Conan O’Brien Receives Over $30 Million to Leave
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Comedy, Late Night, Prime Time, Talk Shows, NBC, Gossip, News, Rumors,
Days of haggling have resulted - finally! - with an agreement between Conan O’Brien’s lawyers and NBC.
Although different numbers have been thrown out by the media, it looks like The Tonight Show‘s current host will leave the network with approximately $32 million. That figure does not include a reported $7.5 million severance package to be divided amongst his 200+ staffers and a $4.5 million payout to executive producer Jeff Ross. (It’s unclear how much Andy Richter or Max Weinberg will be compensated.)
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| MSNBC
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Writers Guild Has Tentative Deal
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: News,
Key word: tentative.
Early Saturday, the Writers Guild of America bosses announced they have reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Details of the proposal were to be presented to union members in New York and Los Angeles today. (A copy of the email sent by the WGA presidents can be found here.)
If the strikers react favorably to the proposed contract, union leaders will meet again on Sunday to finalize details. Assuming a formal vote is not needed, the writers could theoretically be back to work this Monday. Approximately 10,500 WGA members have been off the job since the strike began back on November 5th.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed…
E! Online
Writers Return to ‘Mad Men’, ‘Weeds’
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Comedy, Drama, Cable, Showtime, Announcements, News, Renewals,
Thanks to an interim deal between Lionsgate and the WGA, fans of at least two scripted programs have the comfort of knowing their shows will eventually return.
Because they are part of Lionsgate Television, production on both Mad Men and Weeds can once again resume. Writing on the AMC drama was scheduled to begin way back on November 7th. Meanwhile, this recent turn of events has proved quite timely for the Showtime series; work on the 4th season was originally slated to start about now.
As a bonus, AMC has just started re-airing episodes from Mad Men’s first season. Those interested in catching up on the Golden Globe-award winning series should set their DVRs for Sunday nights @ midnight (12am on Mondays).
Variety
No Deal: Writers and Producers No Longer Talking
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Reality, News,
All the channel-flipping in the world doesn’t help when there’s nothing new to watch on TV. Despite an attempt by both parties to negotiate new contract terms, the writers and producers have again failed to reach agreement.
The new talks lasted a little over a week, but the situation isn’t at all improved. Neither side is willing to give in to the other, which doesn’t bode well for future TV-watching. There are over ten thousand writers on the picket lines, but they only represent part of the story. Many other workers in the industry remain without pay as the writers hold their signs, which puts a real damper on any sort of holiday cheer for these laborers. More than fifty shows have already been completely shut down by the strike, and there’s no end in sight.
FOX has already suffered programming gaps which pushed new reality shows to the forefront; if the strike continues to drag the entire 2008 season could be in jeopardy.
LA Times
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