Shows return to late night

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on January 3rd, 2008

Dave is coming back tonight, with a beard and with a deal cut with the WGA. So is Ferguson. Leno’s also coming back tonight, with no beard and no deal. And Conan, as he announced earlier, will return as well.

Hollywood blowhard Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily has all the news you need to know about the current state of affairs re the Writers’ Strike.

In Finke’s Letterman item is the following:

I’m told that, at the end of their first day back, The Late Show writers decided to donate a percentage of their salaries every month until the strike ends to the WGA Strike Fund and the Actors Fund. “The Strike Fund for obvious reasons, and the Actors Fund because it is need-based for all of those collaterally damaged, including below-the-liners,” Letterman writer Bill Schreft (sic) just told me.

(Did Scheft also tell you how to spell his last name?)

Finke also “reviews” the monologues, but, as readers of this magazine know, Finke should just stick to the deadlines and stay away from punchlines.

She tosses this into the Conan review:

The main guest was even lamer than the monologue: the no-talent Bob Saget. No, I’m not kidding. (And, yes, he’s still alive though thankfully not on primetime anymore.)

Nice! No-talent? Sure glad Finke’s keeping all this professional!