On Friday, December 21,, 2007, the WGA will sit down with the leadership in David Letterman’s Worldwide Paints production company to work out a separate contract that would give Letterman’s “Late Show” the unqualified distinction of being the only late-night TV program going live with a full writing staff.
If the deal is hatched, and there is no indication there won’t be some kind of mutual agreement, it would cover Dave’s own show, as well as Craig Ferguson’s late, late night talk show, which is also owned by Letterman’s company.
The plan from both sides is to have a deal ironed out and signed in enough time for Letterman and Ferguson to return to the air on January 2, 2008, the same date that Leno, O’Brien and Kimmel will return without their writing staff in tow.
“With the WGA now embracing a strategy of offering interim agreements to individual companies, it is inconceivable to us that there is any producing entity more deserving than Worldwide Pants, which has been and continues to be a staunch supporter of the Writer’s Guild and its positions,” said Rob Burnett, the company’s president, in a statement issued today.
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