You know how Hollywood is crazy for sequels these days…well, with the Writers’ Guild strike only a few weeks in the past, now it’s time for the actors to go up against the studios for similar issues.

On Tuesday, AMPTP (the group that represents the producers) abruptly broke off talks with the Screen Actors’ Guild. SAG hasn’t made any rumblings about a strike just yet, and the conventional wisdom says that this is just a negotiating tactic on the part of AMPTP. On Wednesday, AMPTP began identical contract discussions with AFTRA, the union for television and radio performers. No walk-out there as of yet, but since the sticking points and demands are so similar, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it.

Mark Evanier, who is a long-time Hollywood insider, opined that AFTRA would probably agree to a lesser deal, leaving AMPTP in the catbird’s seat to tell SAG to take it or leave it. Nobody in Hollywood wants a second strike so soon after the WGA strike. Ratings for network television series have declined precipitously this spring, even for top-rated shows. AdAge talks about “series fatigue” in this article as one explanation for the drop in viewers for long-running shows, but has to admit that the strike gave fence-sitting viewers the excuse they needed to give up on watching their favorite shows. New audience research indicates that adults (the 25-54 demographic) still spend a little more than half of the time they spend consuming media watching television, but that’s a decline from past surveys and is only likely to continue to decrease. A second strike shutting down production of television shows and movies would be devastating.