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Now that almost all the other late night hosts are returning right after the new year, the latest news is that Jon Stewart (a WGA member) and Stephen Colbert (also a WGA member) are headed back into the studios on January 7th. The good news is that this could make the 2008 Presidential race that much more interesting. The bad news is that the shows won’t have available to them the WGA writers who would make the shows that much more interesting. Both late-night shows were shuttered after the Hollywood writers strike began seven weeks ago. The comedy duo join late night hosts Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel returning behind their desks on January 2nd.
Only David Letterman, whose Worldwide Pants owns both his The Late Show and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, is trying to get back on the air with writers by asking the WGA for an “interim agreement”. On Friday, leaders of the striking writers guild confer with Dave’s production company. My latest info is that WWP’s Rob Burnett is flying to Los Angeles tonight to personally meet with the WGA “because he thought this was too important to just leave up the lawyers,” an insider tells me.
Here’s the Comedy Central announcement that is slowly beginning to circulate:
” The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report will resume production on January 7 with both shows returning to air that night without their respective writing staffs. The January 7 return follows a scheduled two-week, end-of-year hiatus that was previously built into the shows’ production calendars. We continue to hold out hope for a swift resolution to the current stalemate that will enable the shows to be complete again.”
And then there’s this joint statement by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: “We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.”
Meanwhile, the WGA issued this response to the news: “Comedy Central forcing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert back on the air will not give the viewers the quality shows they’ve come to expect. The only way to get the writing staffs back on the job is for the AMPTP companies to come back to the table prepared to negotiate a fair deal with the Writers Guild.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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The level of rhetoric on these blogs is amazing to a “non-pro”. You are the same people who champion freedom of speech all over the world……..except if its at odds with your union goals.
I don’t get it.
Harris wrote: “In addition, improv is still writing, isn’t it – the lack of the page is semantics. And anyway, most improv is based on rehearsals with scripts.”
In 12 years of performing improv I have never seen improv “based on rehearsals with scripts”. It’s improvised; that’s the point. Incidentally, it may be writing but it isn’t scripted; that’s why Equity doesn’t consider performing improv to be a case of working in a non-union production.
off the cuff quipping is essentially writing
big difference between that and directing
these guys are scabs scabs scabs and no tap dancing of words changes that
karma will get them because they will stink and people will tune out, hard to get viewers back once you’ve lost them, no matter how good you are
just ask letterman – who lost millions of viewers after one appearance by hugh grant on leno, and letterman has never recovered those viewers 12 years later
It will be interesting to see how they handle their shows without their writing staffs. (My guess? Lots more interviews.)Aren’t the questions for interviews…scripted?
Anonymous 6:20 said: I can’t wait until all showrunners return to their shows without a deal.
Come on, don’t they pay you by the word? You couldn’t muster two sentences.
These Fabiani and Lehane people are so obvious. They know nothing about showbusiness. Let me give you a tip, boys: the word “showrunner” is not used for comedy-variety shows. But obviously, you were paid to get out that very thought somewhere, so you had to stick that comment onto whatever posting was available.
If you guys are gonna get paid a hundred grand a month by the amptp, could you at least do a better job for them?
Mike wrote,
There’s a specific AFTRA exemption that allows these guys to go back to work… They can’t perform (or write) anything that was prior to the strike written by the staff…I expect they will honor the rules set for this scenario by WGA and AFTRA.
mike, you’re right about Jon being allowed to be on and do interviews. I hope you’re right about him honoring the clear strike rules the wga has published. when jon stewart starts doing jokes he will lose much of his liberal audience who will realize he is nothing but a scab and a union buster. as for colbert, he is a character, and characters are scripted. even if stephen colberT the actor is improvising as the character, that’s still writing and not allowed under the strike rule.
jon stewart does not automatically violate the published strike rules just by going back on the air, but colbert clearly does and will be punished by the wga and its membership for this. severely.
Well I for one am certainly looking forward to them back on the air, just to see how it fares. If it falls flat, I’ll just stop watching…at least until the writers come back.
I think this could be a good thing – unless Comedy Central (Viacom) censors the hell out of them, they’ll be on television taking the WGA’s side. This could help educate those who don’t understand the strike.
do you guys not for a second think that the writers on those shows won’t write from home and secretly get paid retroactively once the strike ends?
No MichaeliInLa. Make it two.
Regretfully, I must say, “fuck Jon Stewart and fuck Stephen Colbert.” I am SOOOOO disappointed.
I will never watch their shows again if they do this.
No matter how good they are. No matter how excellent the writing when the WGA members get back. They must be blackballed for life.
There is no other choice.
These are two brilliant men who have chosen to piss all over their fellow union members and for this, they must go into the desert alone.
If I will eagerly vent my spleen against the disgusting Jay Leno and the idiotic, infantile Conan O’Brien, I have no choice but to learn to hate Stewart and Colbert for so utterly caving.
THIS is the disheartening thing I was hoping wouldn’t happen before Christmas. Thanks alot, you creeps.
Nobody has carried the water for the AMPTP like you two just have.
Fuck you forever.
I will only enjoy picketing your Oscar ceremony that much more, Mr. Stewart.
Lick it up, baby, lick. it. up.
Nikki printed these a few days ago but now that everyone’s headed back they need to be emphasized yet again. These are the official WGA strike rules:
NOTICE TO ALL WGA MEMBERS WRITING FOR COMEDY/VARIETY SHOWS
The Council of the Writers Guild of America, East, Inc. and the Board of Directors of Writers Guild of America, West, Inc. (collectively the “Guild”), have adopted Strike Rules which will go into effect if the Guild calls a strike. The Strike Rules, among other provisions, prohibit Guild members from performing any writing services during a strike for any and all struck companies. This prohibition includes all writing by any Guild member that would be performed on-air by that member (including monologues, characters, and featured appearances) if any portion of that written material is customarily written by striking writers.
