Letterman's World Wide Pants signs with Writer's Guild

As you may already know as of Wednesdsay Jan. 2 the late-night talk shows that have been showing repeats will return with original shows. This includes Late Night with David Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with Conan O'Brien, plus several others. Only Letterman and Ferguson's shows are returning with union writers. The others are scab shows which any progressive person should boycott - most Sag members will not appear. Here are a couple of exerpts from a letter from the writers' Guild regarding the matter:

We are writing to let you know that have reached a contract with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company that puts his show and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson back on the air with Guild writers. This agreement is a positive step forward in our effort to reach an industry-wide contract. While we know that these deals put only a small number of writers back to work, three strategic imperatives have led us to conclude that this deal, and similar potential deals, are beneficial to our overall negotiating efforts.

Side-by-side with this agreement, and any others that we reach, are our ongoing strike strategies. In the case of late-night shows, our strike pressure will be intense and essential in directing political and SAG-member guests to Letterman and Ferguson rather than to struck talk shows. At this time, picket lines at venues such as NBC (both Burbank and Rockefeller Center), The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and the Golden Globes are essential. Outreach to advertisers and investors will intensify in the days ahead and writers will continue to develop new media content itself to advance our position.