Re: NY Post: Dave Back Jan. 2 With Or Without Writers

On Dec 27, 8:23�pm, Tom W <blee...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
kath...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Marcia R.spamlessinlasve...@xxxxxxx wrote:

I'd love to see Dave's first show back, but Donald Trump? �Triple yuck!!!

I agree with this post !

My prediction: the writerless Late Shows will be in the form of the first two
weeks after 9/11. Open to Dave at his desk, he will tell a story or two, then
interview authors, news people, and other non-Hollywood people.

Tom W

That's about it. From the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119881049711254737-9jjYryb1_0Qds7uiDfNCWyZ9BEQ_20080127.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top


Late-Night Talk Shows Set to Go Scriptless
By REBECCA DANA
December 28, 2007; Page B1

Television's late-night talk-show hosts are set to return to the
airwaves next week, but their jokes will pretty much have to write
themselves.

After sitting out the first two months of the Hollywood writers'
strike, the hosts have agreed, under pressure from their network
bosses, to go back to work. But members of the Writers Guild of
America -- including the folks who supply the hosts with most of their
laugh lines -- are still out on picket lines this week, and no new
rounds of negotiations are scheduled.

As a result, the shows are likely to look very different from what
viewers are accustomed to. The guild's strike rules are extremely
broad and vague, prohibiting the late-night talk-show hosts, most of
whom are guild members, from doing anything that constitutes "writing
services." That means the hosts are technically forbidden from writing
and performing the traditional opening monologue, plotting out
sketches in advance, or creating fictional characters that would
perform on the shows.

Producers of the late-night shows are hoping to fill that void with
more and longer celebrity interviews. But those are proving hard to
book, especially for the first night that the shows return to air,
according to celebrity publicists and people who work on the shows.
Many of the most prominent actors are reluctant to be the first to
cross the picket lines to appear on late-night TV.

Meanwhile, producers are also struggling to plot out the rest of the
hour-long shows while hewing to the guild's rules. Because of the
ambiguity of the rules, the guild is encouraging late-night producers
to be in frequent contact with guild authorities to vet potentially
rule-breaking bits, says Chris Albers, a monologue writer for "Late
Night with Conan O'Brien" who is out on strike and a former president
of the guild.

Mr. Albers says the guild likely would permit a more free-flowing
monologue, in the style of Jack Paar, who hosted a version of "The
Tonight Show" from 1957 to 1962 and opened the show each night with a
more personal approach than the current crop of hosts use.

He also says that audience participation would probably make the cut.
But he says anything traditionally written by writers -- David
Letterman's "Top Ten List," for example -- and anything based on ideas
developed by writers before they went on strike are unacceptable.

Because of the gray areas in the strike rules, it is entirely possible
that there will be violations. In that case, the guild would bring the
case before the Writers Guild Disciplinary Committee, says Sherry
Goldman, a spokeswoman for the guild.

Mr. Albers says he has been in frequent contact with producers and
writers of the East Coast late-night shows. None has figured out
exactly how they will fill their first hours back on the air, he says.

The shows plan largely to rely on extemporaneous speeches from the
hosts and extra banter between the hosts and the band directors (about
the strike itself, among other topics), according to people who work
on the shows. Since much of the "writing" on these shows consists of
generating ideas for skits and segments, which are loosely scripted
and then partially improvised on air, producers say it is unclear how
much forethought is technically permissible.

Other ideas being batted around by producers that they believe don't
violate strike rules include man-on-the street and audience
interviews; clips from YouTube and other video Web sites; and footage
of political candidates, particularly the Democrats, many of whom have
declined to cross picket lines in support of the guild.

In all, seven shows will be returning to the air in the next two
weeks: CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with
Craig Ferguson"; NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late
Night with Conan O'Brien"; ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live"; and Comedy
Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report,"
which stars Stephen Colbert.

Mr. Letterman's independent production company Worldwide Pants Inc.,
which wholly owns both CBS talk shows is in discussions with the
Writers Guild of America to reach an interim agreement that would
allow the shows to return with their writers. Mr. Letterman has
signaled that either way, the shows will be returning on Jan. 2.

Much is riding on the outcome of the negotiations between Worldwide
Pants and the guild. If the two sides are able to reach a settlement,
Messrs. Letterman and Ferguson would have a tremendous advantage over
the other hosts, both in being able to draw on their writers but also
because they would effectively become the only late-night outlets
available to celebrities eager to talk up their coming projects
without having to cross picket lines.

Being writer-less is expected to put a particularly heavy burden on
the "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." These shows, which
return on Jan. 7, have a greater dependence on scripted material. The
shows, which also are more focused on politics than their broadcast-
network counterparts, have some prepared material on the election in
the can. That would likely be supplemented by unscripted grist from
Messrs. Stewart and Colbert. "The Daily Show" may also be able to rely
on help from some of its correspondents, most of whom aren't in the
guild.

A number of prominent actors with major movies arriving in theaters
this winter have pledged their support to the writers and said they
refuse to appear on the talk shows. The Screen Actors Guild has its
own negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television
Producers, the body that represents the networks and studios, coming
up this spring, and many of their interests align with those of
writers.

Late-show producers have spent the past two weeks scrambling to book
guests, including reaching out to musical acts, nonunion celebrities
and B- and C-list actors, according to people who work on the shows.
So far only one show has announced guests for its first night back on
air: If he returns Jan. 2, Mr. Letterman will host Donald Trump.

"We've been on the phone with publicists for the last six weeks,"
Debbie Vickers, executive producer of the "The Tonight Show With Jay
Leno," said in a conference call with reporters last week. "I'm not
saying it's going to be easy, but we'll be able to do the shows."

The hosts are returning under pressure from their network bosses and
out of loyalty to their nonwriting staffs, whom the hosts themselves
have been paying out-of-pocket since the start of the strike. While
the return of the shows will ease a major anxiety of the media
companies -- how to promote their coming films -- the hosts have vowed
to use their prominent platforms to advocate for the guild.

There are growing divisions within the writers' guild over how to
respond to the return of the late shows, with some prominent members
arguing the guild shouldn't strike an independent deal with Worldwide
Pants, or that the guild should only agree to a binding contract, not
an interim deal. These hard-liners are pushing to picket the shows
when they return next week and are encouraging celebrities to refuse
to appear as guests, said two active guild members.

The hosts have had limited contact with their writing staffs since the
start of the strike. As networks prepared to announce their return
last week, each host took some pains to reach out to his head writers
to explain those decisions, according to writers on each of the shows.
Two talk shows returned to air earlier in the strike, NBC's "Last Call
With Carson Daly" and the syndicated daytime talk show "The Ellen
DeGeneres Show." Both drew strong protests from the guild.

In 1988, the last time the Writers Guild of America went on strike,
Johnny Carson was in much the same position that Mr. Letterman is now.
Mr. Carson tried to negotiate a separate agreement with the guild, and
when the guild refused, he returned without his writers at the
beginning of May, performing monologues and largely keeping to the
conventions of his broadcast. Within the month, the guild agreed to an
independent deal with Mr. Carson's production company, Carson Tonight
Inc., and Mr. Carson's writers returned to work.

Maybe...so they can't really do much
.

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