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Late Night TV Returns: Update...
The WGA West is abandoning pickets at all other locations the rest of this week in order to focus on NBC Studios because Jay Leno returns to The Tonight Show tonight. But will the Secret Service contingent surrounding GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee allow the strikers to even get within the city limits of Burbank? The striking writers will start their four shifts of protests at 8 AM Pacific Time and continue until 6 PM. "Please come out to the lines and show NBC that they might be able to put a show on the air, but it won't be a good show until the writers return, and talent can appear without having to cross a picket line," the WGA's website says.
But the WGA also admits that the decision to set up picket lines was "difficult" and "painful" and that it "will not be of the hosts themselves but the companies for which their shows are produced," a WGAE statement said Sunday. That's because Leno aided picketers in the early days of the strike and his writers have been regulars on the line as well as helpful to the WGA cause. There's a rift right now between them and the guild because of the WGA's decision to make an interim agreement with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants enabling The Late Show and the Late Late Show to return to the air with scribes. "Our purpose is to continue awareness of our strike and the media conglomerates against which we strike, and to encourage performers, politicians and others to honor our picket line and not appear as guests on these struck programs." The guild also pledged that "nothing at all personal or defamatory is intended" -- obviously a real worry among SAG members.
Right now, agents and publicists are in a quandary over whether to send A-list and even B-list actors onto Jay's show because of the controversy. But some of the locals and out-of-towners who line up for hours outside NBC for a chance to sit in Leno's audience may also get intimidated by the labor action. One big question is whether striking writers will manage to infiltrate the crowd and disrupt any of the show's tapings, like they did when Carson Daly went back to work.
The regular studio and other network pickets will resume beginning January 7th.
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Please… It’s Leno, not NBC who’s coming back to work… Same with Conan… I respect them, just not their decisions… What would have happend if they didn’t return? Let NBC lay off these crews… and then let them take the heat for their being fired… Not Leno and Conan. Let’s start placing blame where it’s due. The Alliance. But let’s not let two “nice guys” get away with a bad decision. If these two talented hosts wanted to help, they’d refuse to return until the strike’s settled. D.G.
How come no one is picketing Jimmy Kimmel? I realize his show isn’t the American institution that The Tonight show is, but ABC is still a member of the AMPTP. I hope writers get out there, too.
I was out at NBC Burbank this morning from 8 – 11 am and everything was calm and civilized.
None of this would have happened if the WGA didn’t let Letterman go back with writers. Let’s face it, he’s got a smaller fanbase then Leno does and if Leno does the smart thing by getting guests that Middle America will care to watch, he’ll continue to do better in the rankings. Leno doesn’t particularly need writers for Headlines or Jaywalking and I would much rather sit through that then an hour of “Does It Float?” and Robin Williams.
The WGA will split themselves over this very issue, whether they realize it or not. How are they going to justify some writers going back and making their good money to the rest who are struggling to make mortgages? If anything, it’s going to make more scabs from the WGA when shows slowly start back up through backdoor deals and networks start coming down on halted shows that could possibly come back without writers.
I agree that the message of the WGA needs to be out there, but Leno, Letterman, Ferguson and O’Brian can certainly do that without writers.
They were not planning to picket until the 7th anyway so there are no “abandoned” picket locations. Leno interupted their “vacation” or “hiatus” from the strike.
FYI, the writers didn’t “abandon” pickets at other locations this week — we weren’t scheduled to come back to picketing at all until Monday the 7th. But we decided to do a special picket at NBC this week, given Mr. Leno’s decision to return to work.
Mike Huckabee doesn’t have Secret Service protection. None of the Republicans do until they gain higher levels of recognition. (Clinton does as a former first lady, and Obama does because of threats as the first African-American candidate).
Of all the fake reasons Leno gave on his show tonight to explain why he’s back even though the writers are still on strike, this was the worst:
“Another reason we had to come back is because a lot of people get their news from the monologue because we cover a lot of the stories the mainstream media will not cover”.
If only that were 1 percent true, but alas it never is, and as usual, it was just his lead in to a Brittany Spears joke, not in to any important news ignored by mainstream media. To actually see what REAL news is and should be – that which actually affects the largest number of human beings in the most serious manner, see my website: http://www.WhatNewsShouldBe.com which also mocks mainstream news although the mocker is, unlike Jay Leno, not a strike-breaker, and the real news, which mainstream media just distracts us from, is actually provided.
Angie
http://www.WhatNewsShouldBe.com
I’m not watching Jay or Conan. I don’t like strike-breakers. I’m watching Letterman which apart of being a “man” is a better entertainer.
I watched the Letterman show for a bit just to see if he would do anything to support the WGA. He did support the WGA over and over again. His top 10 was about the writers. He did a get to know your staff segment. He let one WGA rep (I think) give the The Moguls a good talking to. I was so appreciative that he did it that way. It keeps the WGA and their requests in the public eye and stirs up America to support the WGA. He really did a great job.
Hey, you know, I was thrilled that Leno was back on! In all honesty, I think the show was much better without the writers. Maybe a little change of pace is always good, but why is he paying 16 writers for stuff that is not nearly as good as what he came up with? Maybe some writers don’t need their jobs back?