The Writers Strike and Late-Night Talk Shows---THE BACKLASH!by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger 04 Dec 2007 01:57 PM Did you watch "Last Call" last night? If so you witnessed the first fresh episode of late-night talk since the writer's strike began more than four weeks ago. After host Carson Daly cracked jokes about his applause sign still working and shared pictures of what he and his staff did in the last month he finally explained why his NBC show became the first late-night chatfest to return to the air with fresh material since members of the Writers Guild of America took to the picket lines more than a month ago. "We ran out of repeats," Daly cracked. "A month is a long time." Daly also addressed the negative press coverage he has received by adding: "If I had not been back on the air tonight, 75 members of my loyal staff and crew were going to get laid off." Daly revealed that he was faced with "an ultimatum, if you will," from network brass that boiled down to: "You either come back or they're laid off. I said, 'Let's turn the lights on, I'm gonna come back.' It's that simple." I think it's also important to note that Daly is the only late-night host who's not a member of the Writers Guild. With that said do you think that Daly deserves the backlash he's gotten for returning with new shows? In my opinion, Daly's decision is analogous to what bigger late-night names have been garnering headlines for. As I mentioned in a previous blog, last week, NBC effectively laid off all nonstriking workers of the network's two other late-night shows--The "Tonight Show" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." However, in the case of those shows both Leno (after reportedly being shamed into doing so) and O'Brien stepped forward to personally cover the salaries of their nonstriking staffers. There is no way Daly, who doesn't make a fraction of what superstars like Leno and O'Brien make, had the ability to do the same for his staffers. So he did the next best thing---he put staffers back to work so they could earn salaries to pay their mortgages, make their car payments, keep up with medical bills and buy holiday gifts for their families. If anything I think the Leno headline should overshadow Daly's. If you missed it, last week the amicable talk show host was heavily criticized for not offering to pick up his freshly fired non-writing staffers' paychecks. Several news organizations slammed Leno (who makes an estimated $27 million a year) for refusing to cover the salaries out of his own pocket. Hours after the headlines touted Leno as a "cold hearted Scrooge" he announced that he would join David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and O'Brien by paying his staff's wages. Related Articles: Writers Strike---Is There an End in Sight? Writers Strike Update--How Many New Episodes Are Left? Hollywood Writers' Strike---Week 3: Movie Alert Writers' Strike--Producers Hit Back Writers Strike Day 6--Let the Firings Begin Writers Strike Update: So Long to "The Office" and "24" Writers' Strike Hits "Desperate Housewives" How A Writers' Strike Could Affect Your Favorite TV Shows Learn more about Michele Cheplic  Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. Relevantpopular culture tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags Carson Daly, Conan O'brien, Jay Leno, late night talk shows, writer's strike Discuss this article
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