Leno and O'Brien to Return to Air
December 17, 2007

Fear not, late night talk show fans, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien are planning to return to the air, writer's strike or not on January 2nd. After two months of repeates, NBC revealed today that The Tonight Show and Late Night will return without writers on January 2nd. It's not unprecedented. In 1988, Johnny Carson brought back The Tonight Show two months into a writer's strike that lasted 22 weeks in all. It also looks like David Letterman will return soon, as the Associated Press reports that the union that represents striking writers revealed over the weekend that they were willing to negotiate individual deals with individual production companies, one of which might be Worldwide Pants. The news that there could be deals between unions and individual production companies is a major one in the strike, meaning that some shows could be back even as the strike continues.

Rick Ludwin, the executive vice president of late night and primetime series for NBC, told the AP, "Both Jay and Conan have supported their writers during the first two months of this WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike and will continue to support them. However, there are hundreds of people who will be able to return to work as a result of Jay's and Conan's decision."

We know what you're thinking - how can Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien come back with no writers? It's not yet clear. One can assume that there will be more interviewing and less written jokes and that there might even be more ad-libbing courtesy of the talk show hosts. The AP reports that the shows have become more like comedy shows with prepared materials since Carson's days, but that might have to revert back to standard talk show formats that don't require as much written material. We'll all know on January 2nd.

For more on the strike, check out The Innocent Bystanders of the Writer's Strike and news about Jay Leno and David Letterman.