WGA Cuts Deal With Letterman and Ferguson

Posted on December 28, 2007

The WGA has cut a deal with both David Letterman and Craig Ferguson which will allow the talk show hosts to return to the airways with their writers. The WGA issued a statment:

"The Writers Guild has reached a binding independent agreement today with Worldwide Pants that will allow Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return to the air with their full writing staffs. This is a comprehensive agreement that addresses the issues important to writers, particularly New Media. Worldwide Pants has accepted the very same proposals that the Guild was prepared to present to the media conglomerates when they walked out of negotiations on December 7.
Today's agreement dramatically illustrates that the Writers Guild wants to put people back to work, and that when a company comes to the table prepared to negotiate seriously a fair and reasonable deal can be reached quickly. It's time for NBC-Universal to step up to the plate and negotiate a company-wide deal that will put Jay Leno, who has supported our cause from the beginning, back on the air with his writers."

David Letterman also issued a statement:

"We're happy to be going back to work, and particularly pleased to be doing it with our writers. This is not a solution to the strike, which unfortunately continues to disrupt the lives of thousands. But I hope it will be seen as a step in the right direction."

This is a major victory for the WGA and shows how the writers' demands are completely reasonable. Now Letterman and Craig Ferguson (whose show is owned by Letterman's Worldwide Pants) can go back on the air with their comedy writers. Meanwhile, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien are going back on the air with no writers. They are not allowed to write their own monologues under the strike rules and most A-List actors won't appear on their shows because of their support for the WGA.