NBC - JAY & CONAN TO RETURN TO WORK -- SANS WRITERS

JAY & CONAN TO RETURN TO WORK -- SANS WRITERS

To the howls of striking writers, NBC announced Monday that the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien will return to the air on January 2. Leno and O'Brien will probably perform without their usual opening monologues, which are ordinarily written by staff writers. However, in a conference call with reporters on Monday Tonight show executive producer Debbie Vickers said "I would like to not rule that out." Both are members of the Writers Guild of America themselves and both were immediately denounced as scabs by writers who posted vehement denunciations of the two on strike-related blogs. However, one writer on Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog commented, "Before we go too far in denouncing Jay and Conan as scabs, we need to see the shows. If they're willing to let the shows suck without scripted material, they're playing the game reasonably." Both hosts attributed their decision to return to the air to concern for staff members who had been laid off because of the strike -- to which the writers responded, "We didn't lay them off." Officially the guild itself said, "NBC forcing Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien back on the air without writers is not going to provide the quality entertainment that the public deserves." The two shows may have to do not only without monologues but also celebrity guests who may refuse to cross picket lines in order to appear on the two shows.

18/12/2007