That couldn’t be more clear. The hosts can write nothing, because there was nothing they wrote all by themselves before the strike. Furthermore, the Daily Show can NOT do correspondent pieces, as som have suggested they might, because a writer is ALWAYS assigned to those field pieces.
This could get ugly. Fast.
I’m one WGA member who is glad the hosts are going back. Because when the studio chiefs see just how bad these shows are, they are going to, for the first time, realize that writers really do something.
Harris,
Writing questions for guests is not the work of a WGA writer. It is done by staffers called “segment producers” and under the strike rules it would be permissible for staffers to write these questions for guests since it’s not a job that was partially done by WGA writers. The only time those people ever get a writing credit is when they whine like a puppy for a year for it.
I love both these guys and admire their shows immensely. I mean, when the strike first started, for a moment I forgot about myself as a striking writer and wondered what life would be like without my daily dose of THE DAILY SHOW. But dammit what’s next? Tina Fey will do 30 ROCK without her writers and get away with it? We’re on strike people! If you’re a WGA member and you’re working in any shape, form, or manner, you’re contributing to making these companies who refuse to bargain with us even richer. Oh, and you’re crossing the picket line.
DLJ said, “The writers of TDS and TCR are masters at skewering egos and throwing eggs at the “powers that be”… like the AMPTP. They could be bringing our fight to TV screens across the country four nights a week.”
DLJ — aren’t you making a big assumption here? Namely, that Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert would be willing to take on their employers.
And if you think they would do that, then you don’t know them.
Humm, I guess it depends on what they do. Though I don’t think I’ll watch it.
Maybe they’ll spend their episodes trying to talk about how the WGA is right. Wouldn’t surprise me… of course who knows if they’ll even air that…
Hell… I’m going to wait till it happens to pass judgment.
won’t take it no more:
That’s an interesting point re: Colbert, but I don’t think it carries, or at least AFTRA would argue that Colbert’s in-character improvisations falls under their agreement, not the WGA’s. Plus, you know, it’s a gray area, unless you want to argue that Jon Stewart is *exactly* the same off camera as he is on-.
But, also, it’ll be really interesting to see if Colbert *can* keep the character up w/out a writing staff. I don’t think he can, and I bet he knows that, and will tone it down a good bit.
Sara: interview questions on these sorts of shows are usually worked out between the interviewee and the (non-WGA) talent booker. So while they might be ‘scripted’ in some sense (though not really in the sense meant by the WGA Constitution), they aren’t under the purview of the WGA members on staff, so interview questions and prep are still kosher.
Bravo Martin D!
I agree with you completely! Conan, Jay, etc are not scabs! They are being forced back! They are all good talented people and they want the strike to be over! They want a new fair deal for the writers!
The slanderous insults should stop immeadiately! I think a pack of us loyal Conan fans should go down to the studio and protect Conan and Company from any back lash they might receive on Jan 2!
We should protest the protesters if their are any! I’ll see how many Conan fans I can enlist for our cause! Conan fans are nothing if not Loyal! Nobody better mess with our King of Late Night!
Cindy Loves Conan
A silver lining to this situation is that I’m sure they will rerun a lot of sketches and bits to fill the time… for which their striking writing staffs will receive residual checks. (Though not as hefty as the checks they’ve been receiving for the past two months for the full-episode repeats, so I guess the lining just got less silver-er.)
To works in tv at 7:48 PM: Just out of curiosity, why do you think that someone who doesn’t know the precise meaning of the word ‘showrunner’ is more likely to be a paid shill than a bona fide member of the general public? For crissakes, I’m a tv drama writer, and *I* didn’t know that the term is never used in variety shows. This is the kind of shill-calling that gives WGA members a bad name and does indeed hurt our public perception.
Compare the two statements
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: “We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.”
WGA: “Comedy Central forcing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert back on the air will not give the viewers the quality shows they’ve come to expect.”
What’s wittier – the statements by 2 guys without writers or the organization with 12,500 writers?
So now Stewart and Colbert are back – let me add go ahead and add two more shows that the WGA will not picket, in addition to Jay and Conan.
If we don’t picket ALL OF THESE shows EVERY DAY, SAG members will cross to be guests – plain and simple.
But I guess all the Jay and Conan staffers who lurk and post here don’t want to see their shows get picketed.
The WGA will never win the bigger picture if we cannot look past our own shows.
It’s easy to say you’re for the greater good of the WGA, but it’s another thing to put your money where your mouth is.
I admire, respect, and support both Jon and Stephen for the work they do, their talent, their brilliance, and their ability to make us laugh until our faces hurt.
I do not support this decision.
No matter how you slice it, when it’s put in terms of any other strike that ever occurred since the beginning of organized labor (transit workers strikes, teacher strikes, etc.), crossing the picket line is always frowned upon. However, if they are both honoring the strike terms set forth by the WGA, I wouldn’t consider them scabs–they wouldn’t be so unless they wrote and performed pre-written material (ergo, filling in the writers’ jobs, which is, technically, what a scab is) which is not in their intention.
I do feel, though, that unless both of them use their shows as platforms from which they can bring a great deal more attention to this strike (as it’s hardly being covered by the media), and perhaps initiate a conclusion to it, that it would do nothing but hurt the solidarity and unity that’s been generated by the WGA, SAG, and (I guess, sorta) the DGA so far.
You’d think for die-hard Colbert fans (like myself) that an announcement like this would be celebratory — unfortunately, it’s far from it.