NBC to Leno writers - Fuck you!

[MKSheppard]

Link

Shocked Leno staffers fired as strike drags on
Fri Nov 30, 2007 11:47pm EST

By Paul Bond

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - A couple of days after the Writers Guild of America strike began November 5, the star of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" told some 80 of his idled staffers that they need not worry about their finances.

Leno was so adamant about paychecks being safe, many didn't bother looking for new jobs even though NBC was forecasting layoffs.

So it came as quite a shock Friday when the entire staff was told that they were not only out of a job but also that they weren't guaranteed of being rehired once "The Tonight Show" returns.

"Some people were crying. Some people were screaming," said one employee speaking on condition of anonymity.

NBC declined comment on the firings beyond a brief statement that it had "regretfully informed the people who work on 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno' and 'Late Night With Conan O'Brien' that their services are not needed at this time due to our inability to continue production of the shows."

According to several staffers, tensions at "Tonight Show" have been mounting for weeks, and matters weren't helped by news that other late-night hosts have been preserving the jobs of their nonwriting staffs or paying those who had been laid off. O'Brien confirmed Thursday, for example, that he would pay the salaries of at least 50 nonwriting "Late Night" staffers out of his own pocket on a week-to-week basis.

Some "Tonight Show" insiders are angry at Leno, because of an upbeat conference call he held shortly after the WGA strike began.

"He was on speaker phone," a staffer said. "There were 80 of us. He told us not to panic. He said to trust him. He said: 'I can't get into details, but nobody will miss a car payment or lose their house. We're family. Trust me. I'm going to take care of this.' But that was the time we should have been looking for new jobs."

More recently, a letter NBC sent to now-laid-off staffers said, "If your services are needed, we will contact you."

"That's standard boilerplate," said Joe Medeiros, a striking writer who has worked with Leno for 18 years. "It's corporate butt-covering."

According to insiders, the early confidence that Leno expressed stemmed from several options in the works, including the hiring of guest hosts. Leno himself guest-hosted for "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson" during the 1988 writers strike, according to the WGA. This time around, comedian Wanda Sykes was a top pick, but she turned down the offer. Using rock stars on a rotating basis also was considered, insiders said.

Another option was having Leno do a show without a monologue or writers, relying heavily on musical acts and stand-up comedians.

None of the options, though, came to fruition, and "The Tonight Show" has continued airing reruns.

Beyond Leno's misplaced optimism about the financial well-being of his staff, he further damaged himself -- in the eyes of some workers -- with his public behavior. While he privately expressed concern for the jobs of all staff members, to the media he seemed preoccupied with supporting striking writers, including handing out doughnuts to picketers and mugging for press photos.

"He even joked that because of the writers strike, he had more time to work on his car collection," a staffer said. "That didn't sit well with us."

Medeiros said that Leno made his doughnut appearance on Day One of the strike at his request. "I asked him to come out and he did. We thought it sent a message to end the strike."

Asked if writers would object to Leno working without them during the strike in order to save jobs, Medeiros said: "I can't answer that. The story to me is that the corporations are doing this in order to pit groups against each other and break the strike."

The fact that some of Leno's writers are paid $500,000 or more annually also didn't sit well with suddenly out-of-work production staffers who make a fraction of that amount. Writers also are getting residuals on "Tonight Show" reruns that air during the strike.

The final indignation was a Christmas bonus that many thought lacking. Staffers with a couple of years on the job were given $200. Some higher-paid employees were awarded three days of salary or a bit more, about the same bonuses they got last year.

The Leno representative defended the bonuses as well, pointing out that they amounted to $500,000 in aggregate out of Leno's pocket. He also noted that Leno handed out $2 million five years ago to staffers in celebration of his 10th year as host.

"Jay is a very generous man," added Medeiros. "I don't know what people expected. How much more should he give over a situation that he didn't cause?"

But, said one staffer: "When the most powerful man in TV tells you to relax, then you relax. That's why we expected the bonuses to cover us through the strike. He could've at least covered us through Christmas. That would have been nice."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

[MKSheppard]

Found this on Democratic Underground.com; and my commentary:

Fuck the writers, they all have it coming. A poster on DU made a very sailent point that I had completely overlooked:

This happened during the 80's writers strike. The crew, who make less than half what the writers make, lost their homes, health insurance, everything. That's the side of this strike nobody has mentioned until now.

[SCRawl]

I don't have much sympathy for the writers themselves -- everything that happens to them during the strike is of their own doing -- but I do feel for the crew. All of the make-up artists, hairdressers, ushers, prop guys, etc. have to pull down way less than the $500k that the writers get, and do not stand to benefit from the resolution of this dispute at all.

As an aside: Leno paid out $2M in bonuses out of his own pocket? I know that he gets paid a stupid amount of money, but still, we're talking about millions of dollars here, split roughly 80 ways. That's a nice chunk of change for a bonus.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Quite. It does look like the writers are trying to greedily take a bigger slice of the pie and match the celebrities who use their stuff, while trampling on the technicians, runners and so on who also help make the whole thing come together.

If they want to be fair, everyone who works on the programme should earn $500k. I highly doubt that will be happening any time soon.

[Androsphinx]

So, let me get this right. The writers went on strike, thus forcing the network to pull the show, and costing them millions in lower ratings and advertising revenue.

The network then forecast layoffs due to this loss of revenue, and decided to get rid of some of the people who were directly responsible for this loss, who were refusing to work, were producing nothing for the company, and were costing a great deal of money.

What exactly did they think would happen - the network would keep paying as they did nothing and the cost of their strike rose?

[Darth Wong]

Quite. It does look like the writers are trying to greedily take a bigger slice of the pie and match the celebrities who use their stuff, while trampling on the technicians, runners and so on who also help make the whole thing come together.

If they want to be fair, everyone who works on the programme should earn $500k. I highly doubt that will be happening any time soon.

Let's be honest though: the writers are less easily replaced than technicians. You can often tell when there have been major changes in the writing staff of a show because the quality goes downhill. Talented writers are a valuable commodity. In contrast, you could replace every lighting technician and not notice a damned thing.

[Admiral Valdemar]

True enough, there has to be some hierarchy in the order of things because a good presenter like Leno is also harder to come by than a group of good writers, given the problem image is with people.

What the writers need to understand is that their services are but a portion of the whole and should be valued accordingly. Football players are all paid different salaries depending on skill and so usefulness to the team. Unless the writers have all won Pulitzer's (or whatever the comedic equivalent is), then they will be lower on the pecking order than Leno and executive producers etc., but above Scruffy the janitor.

So this whole grab for more of the profits from DVD and other digital media sales needs to be put in perspective.

[Uraniun235]

Valdemar, your remarks seem to indicate two things to me:

- The writers were offered a fair deal by the studios which they should have taken

- Even if the writers weren't offered a fair deal, they should have let themselves be screwed by the studios anyway because the strike will hurt all the little guys (even though most of the writers are themselves 'little guys')


Is this accurate?

[Molyneux]

Valdemar, your remarks seem to indicate two things to me:

- The writers were offered a fair deal by the studios which they should have taken

- Even if the writers weren't offered a fair deal, they should have let themselves be screwed by the studios anyway because the strike will hurt all the little guys (even though most of the writers are themselves 'little guys')


Is this accurate?

No; the writers were never offered a fair deal by the studios. That's the cause of the strike in the first place.

[Havok]

I'm sorry, but when people that are making up to 500,000.00 a year go on strike I just find it offensive.
A strike should be for work forces that are struggling to make ends meet and feed their families and get proper, not for people that are struggling to make payments on their second homes and BMWs and need to get a little lipo.

Yeah, I'm stereotyping and generalizing, but fuck 'em.

[Havok]

GE: That should be "proper medical care"

[SirNitram]

I've got more sympathy for the writers, but that's largely because, well, the quote says it all.

The median income of screen and television writers from their guild-covered employment is $5,000 a year, in part because almost half our members don't work in any given year.

Link

So, when the median income(Not the average; the few making millions drags that up) is only four digits.. Just a touch of sympathy.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Valdemar, your remarks seem to indicate two things to me:

- The writers were offered a fair deal by the studios which they should have taken

- Even if the writers weren't offered a fair deal, they should have let themselves be screwed by the studios anyway because the strike will hurt all the little guys (even though most of the writers are themselves 'little guys')


Is this accurate?

The strike is simply an attempt to milk the studios of more cash made from sales that a decade ago didn't really exist such as DVD royalties, downloads and so on. It's not that they are paid poorly, but that they are getting greedier while no one else has demanded they take advantage of such diversification.

If the writers can demand such a rise, then so can everyone else.

[SCRawl]

I've got more sympathy for the writers, but that's largely because, well, the quote says it all.

The median income of screen and television writers from their guild-covered employment is $5,000 a year, in part because almost half our members don't work in any given year.

Link

So, when the median income(Not the average; the few making millions drags that up) is only four digits.. Just a touch of sympathy.

It says that almost half of the members don't work in any given year. I wonder: is that because they can't (i.e. they didn't find a paying job) or they won't (i.e. they don't have to work, and choose not to). I don't know this for a fact, but my instincts tell me that guys like Leno and Seinfeld are probably members of this guild, and might not do any paid writing in many years.

No matter what the case, that statistic needs some clarification.

[Havok]

I've got more sympathy for the writers, but that's largely because, well, the quote says it all.

The median income of screen and television writers from their guild-covered employment is $5,000 a year, in part because almost half our members don't work in any given year.

Link

So, when the median income(Not the average; the few making millions drags that up) is only four digits.. Just a touch of sympathy.

So what. What they are striking over is more royalties from online media and such. That isn't going to help people that don't work all the time anyway, just the people that are full time.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

So, let me get this right. The writers went on strike, thus forcing the network to pull the show, and costing them millions in lower ratings and advertising revenue.

The network then forecast layoffs due to this loss of revenue, and decided to get rid of some of the people who were directly responsible for this loss, who were refusing to work, were producing nothing for the company, and were costing a great deal of money.

What exactly did they think would happen - the network would keep paying as they did nothing and the cost of their strike rose?

You dumbfuck, the network fired the non-writing portion of the staff, which had nothing to do with this idiotic strike.

[Androsphinx]

Ah, I see. Apologies. In my defense, the OP does specify the writers.

But more generally, what else should the studio do? Absorb the loos of revenue and continue to pay people for doing nothing? It would be nice, but it's hardly a good business practice - especially given the glut of avaliable employment.

[Havok]

Ah, I see. Apologies. In my defense, the OP does specify the writers.

But more generally, what else should the studio do? Absorb the loos of revenue and continue to pay people for doing nothing? It would be nice, but it's hardly a good business practice - especially given the glut of avaliable employment.

Actually it specifies the production staff. The guy giving the quotes is a writer though, which can be confusing if you just skim the article.

[Pablo Sanchez]

No matter what the case, that statistic needs some clarification.

Yeah, you tell him! It's not like there's a a PDF of tables showing the demographics, employment, and income for WGAW members, which a person can find in less than five minutes of desultory Googling.

According to the WGAW records, in any given year over 50% of their members are not employed in writing. If I had to guess, this probably represents people who have other jobs and get work as they can catch it (which is seldom) or professionals who were working on pilots and shows which failed and are currently out of work altogether and living on residuals.

Of members in steady work (again, less than half of them) the median income is something right around $100,000. This being the WGAW, it represents numbers in the film industry and I think is probably higher than the WGAE (the WGAE didn't have a easily referenced report which I could find in under ten minutes, so fuck them).

Havokeff:
The WGA is fighting so hard on residuals on behalf of their members who are not regularly employed, because they are the ones who are helped out by residuals, not the people already on staff and drawing regular salaries. At any time a majority of WGA members are out of work. During inevitable periods of unemployment these residuals, which are collected whenever the work in question is distributed, represent the whole of their income from writing. The Studios got the WGA to agree to reduced residuals on home sales in 1988 by promising to normalize that deal later, then never actually did what they promised. Now, at the dawn of the internet distribution era, the Studios want to just buttfuck the shit out of the WGA and deny them any residuals from a media format with a huge profit potential. Sometimes the studios claim there's no money in the internet, other times they sue Youtube for a billion dollars.

For the people whining about the production crews:
A) You're absolutely right! How dare the WGA represent the interests of its dues-paying members by trying for a fair deal! The nerve of some people!
B) Yes, the strike is the approximate cause of these layoffs. However, as Uraniun and Molyneux helpfully pointed out, the studios precipitated the strike by being assholes.

[SCRawl]

No matter what the case, that statistic needs some clarification.

Yeah, you tell him! It's not like there's a a PDF of tables showing the demographics, employment, and income for WGAW members, which a person can find in less than five minutes of desultory Googling.

According to the WGAW records, in any given year over 50% of their members are not employed in writing. If I had to guess, this probably represents people who have other jobs and get work as they can catch it (which is seldom) or professionals who were working on pilots and shows which failed and are currently out of work altogether and living on residuals.

Those statistics don't say anything about employment outside of work with the WGAw, which is what I was questioning. Your guess appears to be about the same as mine as to what form these earnings take.

For the people whining about the production crews:
A) You're absolutely right! How dare the WGA represent the interests of its dues-paying members by trying for a fair deal! The nerve of some people!
B) Yes, the strike is the approximate cause of these layoffs. However, as Uraniun and Molyneux helpfully pointed out, the studios precipitated the strike by being assholes.

I think that most of the people replying so far aren't suggesting that the writers are in the wrong to be on strike, or that their deal over residuals is anything other than grossly unfair. Rather, it would seem as though there is simply an expression of sympathy for those who, through no fault of their own, have been cast out of their relatively low-paying jobs. Do I have sympathy for the writers themselves? No, I don't. They're making their play, and the management is making theirs. One of them will win, and one of them will lose. But the crew members have already lost.

[Androsphinx]

Actually it specifies the production staff. The guy giving the quotes is a writer though, which can be confusing if you just skim the article.

What I meant was that the title of the thread refers specifically and exclusively to writers

[Pablo Sanchez]

Those statistics don't say anything about employment outside of work with the WGAw, which is what I was questioning. Your guess appears to be about the same as mine as to what form these earnings take.

Tell me why the WGA should give two shits about the money its members make on anything other than writing. They formed the organization and pay dues so that it can represent them in the writing trade. Indeed tell me why I should even care. If I work two jobs, a regular one that pays $50,000 a year, and a side job that pays $5,000 a year, I'm still going to get angry when somebody fucks me out part of that $5,000.

As for the bit about the lay-offs, I was mainly addressing that to Shep.

[Havok]

Havokeff:
The WGA is fighting so hard on residuals on behalf of their members who are not regularly employed, because they are the ones who are helped out by residuals, not the people already on staff and drawing regular salaries. At any time a majority of WGA members are out of work. During inevitable periods of unemployment these residuals, which are collected whenever the work in question is distributed, represent the whole of their income from writing. The Studios got the WGA to agree to reduced residuals on home sales in 1988 by promising to normalize that deal later, then never actually did what they promised. Now, at the dawn of the internet distribution era, the Studios want to just buttfuck the shit out of the WGA and deny them any residuals from a media format with a huge profit potential. Sometimes the studios claim there's no money in the internet, other times they sue Youtube for a billion dollars.

I see. Thanks for clearing that up Pablo.

[Havok]

Actually it specifies the production staff. The guy giving the quotes is a writer though, which can be confusing if you just skim the article.

What I meant was that the title of the thread refers specifically and exclusively to writers

Which is why you read the post.

[Bug-Eyed Earl]

This is why as an aspiring screenwriter I have been saying that I would gladly take the extra dividends the WGA is trying to get, but not like this, not at this cost.