Writers get last laugh on late-night shows
NEW YORK — Television's late-night impresarios burst back on the air Wednesday after a forced two-month hiatus, expressing support for the striking writers even though several of the hosts crossed the picket line to resume their shows.
"I'm on the side of the writers," declared Jay Leno on NBC's "The Tonight Show" in an opening monologue punctuated by swipes at the networks over their handling of the writers strike, now in its ninth week.
Leno said he returned to the airwaves for the first time since Nov. 2 to keep his nonwriting staff -- whose salaries he helped pay in December -- from getting laid off. "We had to come back because we have essentially 19 people putting 160 people out of work," he said.
The return of the late-night shows could be a salve to the networks, which rake in significant ad revenue from them. That income was threatened when the strike put the shows into repeats, turning away audiences. Viewership of "The Tonight Show," which produces an estimated $50 million a year in profit, has plunged about 40% since the strike began.
Hollywood writers are battling their studio and network employers over how much they should be paid when their work is distributed over the Internet. Late-night talk shows were the first to slip into reruns because they depend on writers to craft the monologue and jokes that play off the day's events. Virtually every scripted prime-time series has ceased production.
NBC's Conan O'Brien and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel also returned to the air Wednesday night without their writers. Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert plan to return Monday.
As those hosts sought to explain their decision and ally themselves with their picketing staffs Wednesday, CBS hosts David Letterman and Craig Ferguson basked in their status as the only late-night comedians with the blessing of the Writers Guild of America. Last week, Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, which owns both shows, crafted an independent deal with the union, allowing their staffs to return to work.
"We are back!" Ferguson announced on the air, adding that Letterman helped the shows get a "special pass."
"It is the TV equivalent of diplomatic immunity," he said. "I'm like Switzerland in TV."
For Letterman, the moment was a decidedly triumphant one: Not only did he circumvent the political minefield of the labor dispute, but he was back on the air with an advantage over his rivals, who must now persuade high-profile guests to cross a picket line to appear on their programs.
