Now that David Letterman has struck a deal with the WGA through his tiny, independently owned Worldwide Pants company, he may have a chance to finally catch Jay Leno, as he's been far behind Leno in ratings since 1995.
The two obvious advantages he may have is the addition of his writing team, and the potential resistance of celebrities who are members of the Screen Actors Guild to cross the picket lines, making it possible that Letterman may score many more of them as guests.
While it's possible that Letterman may win over the short term, I'm not so sure that's a given. Everybody pretty much has landed the same guests over the years, and the differentiator has been the talk show hosts themselves. In that reguard, the public has decided that Leno is their top guy.
The problem Letterman faces, is if he isn't able to forge ahead with all his advantages, he's really going to look like a loser. For the Writers Guild, they've also taken a big chance for the very same reasons.
This situation underscores the problems the Writers Guild represents. Not only do they make a ton of money, contrary to their disingenuous efforts to make it look like they're all ready to go to the soup lines, but the rules currently in place don't allow the talk show hosts to write their own material. This is something that needs to be changed. Nobody from another job should be able to dictate to someone else what they can or can't do on their job. That's one of the reasons why unions are dinosaurs.
Another interesting twist in this is how the hosts respond. Will they find interesting ways to engage viewers that don't include scripted material? Will they look to a different kind of guest to present to the public. Jay Leno and the Tonight Show have already landed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as a guest.
In the end, they'll find ways to adapt and respond to the existing conditions. The question becomes whether the Writers Guild will look much weaker, along with David Letterman as a result.
The Writers Guild won't look too bright or effective if Leno continues to outperform Letterman.
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» Leno and "Tonight Show" KOs Letterman and Writers Guild from BizofShowBiz
I wrote a couple days ago that the hype about Dave Letterman getting back writers for his show being touted as a competitive advantage, had better come through in reality. The results for the first night are in, and the... [Read More]
Tracked on: January 3, 2008 5:48 PM | Permalink to Trackback