Los Angeles (E! Online) - The lights are coming back on for late-night talk shows.
Jay Leno and Conan OBrien on Monday became the first lords of late-night TV to announce plans to return to the airwaves despite the ongoing writers strike, with both funnymen set to reclaim their late-night thrones Jan. 2.
Leno and OBrien received the blessing of the Writers Guild of America with one caveat: The shows card-carrying union scribes will not be penning jokes. That means the NBC shows wont feature the usual pretaped bits, sketches or monologues when they return, leaving Leno and OBrien to bring the funny themselves. (Both are members of the Writers Guild and are prolific joke writers.)
CBS David Letterman and Craig Ferguson are expected to follow with a similar announcement later today. Lettermans Worldwide Pants confirmed over the weekend it was working on an exemption with the WGA that would trump his late-night rivals by allowing the full writing staffs of Late Show and Late Late Show also to return.
Both Leno and OBrien hashed out individual deals with the WGA to proceed with skeleton staffs, without fear of disruption via picketers or industry alienation, as befell picket line-crossing network mate Carson Daly late last month.
The Tonight Show and Late Night have been airing repeats since the strike kicked off Nov. 5. Both hosts have been footing the salaries of their staffs during the work stoppage.
This has been a very difficult six weeks for everybody affected by the writers strike, Leno said in a statement. I was, like most people, hoping for a quick resolution when this began. I remained positive during the talks, and while they were still at the table discussing a solution The Tonight Show remained dark in support of our writing staff.
Now that the talks have broken down and there are no further negotiations scheduled, I feel its my responsibility to get my 100 nonwriting staff, which were laid off, back to work. We fully support our writers, and I think they understand my decision.
OBrien, too, expressed his solidarity with the Writers Guild, despite his resuming work schedule, saying he has been and continues to be an ardent supporter of the WGA and their cause.
Since the strike began, I have stayed off the air in support of the striking writers while, at the same time, doing everything I could to take care of the 80 nonwriting staff members on Late Night.
Unfortunately, now with the New Year upon us, I am left with a difficult decision, OBrien said, adding that the decision would have been a no-brainer should such a large contingent of loyal staffers not be faced with the prospect of an ever-lengthening unemployment line.
If my show were entirely scripted, I would have no choice. But the truth is that shows like mine are hybrids, with both written and non-written content.
Not that he doesnt think his show will suffer for the lack of writers.
An unwritten version of Late Night, though not desirable, is possible--and no one has to be fired...I will make clear, on the program, my support for the writers, and Ill do the best version of Late Night I can under the circumstances. Of course, my hope is that all of my writers are back soon, working under a contract that provides them everything they deserve.
NBC has not yet announced any guests for the hosts returns.
Meanwhile, while no official announcement has been made, Letterman and Ferguson are expected to return to CBS airwaves in early January with their full writing staffs on board.
The coup is possible because both Late Show and Late Late Show are produced by Worldwide Pants, which is an independent production company. An interim agreement between Lettermans crew and the WGA--an agreement not involving CBS--allowed the return to airwaves to take place.
For much of the past six weeks, Worldwide Pants has been laboring for a WGA waiver to continue production on The Late Show. Letterman himself has been a member of the guild for 30 years.
Worldwide Pants has always been a writer-friendly company, Worldwide Pants CEO and Late Show exec producer Rob Burnett said in a statement Saturday. Since the beginning of the strike, we have expressed our willingness to sign an interim agreement with the Guild consistent with its positions in this dispute.
Were happy that the Guild has now adopted an approach that might make this possible. It is our strong desire to be back on the air with our writers, and we hope that will happen as soon as possible.
CBS, meanwhile, has already distanced itself from the announcement, saying the network respects Worldwide Pants efforts to get their shows back on air, but that it still is backing the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in this horse race.
This development should not confuse the fact that CBS remains unified with the AMPTP, and committed to working with the member companies to reach a fair and reasonable agreement with the WGA that positions everyone in our industry for success in a rapidly changing marketplace.
The deals for Letterman and his NBC late-night rivals were fast-tracked after negotiations in the strike came to a standstill Dec. 7. Their comeback announcements could also pave the way for ABCs Jimmy Kimmel and Comedy Centrals Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to return to the fray soon.
