Letterman to return on the air in January… with or without writers !
By fred | December 23, 2007
This one is absolutely not funny. We’re all in the same boat here and we all want the strike to be over. We all have fun mocking the AMPTP and insulting them for their lies and refusal to negotiate, but there’s a point where the WGA needs to act like they actually care about the whole thing, too.
We all know that pretty much all late night shows will return on the air in early January, without writers. All but one, or two actually : Letterman and Ferguson. Both shows also plan on returning early January, but they want to do so with writers ! And because those shows are owned by an independent company, Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, which has been trying to word a deal with the WGA as part of their latest “divide and conquer” strategy, this might very well happen.
Or so it seemed.
Both sides met on Friday, and we had reasons to be optimistic, as President and CEO of Worldwide Pants, as well as long-time executive producer of The Late Show with David Letterman, Rob Burnett, declared prior the meeting : “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“.
But things might not go down so smoothly after all, for some reason. The meeting took place, and no deal was signed. All the Writers Guild of America said was that “a lively exchange of information took place“, while Burnett said : “We had a substantive discussion today with the WGA and look forward to continuing these talks next week“.
That all sounds all so like a politically correct way to say “we have nothing”. And really, this is a bit depressing, because if even Letterman - writer, WGA member and supporter of the cause - is not able to come to an agreement with the WGA, what chance is there that the AMPTP ever will ?
And since all late shows will come back in January, Letterman & Ferguson are likely to do the same, whether or not a deal was worked out for their writers to come along. But if they go back without writers, I think the strike is going to last for at least three more months…
Oh and, Merry Christmas!
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