Huckabee to cross picket line -- to join Leno
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Amid heightened labor tensions, late-night television’s two biggest brand names are returning to the air waves tonight after a two-month strike-imposed hiatus.
CBS’ David Letterman will welcome comedian Robin Williams, while Jay Leno will sit down with Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee (pictured) -- who becomes the first White House candidate to cross the picket line. Others, including U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, have all vowed to honor the strike.
Bill Maher and Donald Trump will join Letterman the following two nights. NBC hasn’t announced who Leno’s subsequent guests will be.
The longtime Letterman-Leno rivalry will be highly charged as the CBS host will come back with his full writing staff. Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, reached a separate deal with the writers last week. That deal also included the writers for Craig Ferguson’s “Late Late Show,” which also returns tonight.
Leno, meanwhile, appears tonight without the help of his writers –- and is expected to face picket lines. WGA strikers will also be out for returning NBC late-night host Conan O’Brien and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. In a letter to members yesterday, WGA East president Michael Winship said the pickets are not “of the hosts themselves but the companies for which their shows are produced.”
Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” and “The Colbert Report” are slated to return Monday, Jan. 7, but without their striking writers. It’s unclear whether they will face picket lines as well.
-- Martin Miller