Carson Daly Vs. The WGA

On November 29th, Carson Daly taped his first show back to go on the air since November 5th when the writers who work for the WGA( Writer's Guild of America), went on strike. The show consisted of Karolina Kurkova, a Victoria Secret model, Yvonne Strahovski, an Australian actress who plays Sarah on the NBC sitcom "Chuck" and the musical group Soulja Boy Tellem. Carson's first show back airs this Monday night (Tuesday morning) at 1:30 AM. Strahovski's interview airs on Tuesday.

But the real show was the one outside the studio. As audience members showed up to participate in the show and see the interviews, 7-10 writers in a picket line were at the studio gate to hand out fliers about the strike. They were very polite but very determined to let people know that this show was crossing the line. They didn't stop picketing until everyone had gone inside the studio. The picketers knew this was Carson's first night back and came out to protest. Why? Because Carson is the first late-night talk show host to go back on the air since the strike began.

So why was Carson even doing his show while the writers were on strike? He says went to back to work for the other 75 people who work for the show. Although Carson says he loves his writers and literally almost can't do the show without them, he was given the choice of either putting on a show this Monday night or having all of his staff, most of whom have been with him since the show began, get laid off. He says there was no choice for him; he didn't even have to think about it. He went back to work. Now, whether or not this is the real reason, he seemed very sincere about it and spends the first five minutes on Monday's show explaining himself.

Unfortunately we have to witness this show without its writers, that barely stays alive with its writers. The show was a jumble of Carson trying to figure out what to say, stumbling over his words and constantly asking the stage manager how much time he had left until the next commercial. The highlight of the show (which is something Carson also says on the following taping for Tuesday night) was him showing pictures of a staff Thanksgiving party in which his Dad helped carve the turkey. That being the highlight of the show is merely a joke, the best one of the night. The rest of the Monday night's show is filled with guests he must have gotten on short notice as they were as uninteresting as that last joke. Kurkova's interview, which airs on Monday night consists of Carson telling her how beautiful she is and Strahovski's interview consists of Carson telling her how great her show is. The only semi-interesting part was the outside live performance of Soulja Boy, the 12-16 year old pop rap group version New Edition.

But again, something that trumped this performance was the even more loud and cranky writers who stood just outside the gates where the performance was taking place with their bullhorns, many more picketers, and chants like "Carson Daly must go!"�. Before the performance began, the picketers bellowed for 20 minutes at the crowd telling them to protest the Carson Daly show and not to cross the picket line. The writers are determined to get their share of the profits that companies are making off their work in DVD and other sales. And rightly so.

The Carson Daly show airs tonight and there is sure to be a lot more protests as writers believe by going back that he is not supporting them. He's begun taping for next week's show as well and picketers still stand outside while the taping is in progress. But when all is said and done, I sincerely hope that the writers do go back to Carson's show and work for him because believe me when I say, he can't do it without them.

Last Call with Carson Daly airs weeknights at 1:30 Am on NBC.