Leno's the big ratings winner; Kimmel sees a dip
NEW YORK — The return of television’s late-night comedy shows was greeted eagerly by viewers tired of repeats, with nearly every program drawing season-high audiences Wednesday, according to early ratings data provided by the networks.
“The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” — long the genre’s top dog — was the big winner, with 7.2 million viewers, a bump of more than 40% from his pre-strike average this season of 5 million viewers. His fellow NBC host, Conan O’Brien, had 2.8 million viewers, up from the 2.1 million who tuned in before the strike started.
On CBS — the only network whose late-night programs returned with their writing staffs — David Letterman’s “Late Show” pulled in 5.5 million viewers, up 45% from the 3.78 million viewers who watched pre-strike. “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” attracted 2.24 million viewers, compared to his 1.74 million pre-strike average.
The only late-night host to post lower viewership Wednesday than before the strike began was ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, who averaged 1.8 million viewers in his first show back on the air. Before the labor dispute, an average of 1.9 million viewers tuned into “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Kimmel show’s midnight start time puts it up against the last half of Leno’s and Letterman’s programs.
--Matea Gold
i wonder whether this story will make the late night monologues or top ten lists?
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003691385
Newspaper Guild's NLRB Charge Takes On Striking Writers Guild
By Joe Strupp
Published: January 03, 2008
NEW YORK While The Writers Guild of America continues its nationwide strike, a small group of its staff represented by the Newspaper Guild is claiming unfair labor practices and has filed a series of charges with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Newspaper Guild of New York, which represents 19 staff employees of the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE), filed several unfair labor charges with the NLRB on Thursday, according to a release. This is the same guild local that represents newsroom employees at several outlets, including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, and Reuters.
The charges claim the WGAE "has reneged on a ratified contract with its own staff, threatened a staff union leader and delayed holiday bonuses because its employees’ union asserted its rights."
"At the heart of the dispute is the WGAE management’s refusal to sign a contract that was ratified in October by its staff, who represent, organize and provide service and support to WGAE members, including those who are now out on strike," the Newspaper Guild release stated. "WGAE leaders do not deny that a contract has been ratified and is in place, but now contend that they did not mean to propose all of the wage increases that were contained in the contract offer that was accepted by the staff."
Added Newspaper Guild President Bill O'Meara: "It’s unbelievable that a union doesn’t understand that it can’t pick and choose the language it wants to live up to in a contract. The contract language clearly supports our position regarding money owed our members that management is now refusing to pay.”
O’Meara said the dispute arose after the Writers Guild rewrote the previously ratified contract and insisted that the Newspaper Guild sign the revised version. “It’s like a car salesman demanding that you sign a contract after he’s changed all the numbers that you had agreed upon,” he said.
But WGAE Spokeswoman Sherry Goldman told E&P the complaint was "making a mountain out of a molehill." She said the dispute centers primarily on the Newspaper Guild incorrectly interpreting the unsigned contract to provide a 6% raise for 2007 when it was a 3% raise.
She also said that bonuses were paid, although three days late.
Goldman said that the WGAE had filed its own charge with the NLRB in early December over the same contract dispute. "I'm not surprised," Goldman said about the Newspaper Guild filing. "The National Labor Relations Board is designed to make these decisions."
The Newspaper Guild stressed in its release, however, that it "supports the striking writers in their dispute with television and movie producers, which is entering its ninth week."
"Out of respect for our striking fellow union members we tried to work this out quietly, and we even offered to submit the dispute to arbitration,” O’Meara said. “But the WGAE leadership’s anti-labor stance against its own workers and its filing of a baseless charge against us two weeks ago, while we were still trying to resolve the issues, forced us to reluctantly take this public step to defend our members and their contract.”
Posted by: guild v. guild | January 03, 2008 at 03:45 PM
it's a miracle anything gets done at wgae. mangan has really mangled the office management and both employees and wgae members end up paying the price. it's amazing she's lasted this long, given the number of major boo-boos she's made in her tenure. i guess they've taken a lot of the back and forth from the staff negotiations down but I found this site very informative. http://wgaestaffunion.wordpress.com/
Posted by: not surprising | January 06, 2008 at 11:50 AM