Stewart and Colbert return on Jan. 7th – courtesy of Deadline Hollywood Daily. If I’m honest, my gut reaction was “YAY!!!” But then I started reading some comments and looking at some other blogs and now it’s all confusion for me. Two major questions come to mind regarding this news:
1. Does this make Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert just as bad as Ellen or Carson Daly or the recent dehumanization of Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien? Will these two beloved (and they really are the media darlings of late night and talk shows) be dragged through the mud and lose ground in the public’s mind just as these others have? Jon Stewart, the one voice of reason in all the insanity that is America right now, a scab and traitor?
I’m sorry but I just don’t feel that way. At first, I was angry at Ellen and Carson for coming back so soon but if you take a step back and think about it, they are actually doing the more responsible decision. Yes, the writers are the backbone of this industry and absolutely vital to a show like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, but, as in theater, it takes more than one group to put on a show. It takes everyone from the executive producers down to the cleaners and caterers. These people were absolutely going to lose their jobs. How could, as executive producers of their shows, Stewart and Colbert come back to these unemployed workers after the strike and say “Hey, you know how it goes. If you strike, we’ll support you too!” Trouble is that these other fields hardly ever do strike. If the late night shows are coming back so that their crews and supporting staff are not laid off or fired, then that is something commendable especially considering the backlash they’re bound to receive from the WGA and fan supporters.
To just casually dismiss any of these late nighters or talk show hosts as scabs and traitors to the WGA is such a unjust viewpoint. If you’re a fan of these guys to begin with, then trust that they are making what has to be a really hard, difficult decision. Not to mention, of course, that Viacom and these other corporations/networks are applying huge amounts of pressure on these guys. Do we want the writers to have a show to go back to or not?
And though I do still support the writers and think they should be given a fair deal, they also need to understand that they put all of these other workers’ paychecks in jeopardy and that they cannot expect the entire industry to just sit down and wait it out.
EDITED TO ADD: The Associated Press named Colbert their Entertainer of the Year – above J.K. Rowling. I’m not sure I could go that far, but good choice all the same. I don’t see how you make him a villian in the WGA Strike saga with this kind of media worship. I do like that the article said he is refusing interviews during the strike. No wonder we haven’t heard from him or Stewart. Though, don’t you think they’ve been tight-lipped so as not to piss of their corporate bosses and get the rest of their team fired?
2. Remember I had a second question? Here it is: So the shows are coming back. Letterman is the only hold out and I’d be willing to bet he’ll be back sooner rather than later. What do the fans do? Do we watch or do we boycott? Most of us supporters have been boycotting online media or various programming or any number of things to show support. Do we boycott these shows that are coming back without writers?
This one I’m really torn on. On the one hand, if no one watches the shows, the ratings will continue to suffer and the advertisers will put more pressure on both sides to come to an agreement. Plus, these shows will eventually wind up on official/unofficial websites to be viewed at a later date. So it’s not like you’d miss out. Well, not entirely anyway.
But on the other hand, you have media history happening here and to not watch it and see what happens, how these hosts do entire shows, night after night, without being able to write for them is sort of on the devastating side to a person like me who spent most her college career, most of her life studying these sorts of things. I’m a media person and the medium of TV wields such enormous power that it becomes difficult not to take part in that. Plus, if you are a die-hard fan of these shows and miss them very much and find that it is getting harder and harder to find the funny in the news, then you are aching for TDS and TCR to return, in whatever format they may come in. In addition, do you have any idea how hard it would be to have new episodes of The Daily Show or Late Night with Conan O’Brien on and not watch them?
Overall, this is interesting news but not all that surprising. Once one of them came back, you had to figure they all would. I think I’ve made the decision to watch at least these first few episodes of all the late night shows, just to see how they are going to do it and what they say regarding the strike. After that, who knows. I’m not going to watch something that totally sucks but I won’t give up on shows that easily either. On the whole, I don’t see how this can be good in the short term for the WGA in this strike. In the long run, it might come out to benefit them as the viewing audience might start demanding the writers come back after watching the millionth interview with Donald Trump.
Side note: another interesting discussion here is who the shows will get for guests. Politicians and newsmakers shouldn’t be an issue, but what about actors and directors? It’ll be seen as crossing the picket line and will not go over well I think.
EDITED TO ADD: I would like to , after a good night’s sleep and thinking more about it, stand by what I said last night. If you go over to Deadline Hollywood Daily and read the comments on this story, there are a lot of nasty things being said. I don’t support that. The decision has been made and let’s support them as much as we can. You can support the late night shows and the WGA strikers at the same time – they are not opposites.
EDITED TO ADD AGAIN: This story is really distracting me from packing and getting things done today. Just wanted to quickly add that it is really amusing to me that people on some of the comments on these stories on other boards and sites think that Stewart/Colbert will somehow be champions leading the writers against the evil corporations or that they will intentionally run their shows into the ground to make a point. Both have been very clear about not being a social mover in any way and I think they have more respect for their shows than that.
Three Months\' Time 