Strike Update: CBS Late Night Shows Returning With Writers

“Late Show with David Letterman” and “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” will
be back with their writers airing joke-filled new hours starting Wednesday, the
shows’ production company, Worldwide Pants, announced Friday.

An interim agreement between the Letterman-owned company and the Writers
Guild of America will allow the full writing staffs for both shows to return to
work, even as the Hollywood writers strike continues to shutter much TV and
movie production. Both of those CBS late-night shows have been airing reruns
since the strike began eight weeks ago.

“I am grateful to the WGA for granting us this agreement,” Letterman said.
“This is not a solution to the strike, which unfortunately continues to disrupt
the lives of thousands. But I hope it will be seen as a step in the right
direction.”

The deal, which restores the two shows to business as usual, gives them an
enormous advantage over their competition.

NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” as
well as ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” had already announced they would resume
Wednesday without benefit of their writing teams. Similarly, Comedy Central’s
“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert”
planned to return writer-less on Monday, Jan. 7.

Resisting such an arrangement, Rob Burnett, president and CEO of Worldwide
Pants, had actively sought an interim deal. Talks between studios and networks
and the guild broke down Dec. 7, but the guild has been pursuing agreements with
several small independent producers that would allow at least some members to
return to work.

“We are appreciative that the leaders of the guild dealt with us reasonably
and in good faith,” Burnett said.

Much speculation has been focused on how the other late-night shows will fill
their time deprived of monologues, skits and other written material. All the
hosts — with the exception of NBC’s Carson Daly, who returned to the air Dec. 3
— are members of the guild, making those without an interim deal subject to
union rules that would severely limit what they can do.

A related issue centers on whether their shows will face a problem booking
A-list guests, who may not be willing to cross a picket line.

Central to the contract dispute has been compensation for work distributed
via the Internet and other digital media. The guild also has called for
unionization of writers working on reality shows and animation.

When writers went on strike in 1988, only two late-night shows were affected:
Johnny Carson’s “Tonight” show and Letterman’s “Late Night,” both on NBC. Carson
made a deal with the guild shortly after returning to the air, but Letterman
went weeks without his writers’ services before the strike was settled.