Late Night Talk Shows Eye October Return, Pending Writers’ Strike Resolution

Summary

• Late night talk shows may return in early October as the writers’ strike comes to a tentative conclusion.
• While the writers’ strike has ended, the SAG-AFTRA strike is still ongoing, presenting potential challenges for late night talk shows that heavily rely on celebrity guest stars.
• Major daily shows like The Late Show, The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Late Night are expected to coordinate a return date, as they have collaborated on supporting their out-of-work employees.

As the writers’ strike comes to a tentative conclusion, late night talk shows eye speedy returns. According to a report from Variety, several late night shows could return in early October. The report indicates that several late night producers have already begun reaching out to staffers to discuss return dates – this, of course, depends on when the WGA (Writers Guild of America) authorizes writers to get back to work. That announcement is imminent, as the WGA announced a tentative agreement with the AMPTP (The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) on Sunday night.

One insider told the publication:

“I think everybody’s leaning forward, like they’re ready to go…. I would look for them to return on October 2 or October 9. I think that they are going to be very motivated to get their crews working again.”

While the writers’ strike has reached a resolution, the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) strike is still ongoing. While late night hosts were striking WGA members (and talk shows are permitted under SAG-AFTRA’s network code deal), they heavily rely on celebrity guest stars, which may present some issues. Until the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, late night talk will have to depend on “musicians, sports figures, politicians, reality stars, authors, celebrity chefs and other ways to fill the time.” SAG-AFTRA members are allowed to participate in late night shows as long as they are not promoting any SAG-related projects.

Insiders expect that the major daily shows, including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Late Night with Seth Meyers, will coordinate a return date. This seems likely, given that the four hosts (alongside John Oliver) have collaborated on the Strike Force Five podcast, created to support their out-of-work employees. HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver will likely take longer to return, as the show depends on more research and writing.

Related: Jerry Seinfeld Responds to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Exposé Incident as an “Idiotic Twisting of Events”

When Will Other Talk Shows Return?

Warner Bros. Television/CBS

While October is just days away, one show may return even sooner. Real Time with Bill Maher was initially set to return this weekend, a decision Maher reversed due to writers’ strike. That early scheduled return could very much mean that Real Time with Bill Maher could be back on air as soon as this upcoming Friday.

As for daytime television, Deadline reports that The Drew Barrymore Show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, and The Talk are expected to return for new seasons by the second week of October. All three shows, which have historically employed WGA writers, were set to begin airing last week. On September 10, Drew Barrymore posted a (now deleted) video to her Instagram, apologizing to writers and explaining why she was choosing to move forward with her daytime talk show despite the WGA strike:

“There’s a huge question of the why — why am I doing this? Well, I certainly couldn’t have expected this kind of attention, and we aren’t going to break rules and we will be in compliance. I wanted to do this, because as I said, this is bigger than me and there are other people’s jobs on the line,” she said.

Following backlash to Barrymore’s post, all three shows announced they would not return as scheduled.

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