Dave Still Doesn't Have Write Stuff
David Letterman isn't returning to the home office just yet.
Letterman's Worldwide Pants team powwowed with striking writers on Friday, hoping to clear the way for Late Show and The Late Late Show with Colin Ferguson to return to the airwaves with their writing staffs.
While the feeling before the session was that the union would okay Letterman's plans, the talks stalled.
The writers union offered a terse (they're on strike, after all) recap of the sitdown.
"Representatives from Worldwide Pants and the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East met today. A lively exchange of information took place. The WGAW and WGAE will not comment further."
Worldwide Pants wasn't exactly effusive in its own statement.
"We had a substantive discussion today with the WGA and look forward to continuing these talks next week," said Rob Burnett, Pants' president and CEO.
Letterman and Ferguson, both WGA members, have been off the air since the strike began seven weeks ago. Letterman has continued to pay the salaries of all employees for both shows.
Unlike his network rivals, Letterman independently owns and produces Late Show and Late Late Show for CBS. He had been trying to reach a side deal with the WGA allowing him and Ferguson to be the first of the late-night stars to resume broadcasting with their full complement of writers.
But the pressure is on the Pants bunch.
Over the last week, NBC's Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel all announced they would be back on air Jan. 2 sans scribes, while Comedy Central's clown princes Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are due back Jan. 7.
Should talks stagnate, there's a chance Letterman and Ferguson would return to the air on Jan. 2 and ad-lib their way through.
"The day Dave goes back is the day I go back," Ferguson told TV Barn blogger Aaron Barnhart.
"And if we are going back, I'm not going to work as a writer. I'll host the show but I won't write for it. I'll have to speak without thinking, which actually, I have two failed marriages, so I think everybody knows I can do. I'll ramble."
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