Writer’s Strike: NBC Will Not Fire Crew/Writers Of Late Night Shows

Huzzah! Perhaps learning from the incredible backlash in the wake of the news that the entire crew of “The Office” was fired after the final episode of the show was filmed, NBC announced that it would not be firing the writers and crews of its late night talk shows:

Late-night staffers at NBC will not be laid off at the end of the week and will be paid for at least another two weeks, a network spokesperson confirmed Thursday. The news comes as David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, confirmed Wednesday’s story that the nonwriting staff for the Letterman’s and Craig Ferguson’s late-night shows on CBS will get paid on a sliding scale at least through the end of the year.

An NBC spokesperson said nonwriting staffers of all three of its late-night shows — The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Last Call with Carson Daly — will not be laid off at the end of this week, as originally considered.

Meanwhile, a Worldwide Pants spokesperson confirmed that lower-salaried employees of its two late-night shows will be fully paid, while higher-salaried staffers will get at least a percentage of their paychecks.

Of course, Worldwide Pants’ decision to keep paying its employees (which really means that Letterman is dipping into his own, and I’m sure quite vast, fortune) is not universal on the late night circuit — no other show has announced this kind of support. But it’s good to know that some of the networks have a bit of perspective in this time. The firing of “The Office” staff was clearly a move to try to put pressure on the WGA to cave and get back to writing. DO NOT LET THE NETWORKS UNFAIRLY PUNISH THOSE WHO ARE NOT STRIKING TO HARM THOSE WHO ARE.

Writers have rights, writers have needs, and if you write for television that *does not* mean you are writing regularly for a hit TV show. It is hard to be a writer at all, harder to be a writer in Hollywood, and hard to get paid for your writing in any way that can sustain you (to wit: I have worked at six different publications in the past five years and have been paid TWICE for freelance work. That’s right — out of hundreds of hours of work, I have been paid only TWICE for my writing, and I don’t even write for television). Sign The Petition To Support The WGA Strike. It’s important.

And check out my post from yesterday about ABC, LOST and the new mobisodes. Remember: If ABC struck this deal, then it undermines the greater studio position. Pay writers for internet downloads and streaming. Just. Fucking. Do. It.

–Sara Tenenbaum