The DGA’s two-year campaign against late scripts has led to significant improvements in the on-time delivery of episodic television scripts, according to the guild.

A tracking study released Friday showed that 61% of all scripts were delivered on time in the 2003-04 season, up from 47% the previous season. The number of scripts delivered two or more days late was cut in half to 23%, while the share of scripts that showed up five to 15 days late was reduced from 20% in the 2002-03 season to 8% last season.

"This has been a real effort on everyone’s part, and the improved data reflects that by jointly addressing this problem, the DGA, the networks and the studios were able to affect significant change in less than two years — getting many more on-time scripts into the hands of directors (and) leading to higher-quality and lower-cost episodes," said Rod Holcomb, chair of DGA’s television committee.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers has agreed to help the DGA address the problem of late scripts in single-camera production. To that end, the studios have been providing script-tracking information since late 2002.

These efforts only apply to single-camera one-hour dramatic series, which the DGA considered the most problematic genre in terms of late scripts.

Eight series had a perfect record of on-time script delivery during the 2003-04 season. They were "Star Trek Enterprise," "Law & Order," "The District," "JAG," "Judging Amy," "She Spies," "Hack" and "Strong Medicine." Only one show, "Six Feet Under," had the same track record as the year before.

Significant improvement was made by 11 other series, including "24," "Alias," "Angel," "ER," "The Guardian," "Third Watch" and "The West Wing."

MGM was singled out as the only studio with a perfect record for script delivery in the 2003-04 season. CBS, Fox, Sony, Touchstone, Universal and Warner Bros. made substantial improvement, according to the DGA.

In fact, 98% of the scripts delivered seven to 10 days late were from two shows — "Ed" and "Gilmore Girls" — neither of which delivered a script on time, the guild said. DGA also accused "Charmed," "Everwood," "Law & Order: SVU," "NYPD Blue" and "The Practice" of having poor script delivery.

"Although there has been a significant improvement in timely script delivery overall, there are still too many shows that disregard both the creative impact on show quality and the financial impact of late script delivery to the bottom line," Holcomb said.