David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. Late-night returns: Day One aftermath
Writers or no writers, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien beat David Letterman and Craig Ferguson in the ratings Wednesday night. But how long will it last, as word gets out about which shows have stronger (or actual) comedy material?
Particularly given that meanwhile, the WGA took umbrage to Leno going to the trouble to write his monologue (perhaps he shouldn’t’ve admitted doing so in the middle of the monologue itself):
“A discussion took place today between Jay Leno and the Writers Guild to clarify to him that writing for ‘The Tonight Show’ constitutes a violation of the Guilds’ strike rules.”
NBC issued a statement: "The WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue for "The Tonight Show." The WGA is not permitted to implement rules that conflict with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the studios and the WGA."
Leno most assiduously tried to make his show look like business as usual, understanding just how little the rest of the country care about or understand the strike and therefore not wanting to give them much of a social-studies lesson. It’s hard to imagine that he’s going to sacrifice his precious monologue after a mere sentence-long scolding from the WGA.