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Would Letterman’s deal make him less interesting ?

By fred | January 2, 2008

Tonight is the night for late night shows : as you know, almost all of them are back. But amongst them all, only Letterman (and Ferguson) have writers, Leno, Conan and Kimmel are crossing picket lines and won’t have any writers. Next Monday, when Stewart and Colbert return to the air as well, they’ll be in the same situation.

Of course, this should be a plus for Letterman, and it will be in the sense that writers are egger to make the best they ever did, and A-list celebrities will agree to come on the show.

But in the mean time, one could wonder whether or not the unknown, uncertainty and possibility of failure at any given time could make the other shows more appealing to the public. Because while Letterman will have its usual shows, although one could hope for a strike-special version of it, none of the other shows will look anything like they usually do, and that could in fact make them more appealing to viewers.

And it is known that Conan and Kimmel are really good on their own, each in his own way, improvising and doing without a script written in advance. And for regular viewers like for fans, the new deal they’ll find themselves in due to the strike and the lack of writers on their show could actually have the opposite effect and draw more viewers than to the competition.

Yes, it is true, there is a feeling that those shows might have a very unique, not to say historic, touch to them. And it is only human : people will want to watch a show go downhill and fail miserably, so they’ll tune in to watch Leno.

Again, though, I personally feel that this could only be true if Leno, Conan and Kimmel decided to do their best to make a good show, one as possibly good as they can make, without writers - or writing at all. Put shall they not take any such “risks”, not try to make shows that way, but instead simply talk about the strike, ask viewers to write to the network and have them go back to negotiate if they want real shows back, and maybe even suggest them to watch CBS instead, if they don’t play the card networks want them to play, but keep showing a strong support towards the writers they (claim to) support, that effect might not last long and be gone by the end of tonight’s episodes, if not before.

And as much as I love Conan, I really hope he’ll go that way. In fact, I also hope that the reason no guest have been announced yet for his or Kimmel’s show, might be because there are none. Not because no one agreed to show up and cross picket lines, but because they didn’t ask anyone to.

Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel have not only all strongly supported the strike until now, but also shown great support for their non-writing staff by paying them from their own pockets. Such support is also the reason they gave for their return on the air, but it doesn’t mean they changed their mind on the ongoing issues and aren’t supportive the their writers anymore.

And by going back on the air, they are not only helping their non-writing staff but also “hurting” their own writers at the same time, because if they earned residuals while networks aired reruns, now that new shows are back on they will not get any residuals anymore. Now, if they still support writers and haven’t suddenly completely changed their minds, why would they add to the loss of residual earnings their best effort to do without writers, instead of asking for them back ?

I want to believe they won’t, I want to believe they will not try their best to do a show people would like to watch, because that would help the networks or not the writers who they support, and I want to believe they’ll dare to keep facing up to networks on the air the same way they did by going off the air.

Recently, Conan - who’s grown a “strike-beard”, although he of course claims he started growing it during the first strike on 88 - expressed his support towards writers again, “threatening” not to shave until this would be solved; “Let’s get these writers a fair shake or this beard stays“, he joked.

He also (half?) joked that such an act was the only thing he could possibly do without his writers, “this is the only creative act I’ve been allowed to participate in“, which would tend to make me think/hope he might not actually try to do the best show he possibly can without writers. “Literally, it’s something to do. You can check on the progress of your beard.” Now that’s an idea for the show : have everyone watch his beard grow, and nothing else, as long as writers aren’t back.

I know Conan can make a great and funny show, even without writers, I just hope he won’t actually try. Either way, I might tune in tonight, but I won’t after that : I’m striking, and I’ll have to deal with Letterman for my late-night fix…

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