Well, he does kind of look like a young Kris Kringle…
As the Writers Guild of America strike drags into the end of its fourth week, Conan O’Brien is making like St. Nick to bring holiday cheer to his late-night talk show staff. The comedian has pledged to cover the salaries of his non-writing production workers (nearly 80 in all) for the foreseeable future.
According to Variety, the 44-year-old talk show host’s generous offer (he’s paying the salaries out of his own pocket) will kick in on December 1st, that’s when NBC said it would be forced to lay off O’Brien’s non-writing staff members. The peacock network has been covering the salaries of O’Brien’s nonwriting staffers, along with those of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Last Call with Carson Daly” since writers walked off the job on November 5th.
O’Brien told reporters that his offer is a way of showing his thanks to his many loyal staff members—-many of whom are expected to accompany him to the West Coast when he takes over as host of The Tonight Show in 2009.
O’Brien is a member of the striking Writers Guild of America, as are fellow hosts Leno, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and CBS’s David Letterman.
And speaking of Letterman, like O’Brien, he’s not leaving his non-writing staffers in the cold this winter. Production staff members of Late Show with David Letterman and Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson were promised paychecks at least through December by Letterman, whose production company, Worldwide Pants, owns both shows.
Meanwhile, according to Variety, staffers for Jimmy Kimmel Live! continue to be paid by ABC.
That leaves Carson Daly. The host of the late night show, Last Call is not a WGA member and as a result, he recently announced that he would be crossing the picket line and airing new shows beginning next week.
Daly defended his decision to return to work by saying; otherwise, “roughly 75 staff and crew would have lost their jobs.”
“As a non-WGA member I feel I have supported my four Guild writers and their strike by suspending production for a month,” Daly said.
In the meantime, there’s been some progress made in the negotiations between the striking writers and producers. Yesterday, writers were given a new contract offer from Hollywood studio bigwigs. The document, dubbed the “New Economic Partnership,” would pay writers millions of dollars extra for work shown on the Internet, a central issue in negotiations.
Shortly after the headway was made writers asked for a recess in the talks until Tuesday to consider their options, but called on members to continue picketing Friday and Monday.
Could there be light at the end of the tunnel?
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