Hallelujah! We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming

It's Saturday afternoon and I'm blogging on an off day. That can only mean one thing.

No, not another "Lost" theory.

The writers' strike appears to be over.

(OK, deep breath ... 1, 2, 3 ... say it with me, WOO-HOO!)

After a week of optimism (and rampant speculation) from national media outlets, it appears as if Writers Guild of America East head Michael Winship is going to recommend to his members that they accept a deal.

According to the AP, writers gathered behind closed doors today in New York and were meeting later in Los Angeles to consider a deal that guild leaders said, "protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery."

Winship cautioned that it's not a "done deal" until the contract is ratified by members. He also said that several steps must be taken before the West guild's board and East guild's council decide to lift the strike order.

"It conceivably could be Monday, but there are several different alternative ways that the board and council could determine how this should be dealt with," Winship told the AP.

Among key points of interest:

* In the third year of the contract, writers would receive two percent of the distributor's gross on streamed content (a hike from the $1,200-ish payment scribes will get in the first two years). However, as the Directors Guild of America does, the WGA has a 17-day window on all streamed content, meaning that studios can stream for free during that period.

* With regard to Internet sales, writers will get 0.36 percent of the distributor's gross receipts for the first 100,000 downloads of a television program and the first 50,000 downloads of a feature. After that, they'll bank 0.7 percent of distributor's gross receipts for TV shows and 0.65 percent for feature films.

* Ad-supported streaming of TV shows will net the writers two percent of distributors' gross receipts a year after the initial streaming window is closed.

But you don't really care about gross receipts, do you? YOU want to know when your favorite shows are coming back with new episodes so you can laugh, laugh, laugh at more Charlie Sheen-inspired antics on "Two and a Half Men."

That's where this handy-dandy rundown from TV Guide comes into play.

"Pushing Daisies," "24" and "Friday Night Lights" fans: prepare to be BUMMED. For everyone else ... well, just watch the below clip and rejoice!

-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com