

Feature development execs were bracing for a deluge of feature spec scripts to flood the market after the 100-day writers strike wrapped in mid-February. But the storm, if it's brewing at all, has yet to hit, so the majors are chasing after books and magazine articles harder than they have in years.

Why is this? Well we asked NCIS writer and producer Steve Binder that question and he gave us this answer:

i do have some theories as to why the script deluge never happened (having just found out from you it never happened):

1) we were picketing (see #3) - it was incredibly tiring, especially at the beginning -- who the fuck had energy left over to write?

2) but we were still writing -- emails, youtube videos, websites, comments in blogs -- who the fuck had energy left over to write something dramatic?

3) we were united -- the AMPTP were so fucking wrong on this it wasn't funny (from the writer's POV, at least) - thus we, the writers, were united like never before -- who the fuck would want to write for these guys?

4) the AMPTP, being soooo fucking wrong on this, possibly left us with a feeling that this really couldn't go on that long (and it actually didn't) -- thus, who would want to start something they couldn't finish? (like a TV writer starting a feature spec or pilot and then just having to drop it when they had to go balls-to-the-walls after the strike to get back on track)

5) my guess is a lot of feature writers kept on doing what they were doing -- working on the job they had or the spec they were writing -- so when the strike ended, things started back up like normal. if these guys weren't writing, the material coming in shouldn't have been "light" it should have been zero.

but mostly 1,2,3.

And then added:

and let people know they can watch reruns of the latest episodes of ncis for 17 days without the writer seeing a fucking dime -- in violation of a 100 years of creator-royalty precedent.

That's here.

Any other theories? Send them over!