Blogtown, PDX

Thursday, November 29, 2007

TV Writer’s Strike? What Writer’s Strike?

Posted by Erik Henriksen on Thu, Nov 29 at 11:30 AM

The AP is reporting that everyone’s favorite jagoff, Carson Daly, “is about to become the first late-night talk show to defy the writers strike and resume production.”

Just like when Ellen DeGeneres decided to keep doing her crappy show regardless of her writers’ protests, Daly’s move is pretty shitty in general. (Daly also seems like a total milquetoast, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just following orders from NBC brass, but still. And it’s pretty telling that even if that is the case, neither of NBC’s other late-night stars, Leno or Conan, have shown any indication of coming back before the strike’s over.)

But what’s even worse for anyone with a TV is how Daly’s planning on compensating for his lack of writers, according to The Smoking Gun:

NBC late night host Carson Daly, who today announced that he is returning to the air in the face of the ongoing writers strike, wants his friends and family to help with his scab efforts. In an e-mail, Daly asked a small group of contacts to call in “suggested jokes” to a telephone hotline, noting that he would “play some, most, or all of your jokes on the air.” The bit, Daly stressed, was not meant to “make fun” of his striking writers. He added that his goal was to just “play a fun collage of random people trying to ‘help me out.’” The bit’s set-up, Daly wrote in his Sunday night e-mail (a copy of which you’ll find below) was that “the devastating writers strike” led to “A TON of my friends and family… calling me, leaving messages, offering their help with jokes because they know that I don’t have any writers working and hosting a latenight show without them will be nearly impossible for me.” At the bottom of his note, Daly included brief messages to some of his associates seeking jokes from some of their “celeb friends,” golfing pals, or “random peeps.”

Please note Daly’s wholly unironic usage of the terms “celeb friends” and “random peeps.” Also, see above photo.

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Comments

Someone has to say it: Carson Daly still has a show?

Posted by Casey | November 29, 2007 12:46 PM

How else is he stupid? He's recording a band performance later today, near an NBC gate. So the WGA will be there at said gate, picketing him.

Posted by b!X | November 29, 2007 3:06 PM

Carson Daly has writers?

Posted by JFK | November 29, 2007 10:53 PM

Daly has 4 writers on strike and 75 staffers/crew who are involuntarily unemployed due to the strike.
He's not a member of the WGA -unlike Letterman (who by the way crossed the writers' picket lines during the last extended strike in 1988).
It seems to me like the WGA was lead into a premature strike by a union president who is obsessed with his media image. Striking over a higher percentage of yet to be realized Internet profits is ridiculous.

Posted by jay | November 29, 2007 11:56 PM

It seems to me like the WGA was lead into a premature strike by a union president who is obsessed with his media image.

No, they were led into a strike by an AMPTP which refused to cut the writers in on current and future money being made/to be made as the industry continues to move away from network broadcast and towards streaming and downloads.

These issues are dealt with no more than once every twenty years or so, and the last time, in the 80s, the writers got screwed on DVD residuals. If they don't get a fair deal now, the next generation of writers -- who will be writing in a world increasingly of streams and downloads -- will be making even closer to next to nothings than most writers make now.

Posted by b!X | November 30, 2007 12:13 AM

I agree completely with the writers on strike and I wish that the "powers that be" would give in and give them what they deserve!!! There would BE no TV shows without writers, the "powers that be" would be waiters and newsboys without the writers, when will they come to their senses and give the writers what they deserve?? COME ONE GUYS!!!!! I WANT MY TV SHOWS!!!!! The writers of today's best shows DESERVE to be paid more!! They are the ones who MAKE the TV shows as good as they are. GIVE IN AND LET'S GET ON WITH THE SEASON!!!!!!!!!!! I miss my Grey's Anatomy, CSI, Without a Trace, etc. Quit being greedy and selfish and share with the writers!!!!!!! I'm sick of this BS!!!!!!!! The writers of these shows (and many others) are GENIUSES and they deserve to be paid as such!!!!!!!!! GET OUT YOUR CHECKBOOKS AND PAY THEM WHAT THEY WANT!!!!!

Posted by Susan | December 1, 2007 8:55 PM

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