Kimmel to return in January as well, Letterman still working on a deal…
By fred | December 19, 2007
Following on announcements that both Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien will go back on the air next year, without their still striking writers of course, as one could have expected Jimmy Kimmel has now announced that he too would return on the air, starting January 2nd as well.
Jimmy Kimmel has been supporting the writers from day one, has been seen picketing himself and serving lunch to fellow picketing writers, has also been quietly paying his non-writing staff ever since the strike started, and his show went off the air - despite being payed much less than other big late night hosts.
As the WGA made sure to remind everyone, just like NBC’s shows, Kimmel won’t have his writers back nor will he be able to do writing himself. His decision was motivated by support for non-writing staff working on his show, and as he explained, “though it makes me sick to do so without my writers, there are more than a hundred people whose financial well-being depends on our show. It is time to go back to work. I support my colleagues and friends in the WGA completely and hope this ends both fairly and soon“.
Again, this can be understandable I think, and my only concern is when he says “It is time to go back to work“. I’m not sure I agree with this, not if it means going back to work and try to do the best show we can, because that equals saying the strike was a bad idea, we failed, let’s give up and cave in to the irrational lies studios are feeding us. And that’s BS!
I am in the exact same position I explained about Conan and Leno, which is that I can understand their decisions and support them, should they effectively go back on the air only to save jobs, and not to help studios by making the best show possible without writers. But if not, I’ll hate them all !
Meanwhile, there are still no dates for the return on the air of David Letterman, still working with the WGA to get an interim agreement that would allow his show as well as Ferguson’s - both owned and produced by Letterman’s company - to go back on the air with WGA blessing and, of course, their writers !
Apparently there are (lots of) rumors that Worldwide Pants, Letterman’s company, may not get such a deal because of a change of heart by the WGA leadership. I find that hard to believe, given how what Letterman is doing is only following the intentions clearly stated by the WGA itself in a statement for their new “divide and conquer” strategy, as reminded by President and CEO of Worldwide Pants, as well as long-time executive producer of The Late Show with David Letterman, Rob Burnett, in a recent statement : “We are willing to agree to the writers demands that are within our control, so we have no reason to believe that an interim agreement can’t be achieved with the WGA. As a result, our only focus is on returning January 2nd with writers“.
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