Strike Forces Late Night TV Into Repeats

jayconan2.jpgI've just confirmed that Leno and Conan will be in strike-forced repeats starting tonight. Also Jimmy Kimmel. Also Dave and that foreign dude who follows him (aka Craig Ferguson). This is going to have a devastating effect on promotion for the all-important holiday movie season starting now. And if this strike lasts awhile, Oscar campaigns as well. Meanwhile, you know that report I cited earlier that Jon Stewart is paying his writers' salaries during the first two weeks of the strike out of his own pocket, for both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, according to Portfolio.com. Well, his rep has denied it. That's right, denied it.

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13 Comments »

  1. Jon, great decision though you will not be on the air. Jay, why don’t you put a few of your classic cars on the auction block to benefit WGA?

    If the SAG truly supports the writers, then it is high time that they contribute to the strike fund in solidarity while picketing with the writers when they can.

    Comment by Jessy S — November 5, 2007 @ 10:47 am

  2. Ah come on, that foreign guy is Scottish.

    BTW, his name is Craig Ferguson.

    Comment by NickF — November 5, 2007 @ 10:59 am

  3. So now the studios are going to have to spend millions more to advertise their holiday movies because they can’t get the free promotion of a talk show. Rather than just give a much smaller amount to writers in the form of residuals, they’d rather spend millions extra on ads and billboards. What great guys!

    Comment by Bill Steinberg — November 5, 2007 @ 11:11 am

  4. Wow Jessy S, you really want everything from everyone don’t you?

    Comment by Sad Times Are Here — November 5, 2007 @ 11:26 am

  5. What about daytime talk? Like ELLEN?

    Comment by Bethany — November 5, 2007 @ 11:38 am

  6. Foreign dude? The epitome of American xenophobia there.

    Get the tanks ready to invade foreign dudes land to give him freedom!

    Comment by Bob Jones — November 5, 2007 @ 11:41 am

  7. Is Jon paying the crew as well? Because they need some money too.

    Comment by BA — November 5, 2007 @ 12:15 pm

  8. TVSquad.com is reporting that both Stewart and Colbert will still be on the air, with more interview heavy programs that won’t require writing. Will be interesting to see if/how this comes off.

    http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/11/05/jon-stewart-to-pay-writers-himself-for-two-weeks/

    Dave

    Comment by Dave — November 5, 2007 @ 12:58 pm

  9. FYI, Your Portfolio guy has updated his false item about Jon Stewart, which sounded pretty bogus from the get go.

    UPDATE, 2:20 P.M.: Confusion: Jon Stewart’s rep just called back to deny the information above. I checked back with my source, who set me straight on a few details: Stewart is not paying writers out of his own pocket, but through Busboy, his production company. And it’s not just writers who are getting their salaries covered but all the shows’ employees. “He’s hoping that it wraps up amicably and quickly, and over the course of that time he wants to look out for his employees,” he says.

    But when I ran this by Stewart’s rep, he emailed back, “While I hesitate to knock down every rumor that comes up, the assertion that Jon and/or Busboy Productions will be paying for the staff is false and we have no further comment beyond this at this time.”

    I’m pretty sure there’s some truthiness here (sorry), but it may take some more digging to determine exactly what the situation is.

    Comment by Chinanski — November 5, 2007 @ 1:40 pm

  10. What are the rules for this sort of thing? Is it against established rules to do a show without writers? Obviously that wouldn’t be an option for a Jon Stewart, but I could easily see one of the others simply going without the pre-written bits. What I’d REALLY like to see is someone like Letterman, assuming he’s not WGA himself, announce a ‘writerless show’ with ’special’ guests who all happen to be writer-actors, and devote the entire hour to getting across the WGA’s message. I realize it’s not realistic, but it’s an entertaining fantasy.

    Comment by Zach Adams — November 5, 2007 @ 1:51 pm

  11. Letterman did writer-less shows during the 88 strike, so it would seem there are no rules preventing it.

    Comment by Anonymous — November 5, 2007 @ 3:05 pm

  12. for the picture and thought bubble :

    Where’d you park your Mercedes?

    Around the corner, a block away, no one saw me…hide your Starbucks.

    Comment by Chip — November 7, 2007 @ 5:00 pm

  13. The foreign dude’s pretty good, makes me laugh. The redheaded dingbat, not so much.

    Comment by Jim — November 28, 2007 @ 9:52 pm

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