Striking writers deserve forum on talk shows
December 5, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic
I want to lay down a challenge for Carson Daly and Ellen DeGeneres, since they've decided to host their talk shows without striking writers:
They should invite their writers to appear on "Last Call With Carson Daly" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," even if it means asking them to cross their own picket lines. They could talk about the strike, how they feel about the shows going without them and what life is like as 21st century laborers on a picket line.
Both Carson and Ellen have talked about how much they love and support their scribblers. Why not pay them the $600, or however much talk-show guests get paid, to make their case to loyal viewers?
Ellen wasn't off the air long before she returned to the set. Carson resumed "Last Call" on Monday. On the show, he said he did so only because NBC executives, presumably, gave him an ultimatum they would fire his 75 other staffers if he didn't. And NBC had just canned 80 of Jay Leno's staff. (Leno said he'd pay their salaries, at least for a while.)
"You either come back or they're laid off," someone told Daly, though he didn't name names. "I said, 'Let's turn the lights on, I'm gonna come back.' "
Daly said it was no fun without writers. Monday's show didn't look like much fun.
Eight minutes in, he ran out of things to talk about and declared, "I'm not sure what to do now." So he held up photos of staffers, then interviewed Victoria's Secret model Karolina Kurkova.
"Wow, you're tall," he said, then administered a driving-test quiz to Kurkova, who doesn't have a license.
"I know you don't go on red; you stop. You go when it's green, right?" she said. "I'm blond. I'm blond."
Ellen has been filling her time partly by playing bongos. Carson says he'll fill time with more band performances (Monday's was Chicago's Plain White T's) and add interviews of young people who could use a showbiz break.
Even if you're on the side of striking writers, it's hard to get upset with Ellen and Carson for putting paychecks into the hands of directors and camera operators and the like.
But clearly the hosts are suffering a bit without professional pens, and they're admitting as much. So, talk show hosts: bring those writers on to chat. They are newsmakers, after all. And they could use the money.
delfman@suntimes.com
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic
I want to lay down a challenge for Carson Daly and Ellen DeGeneres, since they've decided to host their talk shows without striking writers:
They should invite their writers to appear on "Last Call With Carson Daly" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," even if it means asking them to cross their own picket lines. They could talk about the strike, how they feel about the shows going without them and what life is like as 21st century laborers on a picket line.
Both Carson and Ellen have talked about how much they love and support their scribblers. Why not pay them the $600, or however much talk-show guests get paid, to make their case to loyal viewers?
Ellen wasn't off the air long before she returned to the set. Carson resumed "Last Call" on Monday. On the show, he said he did so only because NBC executives, presumably, gave him an ultimatum they would fire his 75 other staffers if he didn't. And NBC had just canned 80 of Jay Leno's staff. (Leno said he'd pay their salaries, at least for a while.)
"You either come back or they're laid off," someone told Daly, though he didn't name names. "I said, 'Let's turn the lights on, I'm gonna come back.' "
Daly said it was no fun without writers. Monday's show didn't look like much fun.
Eight minutes in, he ran out of things to talk about and declared, "I'm not sure what to do now." So he held up photos of staffers, then interviewed Victoria's Secret model Karolina Kurkova.
"Wow, you're tall," he said, then administered a driving-test quiz to Kurkova, who doesn't have a license.
"I know you don't go on red; you stop. You go when it's green, right?" she said. "I'm blond. I'm blond."
Ellen has been filling her time partly by playing bongos. Carson says he'll fill time with more band performances (Monday's was Chicago's Plain White T's) and add interviews of young people who could use a showbiz break.
Even if you're on the side of striking writers, it's hard to get upset with Ellen and Carson for putting paychecks into the hands of directors and camera operators and the like.
But clearly the hosts are suffering a bit without professional pens, and they're admitting as much. So, talk show hosts: bring those writers on to chat. They are newsmakers, after all. And they could use the money.
delfman@suntimes.com
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