Guys Following Ellen

The guys are now all following Ellen DeGeneres. When the writers’ strike first began, it was DeGeneres that kept her doors open, crossing the picket line. She received a lot of flak from everyone about it, but now the guys of late night talk shows seem to be following her, with plans to cross the picket lines and do what they have to do, just like she did.

DeGeneres had decided that while she certainly felt for her writers’ plight, she didn’t want to put the rest of her staff out of work. If she had closed the doors of the show, all those other staffers would be without money to support their families. She made the difficult decision to continue on, and did the show in the beginning without a monologue, but now it seems perhaps she is just writing her own material, something she is well-used to doing.

All of the men hosting late night talk shows wanted to do the right thing by their writers, and stopped production of their shows. Yet, their staffers began to suffer financial difficulty. David Letterman’s production company agreed to pay the staffers of both his show as well as the other one they produce for Craig Ferguson until the end of the year. Conan O’Brien began paying his staffers on a week to week basis. Jay Leno, in a move that was shocking to some, announced he was laying off his staff, and worse yet, they found that when the strike ended, they might not have jobs to come back to. Everyone cried foul, and Leno agreed to pay everyone out of his own pocket as well after facing the same type of flak DeGeneres had faced early on.

Now comes word they are all making plans to join DeGeneres, back at work, after the holidays. With no end in sight for the writers’ strike, Leno, O’Brien, and Kimmel are planning on returning to their shows. They’ll do the same thing, putting the show on without the benefit of writers, just to have their staff getting paychecks … that aren’t coming out of their pockets. Daly already resumed production on his show last month. Letterman’s production company is in talks with the writers’ guild to perhaps work out a deal to get his writers back as well for the two shows.

This is good news for the most part. Last night I had a choice of watching a rerun of Leno’s show that I had already seen from last Christmas, or watching a repeat of Letterman from 1998. Yes, 1998. It was so old, Cher was on there promoting her new hit song, I Believe. That’s how old it was. It will be refreshing to get some fresh choices to watch late night. Now, if we can only get the rest of our TV schedule back into production, we’ll be in business.

Comments on the writers’ strike and/or late night talk shows? Email me at LauraBelle@sofachip.com

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