Late-night 'scabs' could lead to healing in writers' strike

As a former Writers Guild of America union man myself, ordinarily I'd be critical of the decision Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel made to cross picket lines in the Hollywood writers' strike and resume their late-night talk shows.

But nothing is quite as it seems in this strike, and I think their return has actually been good for the writers' cause, bringing the strikers closer to a resolution with movie and TV producers -- or vice versa.

All the late-night hosts -- including Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who rejoined their brethren earlier this week -- have been vocally supportive of the writers, as has David Letterman, who owns his CBS "Late Show" and negotiated his own production agreement with the WGA, allowing him and Craig Ferguson's "Late, Late Show" to return last week with writing staffs intact.

Letterman got off the best early salvo against producers in their failure to negotiate new-media fees with the WGA by calling them "cowards, cutthroats and weasels." But O'Brien was even more eloquent about the writers in his return.

"I want to make this clear," he said. "I support their cause. These are very talented, very creative people who work extremely hard, and I believe what they're asking for is fair."

With major movie studios and TV networks having stockpiled material for at least the next few months (there is no shortage of scripted midseason TV series debuting in the next few weeks), the WGA needs outside help to break the negotiating impasse, and it can't buy that sort of publicity. Polls have shown the public favoring writers over producers in the standoff.

That doesn't mean there aren't ironies to all of this -- intentional and unintentional.

Leno has clearly been writing his own prepared material, insisting along with NBC that performers are allowed to. But the WGA does not share that interpretation of its rules, with one spokesman saying, "Leno will not get a pass. The guild has told him he can't write his monologues."

The irony there is that the prepared material has always been the weakest part of Leno's "Tonight Show." In his return, he was much more natural filling time by answering questions from the audience or ad-libbing with chef Emeril Lagasse than he was uttering the same old monologue jokes (for instance, equating the money lost in the strike to Paul McCartney's divorce settlement). Leno was actually putting on a better show without his writers.

Without drawing on prepared remarks, O'Brien has been even more lively, and in his return scored laughs suggesting he'd fill time by simply dancing on his desk, then airing a taped piece on how he spent his time off while the show was on hiatus (playing guitar in the office hallways).

By returning with an agreement in hand, Letterman was able to keep his writers at work, and they responded with a typically self-deprecating joke that, yes, was obviously written in advance: "You're watching the only show on the air that has jokes written by union writers," he said, adding, "I hear you at home thinking to yourself, 'This (crud) is written?'" That's the writer at work, dismissing his or her job while glorying in it at the same time.

Letterman's independent pact with the WGA also allowed him to score better guests, as the Screen Actors Guild intended to honor WGA picket lines. (The SAG has its own negotiations with Hollywood producers coming up this year, and they intend to get whatever writers eventually get on productions made for the Internet and other new media.)

The irony there, however, is that Leno continued to outdraw Letterman, by about 7.2 million to 5.5 million in their return, although better guests are certain to have an effect on ratings as the strike continues. Tonight, Leno and Kimmel resort to the publicity stunt of appearing as guests on each other's shows. (Thanks to Oprah Winfrey's power in Chicago, they won't overlap here, with Leno's "Tonight Show" airing at 10:35 on WMAQ Channel 5 and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" at 12:05 on WLS Channel 7. Letterman, of course, airs at 10:35 on WBBM Channel 2.)

The cancellation of the Golden Globes is a Pyrrhic victory for the writers, but they're actually getting their strongest and most consistent support from the late-night talk hosts who are crossing their picket lines. That's the most ironic thing of all about the strike so far.

In the air

Remotely interesting: The revamped "Soundstage" returns for its sixth season with the first hour of a two-part concert by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at 9 p.m. today on WTTW Channel 11.

Jackie and Dan Evans of Frankfort and Bernardo Salazar of Chicago are in the new installment of NBC's "Biggest Loser: Couples" at 7 p.m. Tuesdays on WMAQ Channel 5.

End of the dial: Chicago Media Action is urging citizens to petition Congress to retain the ban on newspaper and TV-radio cross-ownership by signing an Internet letter found at www.action.freepress.net/campaign/sbmopenletter.

WXRT 93.1-FM airs its annual year-in-review listeners' poll results show from 7 to 9 p.m. today.