Strike tidbits
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- November
- 16
Nightline’s been reaping the benefits of the writer’s strike the past couple weeks, what with all the late-night comedy shows being in reruns.
That could come to a screeching halt in a couple of weeks, as Variety reported today that representatives of several of the late-night laughfests  including Letterman, Leno and Conan  “have been engaging in secret backchannel conversations with each other about when it might be appropriate for their hosts to return to their studios.”
Dec. 3 and Dec. 10 have been mentioned as possible dates.
Basically, none of them wants to be the first to return, but with no end in sight for the strike, lots of folks paychecks are on the line on these shows. Nonwriting staff on Leno and Conan and Last Call with Carson Daly are still receiving paychecks from NBC and will for at least two more weeks.
Worldwide Pants, David Letterman’s production company, is wholly responsible for salaries on Letterman’s show and on Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. They’ll “continue to pay the non-writing staff of the shows—fully compensating lower-salaried employees, and providing a substantial portion of salaries for those at the higher end—at least through the end of the year,” a spokesman told Variety.
Meanwhile, Variety also reported that the awards shows could be the next major victims of the strike. All the major awards shows are scripted. So, will they go scriptless or get a waiver for writers (unlikely to be granted)? Will the shows be picketed and will stars cross the picket lines to attend?
Plus, Variety pointed out, Jon Stewart hasn’t shown up for The Daily Show since the strike started; he’s on tap to be the host of the Oscars again. If the strike’s still on and the show’s done unscripted, will he show up?
The trade publication had a good lineup of what we should expect from the kudocasts (love that word, thanks Variety!):
• American Music Awards, airing Sunday. Jimmy Kimmel hosts. The script was written before the strike, but Kimmel “will not be doing any ad-libbing.” OK, that’s just weird.
• Writer’s Guild Awards, set to air Feb. 9. Basically, the answer to that is, who knows?
• Grammy Awards. Nominations are announced Dec. 6, and any script wouldn’t have to be written until after that. It airs Feb. 10. Grammy folks think they’re OK because they can just schedule extra musical performances.
• Golden Globes. Nominees are announced Dec. 13; the show airs Jan. 13. Variety quoted Barry Adelman, Globes executive producer, from a prepared statement: “We’re hopeful the issues pertaining to the potential strike will be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction before then. In the meantime, we intend to explore all of our available options in the upcoming weeks.” In other words, we don’t know.
• SAG Awards, scheduled to be televised Jan. 27 on TNT. Being a sister union to the Writers Guild, if the strike’s still on, it’s unlikely to happen.
• The Academy Awards. Nominations will be announced Jan. 22 and it’s scheduled to air Feb. 24. Round and round and round we go, where we stop, nobody knows. The kudocast uses more writers than most; could they do it unscripted?
This entry was posted
on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 3:48 pm by Amy Vernon.
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