Network Puts on the Pressure

In a move that could end up hurting more than helping and possibly be a stumbling block once the negotiations begin on the renewal of the upcoming Screen Actors Guild (SAG) contracts, one network in particular put heavy-duty pressure on one on-air talent with threats of being fired along with 75 of his staff members.

NBC gave an ultimatum to talk show host Carson Daly, basically telling him to return to work behind his television desk or say bye bye to his talk show career.

“An ultimatum was put in front of me,” Daly told the Los Angeles Times of his decision to return to host NBC’s “Last Call With Carson Daly” during a continuing writer’s strike. “It was, ‘Put a new show on Dec. 3 or 75 people are fired. What’s your answer?”‘

To prevent his staff from being fired before the holidays, Daly decided it best to give in to the network brass’ pressure and return before the camera. There has been no official comment from NBC Universal.

Since this was done at the beginning of this month, but is only now coming to the public’s attention, one has to wonder if the same kind of tactics were used against Leno, O’Brien, Kimmel, Stewart and Colbert to make them return before the resolution of the current writer’s strike.

There is no doubt that SAG will remember this kind of covert action from the “bosses” when it comes time to re-negotiate their contracts with networks and studios through the AMPTP.

Upon hearing of the pressure placed on stars to return sooner than promised to their shows the Writers Guild of America (WGA) issued a statement saying they were boh “disappointed” and “appalled” by the actions of the network to use such tactics.