WGA and Jon Stewart question

[Betsy Ross]

Can someone explain to me, or provide a link, how Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert justify crossing a picket line to produce their shows?

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. from what I understand

They have a performer's contract that has a no sympathy clause which forces them to go back to work. Since their shows are non-scripted now it isn't violating the WGA strike and I'm fairly certain the WGA is ok with this

[NashVegas]

4. I Don't Quite Believe

A Daily Show is entirely non-scripted. I wouldn't rule out some of the jokes coming from the techies who put the stuff together, but if Jon is doing all of it ad-lib, he'll be exhausted in a hurry.

[democracyindanger]

2. Contractual obligations.

Stewart and Colbert are contracted as writers, performers and producers for their shows. Comedy Central is holding them to their performer and producer contracts. They got permission from the WGA as long as they did no writing that their writing staff would normally do. The WGA does not consider them scabs.

Leno, on the other hand, *is* a lowlife scab.

[Laurab]

3. On the first show, Jon almost cried

when he was talking about his writers. He's done a good job advocating for them, while fulfilling his contractual obligation. Stephen had his first audience clap and cheer for at least five minutes to fill up time on his first show back, had a long beard, and was shredding a "script" - Jon "caught" him.

IMO, they're both doing a good job advocating for the writers - it's obvious neither one of them wants to be there, and it shows.

[CreekDog]

5. I noticed that too (it's brutal to watch, despite their talents)

and look at the crappy guests they are getting.

back to Letterman for a while!

[Orsino]

6. And apparently the WGA aren't quite angelic.

He was broadly hinting that he would like one of those custom agreements that other shows have gotten, and seemed desperate for the WGA to notice.

Hope it works. He did such a good job of making the WGA position clear that they should be thanking him rather than refusing to talk.

[Shakespeare]

7. There's a significant reason he didn't (and won't) get one of those agreements.

David Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants, owns his show (as well as the other one with such an agreement), therefore he was able to negotiate directly with the union. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are both owned by mammoth Viacom, which will NOT negotiate with the union. Stewart and Colbert are pretty much powerless unless and until Viacom decides to talk to the WGA.

Edited to add: it's not a matter of WGA dealing unethically here (RE your "angelic" comment).

[Orsino]

9. Ah. Stewart shouldn't have been poking them, then.

I had thought that he owned production of his show and Colbert's.

on edit: and perhaps he wasn't twisting arms, but was only demonstrating his good will (again).

[MonkeyFunk]

10. No

Letterman owns Worldwide Pants, which makes his show.

The Daily Show and Colbert Report are owned by viacom. Stewart may well be the executive producer of his show, but he doesn't own it.

Letterman was brilliant when he negotiated his deal with CBS.

[Orsino]

12. Got it, thanks. n/t

[Lisa]

8. they had a bit last night with John Oliver, explaining that he could be deported

... for striking. He's British, and apparently this is stipulated in his work permit. (Yet there he was, in the studio and on the picket line at the same time -- making great use of that greenscreen technology.)

Both Stewart and Colbert have been trying (sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes more subtly) to show how important writers are to the show. The labor relations prof Stewart interviewed on Monday helped him lay out a scenario where grassroots pressure forces the big producers to cave in (through independent agreements with production companies like Letterman's, and apparently Stewart tried to convince the company that employs him to do the same thing).

[Fredda Weinberg]

11. Keeping everyone else employed n/t