I posed Donald's strike-aftermath Q to Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, and here's his sobering response. " Even if the strike ends in the next week or two, it looks like they will scuttle the rest of the season. This is for many reasons. One is that it will be hard to launch a big promotional campaign for four or five episodes; it's just not cost-effective. Two is that if we did come back we would land right in the path of the American Idol juggernaut, and would likely be decimated. Three is if we came back in the fall with a full slate of episodes, then ABC could relaunch the show in a big way. The tentative plan now is to start the writers immediately [after the strike is resolved] so we can get some scripts stockpiled, and then hit production in June. But that's all tentative. We've talked about so many options since the strike began and they fluctuate on a weekly basis. But right now a short first season seems the most likely."