Somehow he stayed on top

The strike by the Writers Guild of America ended not a moment too soon for Jay Leno. After 100 days, the guests were wearing thin.

Larry the Cable Guy made his fourth appearance just this week on NBC’s “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” Animal ambassador Joan Embery -- the sixth animal act in as many weeks -- dropped by with another passel of critters.

“We thought we had seen every animal there was, but we dug around the backyard and found some more,” Leno said during Wednesday’s show as he welcomed Embery, whose menagerie included chinchillas and Siamese fighting fish.

In danger of falling behind his chief rival, “The Late Show With David Letterman,” Leno in fact emerged from the strike unscathed -- even with one hand tied behind his back because, for much of the writers walkout, he was operating at a disadvantage.

“The Tonight Show” and the other late-night talk shows went into reruns when the strike began Nov. 5. To demonstrate solidarity with his staff of 19 striking writers, Leno frequently visited picket lines outside NBC in Burbank, where his head writer served as a strike captain. Like other late-night TV talk-show hosts, Leno paid nonwriting staffers out of his own pocket for a few weeks.

But NBC, which has been struggling in the prime-time ratings, was anxious to get “The Tonight Show” back on the air. The show is one of the most reliably profitable programs on the network: Last year it generated more than $150 million in advertising revenue and earned a profit of about $50 million, according to people familiar with the show’s finances.

So, two months into the strike, Leno crossed picket lines to go back on the air with new shows.

At the time, Leno was facing a depressing coda to his successful career on NBC. With only about 18 months left on his contract, the ratings race had tightened during the reruns, threatening his crown.

Then the WGA struck an interim deal with the company owned by Leno’s nemesis David Letterman, which produces “The Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.” The two CBS shows were able to return to the air in January with their writers penning fresh Top 10 lists and jokes.

But not Leno. NBC, which owns “The Tonight Show,” was a struck company and writers were forbidden to work for it.

His first night back in front of the cameras, on Jan. 2, Leno ignited a furor when he admitted that he had written his own monologue. Calling that a violation of strike rules, the WGA said it would investigate the actions of one of its most prominent members.

The WGA summoned Leno to a meeting to discuss the situation. But he declined to attend when he was told that he couldn’t bring his attorney, according to a person close to the show. So nothing happened.

The WGA declined to comment Thursday, saying the incident was an internal matter.

But if the guild’s intent was to reward Letterman and punish Leno and NBC, then the gambit appears to have backfired. Leno’s ratings immediately snapped back to pre-strike levels, surpassing Letterman’s.

“He was going solo and he was going up against his main rival, who benefited by having his writers with him,” said Brad Adgate, research director for ad-buying firm Horizon Media. “But Leno was still able to maintain his lead over Letterman whether he had backup or not.

“That’s a real testament to Leno and his staying power.”

Still, the NBC host struggled to snag guests. Big stars boycotted the talk shows. And Leno realized that if the strike dragged on for several more months, viewers at home would grow weary of politicians, B-list starlets and time fillers such as “Questions From the Audience.”

“I am just glad the strike is over,” Leno said on his stage Wednesday night, after he finished taping his first show since the strike had ended. “It’s good to have everyone back. Things should return to normal by next week.”

Leno said he did what he had to do.

“We were just trying to keep the lights on so the guys would have a job and a show to come back to,” Leno said. “We weren’t trying to be heroes, but there are 160 other people who work on this show who would have been put out of a job if we hadn’t come back. Some could have lost their homes.”

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meg.james@latimes.com