Yes, it is nearly over. Finally. If you can believe the spate of reports out this morning, everywhere from the NYT to Variety, which unequivocally state that a breakthrough on new media payments - long a sticking point - was reached Friday during informal talks between studios and writers. 
There's always reason for pessimism, and for a good healthy dose of that, go to Unitedhollywood, which has been a solid barometer of writer sentiment since this walk-off began Nov. 5.
But the simple fact is simple: Neither studios NOR the Writers Guild would have authorized Saturday's media leaks (which of course they did) were they not confident that the end is near. And once that trigger (so to speak) has been pulled, it would be inconceivable to think that some sort of reversal will take place.
In other words, it's almost certainly over.
Without getting into details of the pact (and they're everywhere, but the LA Times seems to have most of the key ones), the BIG question for you and me is: When? When will shows get back on the air, and when will we be able to say goodbye forever to reality twaddle like "The Farmer Wants a Bride Who's An American Gladiator" and get back to the real stuff we tune in for, like "24?"
Great question, and here's my rule of thumb (effectively sanctioned, I should add, by Entertainment Weekly, which put together a pretty good strike survival guide recently): Four to six weeks.
This means that if the strike ends tomorrow, a brand new episode of just about any scripted show could hit the air by early to mid-March. I would go with the four-week-rule of thumb, however. When the green light goes on, shows will be RUSHED, and I do mean rushed, to the air. Four weeks wouldn't be out of the question, especially since it takes typically eight full days to shoot one hour-long drama (for example.) Shows won't have much of a back-load of scripts, if any, since many - "CSI," just one prominent example - used every word they had on the page to squeeze out additional episodes when the strike was on. Under Guild rules, writers were barred from writing anything during the walk-out, but it's inconceivable that many haven't doped out plots of potential episodes in their heads. In fact, they may come back with even better shows - given the simple fact they had so much time to think about them.
In any event, I'm going with the four week rule. This means everything you might imagine it to mean: That a show like "Lost," which had only eight episodes in the can, will now be able to get its full complement of sixteen on the air this season. Many other dramas - with 22-24-episode orders - had only completed one third of those by strike-time; they should be able to add at least eight more fresh episodes as well, if not more.
Of course, the biggest question looming - at least to fans - is "24:" Where does it go from here? Many scenarios have been floated, including a spring/summer run - which I think is unlikely - or a fall 2008 run, which is equally unlikely. Another crazy/unlikely possibility - that "24" bundles up hours into TWO hours per night, or a couple hours per week, which means the show could run unbroken starting in (say) March, and be over by the end of May or early June.
Why unlikely? Only because I think this would be a crushing challenge to the production team - and maybe unnecessary, given the fact that "Idol" will hold the Fox fort until May.
There's much much more to report/speculate. We're just at the beginning of the post-strike era.