Huckabee to cross picket line -- to join Leno

Amid heightened labor tensions, late-night television’s two biggest brand names are returning to the air waves tonight after a two-month strike-imposed hiatus.

CBS’ David Letterman will welcome comedian Robin Williams, while Jay Leno will sit down with Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee (pictured) -- who becomes the first White House candidate to cross the picket line. Others, including U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, have all vowed to honor the strike.

Bill Maher and Donald Trump will join Letterman the following two nights. NBC hasn’t announced who Leno’s subsequent guests will be.

The longtime Letterman-Leno rivalry will be highly charged as the CBS host will come back with his full writing staff. Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, reached a separate deal with the writers last week. That deal also included the writers for Craig Ferguson’s “Late Late Show,” which also returns tonight.

Leno, meanwhile, appears tonight without the help of his writers –- and is expected to face picket lines. WGA strikers will also be out for returning NBC late-night host Conan O’Brien and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. In a letter to members yesterday, WGA East president Michael Winship said the pickets are not “of the hosts themselves but the companies for which their shows are produced.”

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” and “The Colbert Report” are slated to return Monday, Jan. 7, but without their striking writers. It's unclear whether they will face picket lines as well.

More news on the strike

-- Martin Miller

Comments

[stephen bridgewater]

Dear Jay, Conan, Candidate Huckabee and fellow members of WGA,DGA, SAG, Teamsters and IATSE:

I recently read one of Jay's reasons for his return is to get his staff a paycheck. Pure spin Jay ! Perhaps you could pay them to improve the ventilation where you keep your fleet of cars.

The talk show circuit needs to stay dark until this is settled. Is NBC more important than settling a key union issue of fairness that touches thousands of middle and lower class salaries.

Does Jay plan on using non union writers to supply scab material ? He has used stringer -writers (non-union) prior to the strike.

WGA, DGA and SAG leaders and board members: The time has come for you to dial up the protest. For Jay Leno or any other TV host to return to work, prior to the settling of the writers strike, is pure betrayal.

The issues of DVD sales and the internet must be settled. Everyone knows that the DVD sales are the most profitable branch of our business and within the next two years most of the public will be ordering their product through the internet or telephone downloads.

Even the smallest of cable networks are preparing for video on demand technology. Pre-sales and production is preparing for it as we speak.

I had one producer tell me the internet issue can't be defined. These producers are counting on apathy and ignorance, just like Washington and our government. The producers are betting on our sweaty palms as our mortgage looms.

I recently confirmed that a little two million dollar budgeted TV movie I helped make, has surpassed the three million mark in DVD sales alone.

One successful producer I know is planning to platform off the failure of the strike to form projects without any DGA, WGA, IA OR TEAMSTER union members around to make it. SAG you're next!

I invite all SAG, DGA and WGA members with any means possible, short of breaking the law to get Jay's attention.

But let's not just hold the show host's in contempt.
No celebrities should contribute to NBC's delinquency with their presence. The "star's" need to stand with us, as we fight for that which is right; a few crumbs, within a single piece of the pie.
Where is the voice of Cruise and Julia ?
Why have their stayed silent and mushy.
Meryl, Eastwood, Spielberg, Hanks, Willis, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp and anybody else who makes 20 million a picture -- Why are you staying neutral ?

Have you rigged your own conscience in favor of those who make YOU rich ?
Are you speechless because of profit participation ?

No celebrity should participate in the Jay Leno show until the strike has been settled or NBC has made the same agreement that David Lettermen made. If Leno is trying to book you, please decline and tell them why.

WE ALL need to respect, honor and consider the past history of poor working conditions, unfair pay scales, broken contracts, unsafe working conditions, no-residuals, bad health care and long hours with no overtime. Those who long ago changed all this on their backs, would not understand the lack of strength in our fight.

Under the Reagan administration the politicians on both sides of the aisle slipped a little thing through the cracks called de-regulation of ownership in radio and TV. Basically what happened; a handful of men now control our broadcasting, where once thousands of owners shared a control on how our media was run. It kept pay checks fair and politics balanced. Now we have a dead music industry and creativity controlled by a handful of programming consultants.

If we give up on our current protest, we will be letting an even smaller number of people get richer AND more powerful.

Hold Jay accountable for his early return. Our creativity as a community is being reproduced without fair profit compensation.

It is time to stand the line... drawn in the sand.

The men and women who started our unions took revolutionary and bold steps. These people risked it all; job security, financial stability and black balling.

Speaking of black balling, where's yours ?

Stephen W. Bridgewater
Director and Actor
Acton California
310 650 0363