Tonight Show Lays Off Writers
November 30, 2007

In the eternal debate over which late night host is king, it would be karmically appropriate if Jay Leno's ratings plummeted whenever the writer's strike ends because, as predicted, The Tonight Show laid off all of their staff today with a small check and a "see ya later". Merry Christmas, Tonight Show fans. As Conan O'Brien is allegedly paying all of his writers next month out of his own pocket and David Letterman has agreed to have his company pay his writers through the end of the year, a majority of the staff for Jay Leno were given early Christmas bonus checks today and told that they have no guaranteed job even after the strike ends. It shows you how much writing means to The Tonight Show.

A former staffer for The Tonight Show told Variety, "Do we have a job when the strike ends? That's what everyone keeps asking. They've guaranteed no one a job. They just keep saying, 'The letter explains it." The letter in question only says, from NBC's human resources department, "If your services are needed, we will contact you."

And what did Jay and The Tonight Show gang give their employees on the way out the door. Just the traditional, annual $100 times how many years they've been there Christmas bonus. Some higher-level executives have reportedly received a severance package, but low-level employees who have been there under ten years have been given less than a grand today and told that they will be contacted if their services are needed. Wow.

Some former staffers of The Tonight Show are understandably furious. One spoke to Variety and said, "We haven't heard from him since the second or third day of the strike. He called on speakerphone while we were in our daily meeting and said, 'Don't look for other jobs , no one's going to lose their house, we'll get though this.' Two weeks ago, we got the heads up that we had two more weeks (of pay) and that's it. Everyone wondered, 'Is Jay going to come through?' And nothing happened. Conan makes less and he said, 'I'm going to pay for my people.'"

Another staffer noted that the Christmas bonus feels like anything but and that with today looming for a while - it was widely expected that the staff would be fired on the last day of the month - they were expecting something more substantial. A staffer told Variety, "People are devastated today because we thought that he meant something more than an early Christmas bonus. A lot of people didn't look for other work, based on Jay's assurances."

The ripple effect of the writer's strike continues. Stay tuned to The Deadbolt for the latest updates.