In what seems to be growing consensus among executives, the Hollywood writers strike could continue for sometime - but this could mean a faint glimmer of good news for one group of shows: struggling prime-time series.

Very soon the networks will begin running low on original episodes of most shows. Any new episode will become an increasingly valuable commodity.

No network is going to waste paid-for episodes. So the marginal shows will stay on until their episodes run out between now and the end of January.

Thanks to the strike, some marginal shows will surely get to run their full slate of episodes — and perhaps win a shot at coming back next year.

In this group are first-season series like Journeyman and Life on NBC, K-ville and Back to You on Fox, Big Shots on ABC and Cane on CBS.

Some holdovers may also be affected for the better, such as Friday Night Lights on NBC, Men in Trees on ABC, 'Til Death on Fox and Shark on CBS.

A show like Friday Night Lights, for instance, with high critical praise and low ratings, could get a chance to break through in January, when it's likely to be among the few fall series with some new episodes left.

As previously reported, Friday Night Lights started Season 2 production early and producers managed to get 15 episodes completed before the strike.

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