During the strike, he’s going to cover the salaries of 80 of his non-writing staff.
What I love about this is the fact that he’s letting the writers do their striking, but not letting the uninvolved people impacted by it to get effed by the striking writers.
Conan: I’ve always loved your show, but …. good job on such a thoughtful gesture.
Conan O’Brien Paying 80 Staffers During Strike
November 29, 2007As the Writers Guild of America strike drags on, Conan O’Brien is bringing some holiday cheer to his late-night talk show staff, pledging to cover the salaries of his non-writing production workers—nearly 80 people in all.
NBC, which airs the comedian’s talk show Late Night with Conan O’Brien, agreed to cover the salaries through the end of November, and O’Brien, 44, will personally pick up the tab for the foreseeable future, according to Variety.
O’Brien is said to be grateful for the loyalty many of those staffers have shown over the years. Many of them are expected to accompany him to the West Coast when he takes over as host of The Tonight Show in 2009.
Late Night with Conan O’Brien has been in reruns, along with the other late-night talk shows, since the WGA went on strike Nov. 5.
On Nov. 7, at a benefit in New York for wounded Iraq war veterans, O’Brien said, “I do have some good news about the writers’ strike. If it continues, there will not be a third Deuce Bigalow movie.” —Tim Nudd
4 Comments
Steve aka p_enut
Gotta love it. I wonder what the total of those paychecks end up coming to every month? Gotta be up there… Can’t wait to see how he does when he makes the switch for Leno.
Dork
Leno’s so lame. His humor’s very low-brow and he always goes for the uncomplicated laughs. Conan’s gonna be a much better host, but I fear he may get forced into something stupid :(
Jenna
Didn’t Conan use to be a writer for SNL? He knows where the writers are coming from. Good man indeed.
Dork
Yeah — nice pull! Not a lot of people realize that he got his start there :)