Even though the striking WGA, along with the absent late night shows, and plethora of reruns, illustrates a sense of unity when it comes to workers, the strikes are now starting to put other folks jobs in jeopardy. Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien have decided to return to the airwaves in January, whether the WGA is striking or not, so that they don’t have to lay folks on their staff off:

O’Brien said his decision was motivated by the need to keep his non-WGA staffers employed.”With the New Year upon us, I am left with a difficult decision,” he said in a statement released by NBC Monday morning. “Either go back to work and keep my staff employed or stay dark and allow 80 people, many of whom have worked for me for fourteen years, to lose their jobs.”If my show were entirely scripted I would have no choice,” he added. “But the truth is that shows like mine are hybrids, with both written and non-written content. An unwritten version of ‘Late Night,’ though not desirable, is possible - and no one has to be fired.” [Variety]

How this will effect negotiations is yet to be seen - but I will admit that I have missed Conan and am glad he and Leno and others are also supporting the other folks that work for them and are dependent on the show being on the air. Plus if the video below is any indication, Conan’s staff is probably looking forward to a good shave:  

The ongoing WGA strike looks to be taking a new direction - that is studio officials now want to move with their talks with the Director’s Guild of America, talks that were originally slated for after the writer’s strike was resolved and before the pay agreement they currently have expires in June.The studios hope that if they reach a deal with the directors, the deal with the WGA will eventually fall into place and they foresee it being much easier to reach a deal with the directors. With cable executives having to air reruns and reality TV and movie studios dealing with lackluster performance at the box office, they must be feeling a little anxious (although not willing to budge) - hopefully this will work in the writers and directors favor. For now, I just keep checking in the the WGA’s Speechless channel on YouTube (if they keep making content, they may be able to strike their own deal with YouTube for internet money!) And speaking of the relationship between writers and directors, my two favorite in their Speechless series are below :    

While the continuing writers strike has left our TV sets full of reruns it has left the internet and YouTube in particular, full of really entertaining videos made by the striking writers

The one below may be my favorite:

John Edwards made another appearance with the striking WGA on Tuesday in New York’s Washington Square Park, joining writers and actors in their struggle against corporations and media conglomerates.

This is the second time Edwards spoke on behalf of the WGA (earlier this month he joined them in LA). Between the WGA and the Broadway stagehands strike it looks like labor is making it’s way back into the mainstream. Speaking of which, there is a great new documentary out about the radical folk-singer, labor supporter Pete Seeger called Pete Seeger : The Power of Song that focuses on his work uniting folks with his music and the troubles he faced because of involvement with the labor movement and the communist party.

To learn more about why the writers of the WGA are striking visit http://www.unitedhollywood.com and be sure to watch the trailer for Pete Seeger below.

The Writers Guild of America is still holding out for fair compensation when it comes to media and the internet. They’ve been on strike for more than 2 weeks causing many TV shows to halt production and many films start dates to be pushed back. Everyday the writer’s are coming up with creative ways to get the word out about the strike and constantly have new folks joining them on the streetThis weekend, the writers and stars of Saturday Night Live proved the show could go on but only for a select few who were able to get into the groups live performance of the show at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater.Last week John Edwards showed his support for the writers when he joined them on the picket line. Will this help his bid for the Democratic nomination? Watch below and see what you think: