What do you call a late-night talk show host without a writing staff? Judging by the second night of his writer-less show, you can call Jay Leno pretty much anything you want because he will be way too tired to care.
AP Photo / CBS
Sporting a beard and his own deal with the Writers Guild of America, David Letterman returned to TV Wednesday for his first new show since the strike started in November.
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The host of “The Tonight Show” was back on the air Wednesday night with his first new show since the Writers Guild of America went on strike in November. And like his colleagues Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel, Leno went back without his writers. By Thursday night, he was already sounding pretty winded.
“We are still writer-less,” a genially exasperated Leno said before a bit that found him riffing on the goofy Christmas gifts people sent to the office. “This is the third month of this, and I wish they'd get it settled.”
Meanwhile, over at “The Late Show With David Letterman,” a special deal between the striking guild and Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company allowed Letterman and fellow late-nighter Craig Ferguson to go back on the air with material written for them by guild scribes. Jay is probably wishing he had one of those agreements, too.
In the first two nights of head-to-head monologue competition, the WGA-approved Letterman didn't necessarily have the edge on the solo Leno. And Leno's ratings where higher.
That's no real surprise. A veteran stand-up comedian, Leno proved that he is perfectly capable of constructing a chuckle-worthy monologue. (Whether the WGA will allow him to keep writing is uncertain. The guild issued a statement Thursday saying Leno was violating strike rules, but NBC says the guild's collective bargaining agreement allows him to write for himself.)
But while Leno's opening-night references to Larry Craig, Britney Spears and Paul McCartney seemed pretty wheezy, Letterman's quips about his new beard and his dull holidays with the family weren't that rip-snorting, either.
By Night 2, however, Letterman's show was back in fighting form, and Leno's was floundering. Leno had the better monologue, but that's about all he had. And in the competitive world of late-night TV, success is about so much more than one man talking.
After more jokes about the beard and a video wrap-up of the news “Late Night” missed during its strike hiatus (“Mike Huckabee loves Jesus,” “Kiefer Sutherland loves booze”), Letterman settled in with the kind of material that shows why a late-night host is only as good as his staff.
First came “The Iowa Caucus Timeline,” whose barbed entries included “9 a.m.: Crowd surges around John Edwards, mistakenly thinking he's Pat Sajak; 10:30 a.m.: In latest flip-flop, Mitt Romney launches stinging attack against himself.” Then there was the beloved Top 10 list, this one devoted to “Questions to Ask Yourself Before Having Sex With a Robot.” (No 2: “Will she get jealous if I spend time with the toaster?”)
Meanwhile, Leno was chatting with fellow NBC hostage Howie Mandel and pulling singing reindeer antlers out of his desk.
You'd better hang onto those, Jay. If the strike goes on much longer, you're going to need all the backup you can get.
