Late Night to Come Early?

The Strike: Day 12

With late night television having gone dark since the beginning of the writers strike, talks have finally begun as to when they might return to the air. According to Variety:

Reps for several of the major latenight skeins — including “Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”— have been engaging in secret backchannel conversations with each other about when it might be appropriate for their hosts to return to their studios. It’s unlikely anything will happen until after Thanksgiving, however–and even that could be optimistic.

Still, according to several network execs with knowledge of the situation, there’s been talk of resuming production on some shows as early as next month, with Dec. 3 and Dec. 10 mentioned as possible return dates.

The question is going to be how they work things out with the writers. To this point, the late night hosts have been among the biggest WGA supporters. But with news that lower paid staffers are in danger, so much so that Conan is paying his workers out of pocket it’s unlikely the writers will make a big deal of late night’s return.

» Watch Late Night with Conan O’Brien Webisode

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