Late-night TV shows returning to air

The development could cut both ways for the union. Suspended late-night programming has been the most visible sign of the strike for the viewing public, and bringing the shows back could remove a significant piece of leverage. At the same time, the hosts could come back and pepper their network bosses with ridicule in support of the writers' cause.

That's what Johnny Carson did in 1988, when he similarly returned to the air after two months off during a writers' strike then. Carson worked without writers for three weeks, then reached a separate deal with the union to bring his staff back.

"We've been taking shots at NBC for 15 years," noted Jeff Ross, "Late Night" executive producer.

The networks have been suffering in the ratings without the live programming, giving ABC's "Nightline" its biggest boost since the days of Ted Koppel.

Both Ross and Debbie Vickers, executive producer of "Tonight," said they are beginning to contemplate how their shows will be different. It's not even clear whether Leno will open the show with a traditional monologue, Vickers said, although she noted that Carson kept that element even without his joke writers by writing his own.

But Carson was not a guild member, whereas Leno and O'Brien are. For that and other practical reasons, they may be forced to return to an old-fashioned notion of a talk show by spending more time with guests. In recent years, the late-night programs have relied much more heavily on prepared comedy bits.

"There are a lot of ways we can go with this," Ross said. "Now we have to be serious and figure it out."

If Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company strikes a separate deal, it raises the prospect of a Letterman show with its writers competing for a prolonged period against Leno without writers. It could give Letterman a competitive edge in a time slot where Leno has dominated in the ratings for the past decade.

A similar imbalance is possible an hour later: Worldwide Pants owns Craig Ferguson's CBS talk show that airs directly opposite O'Brien.

"It certainly isn't our first choice to go against them with writers," Vickers said. "But this is beyond our control."

With Kimmel's show ultimately controlled by the Walt Disney Co. and Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" by Viacom, it's far less likely they would strike separate deals with writers.

Both the NBC show executives said that many potential guests privately expressed a reluctance to cross picket lines to appear. But as the strike has continued, that opposition is melting, they said. Neither of the programs has announced any bookings for their returns.

Don't miss this on MSNBC.com Pass it on: Sons of infertile men may be next The eight biggest Olympic marketing debacles Reality show judges range from wise to wacko Cosmic Log: Is this your jetpack? Forget your inhibitions: World's sexiest islands

MORE FROM MEDIA BIZ

Media biz Section Front

CBS, Disney may join Apple TV venture Pepsi not advertising in Super Bowl next year Editor & Publisher closing after 108 years Woods scandal a boon to Internet publications Tiger Woods TV ads vanish from prime-time AOL goes it alone in split with Time Warner 12 companies that ace Twitter GE reaches deal with Comcast for NBC Comcast-NBC will face tough antitrust review NBC timeline: Key dates in its history Media biz Section Front   Add Media biz headlines to your news reader: