NBC put off the inevitable as long as it could, so it says.

The network confirmed Friday that nearly 80 nonwriting members of The Tonight Show staff have been laid off, as NBC previously said would happen if no arrangement could be made to get either Jay Leno or a guest back into the host's chair by the end of the month.

Leno reportedly has agreed to foot the bill for his workers' salaries at least until the end of this week, a move that NBC execs said has been in the works since the Peacock Network announced that layoffs were inevitable.

Along with Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Craig Ferguson—all card-carrying Writers Guild of America members like himself—the Tonight Show host has refused to cross WGA picket lines and his show has been in repeats since the strike began Nov. 5.

NBC had originally planned to give the production staff, technicians and other below-the-line employees the boot two weeks ago, it extended the firing deadline to Nov. 30, presumably to avoid looking like the Grinch who stole Christmas and Thanksgiving.

While ABC is said to still be keeping Kimmel's crew in the green, Letterman's World Wide Pants production company has taken over payroll duties for Late Show and Late Late Show workers for the rest of 2007, and O'Brien's people announced Thursday that the Late Night host will be bankrolling the holiday season for about 50 nonwriters out of pocket.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, Leno has also dipped into his own coffers to dole out approximately half a million dollars in bonus checks to departing employees, although some longtime staffers—who unlike the striking writers aren't collecting rerun residuals—got as little as $100. (And that's in addition to the Krispy Kremes Leno doled out when the strike began.)

The trade also reports that crew members have been told that there's no guarantee they'll be rehired once shooting resumes, though Leno told them when the strike began that they would be taken care of.

Another staffer told THR that Leno is only waiting to return to work because O'Brien and Letterman haven't gone back yet and he doesn't want to lose face with the WGA.

So things might be even worse off than they already seem in Burbank, although a rep for Leno said Monday that the veteran funnyman has made a habit of handing out bonuses for staff aniversaries and around the holidays.

"There is a reason he's viewed as a good guy," publicist Dick Guttman said.

NBC and Sci-Fi Channel parent Universal Media Studios has also exercised the force majeur clause in the contracts of Screen Actors Guild members, suspending the regular casts of 30 Rock, The Office, Bionic Woman and Battlestar Galactica for five weeks with a 50 percent pay cut.

But Universal is by no means the only one feeling the pinch. Sony Pictures TV suspended Til Death and Rules of Engagement regulars without pay, much to the consternation of SAG and the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists, and Warner Bros. TV has informed employees that layoffs are inevitable if the strike continues.

And the walkout endures, despite the renewed hopes that an end was in sight after the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers agreed to resume negotiations this week.

After a three-day media blackout, AMPTP announced Thursday that studios and networks have offered writers a "groundbreaking" new media deal that would result in $130 million in additional compensation from content streamed online, Internet-specific content and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels.

But the WGA quickly burst that optimistic-sounding bubble, stating that the alliance's proposal amounted to a "massive rollback" rather than an attractive deal. The guild reasserted the workability of its own solution to the gridlock, saying that its plan would only cost the companies approximately $151 million over three years, representing little more than a 3 percent increase in writers' earnings.

Talks are scheduled to continue on Tuesday, with the WGA urging picketers to keep on keepin' on in the meantime. 

(Originally published Friday, Nov. 30, 2007 at 5:32 p.m. PT)