JAY LENO - LENO BREAKING STRIKE RULES?

LENO BREAKING STRIKE RULES?

On the same day that Writers Guild of America West President Patric Verrone told the New York Times that he had "made it absolutely clear" to Jay Leno that writing for The Tonight Show constitutes a violation of the guild's strike rules, Leno once again delivered a self-written monologue on Thursday night's show. Meanwhile, L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke disclosed on her Deadline Hollywood Today blog that a meeting between Leno and Verrone took place on Dec. 31, in which Leno expressed concerns about being depicted as "the bad guy" for returning to work during the strike without his writers. However, a spokesman for the WGA told Finke that at the close of the meeting, Leno said, "OK, I'm going to do the show, and I'm going to do my monologue" and that Verrone raised no objection. The spokesman, who attended the meeting, added, "I don't believe I heard Jay saying he was 'writing' his monologue. I thought I heard him say he was 'doing' his monologue." However, one of Leno's writers who attended the meeting backed Leno, telling the New York Times: "Jay said, 'Let me get this clear: I'm allowed to write my monologue.' ... There was no way Jay could have misinterpreted what was being said." Meanwhile, overnight ratings for Wednesday night's show put Leno well ahead of Letterman, with Leno scoring a 5.3 rating and a 12 share (7.2 million viewers) and Letterman, a 4.3/10 (5.5 million). The audience for each of the talk-show hosts was up considerably over their season average. Also, Conan O'Brien, who did indeed appear to ad lib his way through his show, attracted 2.84 million viewers, his best numbers in more than a year.

04/01/2008