
In a bid to save late night television programming as we knew it, the Carson Daly show will jump the gun on production in the coming days; WGA strike settlement or no, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The late night talk shows have taken a big hit since the Writers' Strike began three weeks ago as insomniacs nationwide discover that Nightline never actually went off the air. Viacom's Comedy Central is losing its late night audience to new programming like TBS' Frank TV.
Employees of Leno, Ferguson, Letterman, etc. are supposedly still being paid, but perhaps Daly's production company is putting its foot down and promising pay after the first of the month only if the show goes on?
Carson, forgive us for forgetting that you're even still on the air -- you best be taking good care of your writers to pull a stunt like this. Then again, might the reemergence of Last Call mark the beginning of the end?
Photo by JD Lasica via flickr.




I happened across last night's Tonight Show and was surprised to see an episode from the early 90s, with guest Tom Hanks promoting "A League of Their Own." It was amusing to hear the jokes about the upcoming Bush vs. Clinton election. Leno made a quip about the fact that the country might be better off if Barbara Bush and Hilary Clinton were running for president. Heh.
Wait Carson Daly thinks he can cross the picket line and think that noone will notice - or care?
ha
Apparently he's gonna wing it without writers. He sent an email asking friends and family to leave jokes on an answering machine for him to play on the air. Here's the link to the email:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1127073carson1.html
Apparently he's gonna wing it without writers. He sent an email asking friends and family to leave jokes on an answering machine for him to play on the air. Here's the link to the email:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1127073carson1
that's awesome. i didn't realize his show had writers.
I read somewhere that Carson Daly was doing this in order to save the holiday salaries of his stage/production crew.
If the writing is absolutely wretched* to begin with... could this be considered a noble move?
*honestly, the opening monologues are often rolled like credits, in super-fast-forward, seemingly to avoid Carson's awful delivery. Thats proof of how bad the writing is.
The worst thing that could happen to Carson's career is that he is seen by an audience.
So now I am starting to think that it's probably good for television in general that he crosses the picket line, so that this long national nightmare is finally taken around the back of the shed and... canceled.