Employees Unhappy Even as Leno Promises to Pay from his Pocket

Yesterday, the staff of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno had seen the writers’ strike hit them as they learned they would be laid off. Today, they received some news that might just soften the blow a bit. Sources said Saturday that Leno would be paying the non-writing staff at his show on his own.

The sources said Leno would be paying his staff for the next week on his own, a move which he might continue if the writers’ strike was not called off by then. Involved in this decision apparently is Debbie Vickers, the executive producer of the Tonight Show. On Saturday, Vickers apparently began phoning up employees who had been laid off from the show.

The news of the lay-offs had earlier come as a shock and a body blow to many of the employees, with some crying and some even screaming when the announcement was made. The impact was heightened especially as Leno had, two days after the strike began on November 5, told his staff they did not have any cause for worry about their jobs.

Leno had, in fact, been adamant that the strike called by the Writers’ Guild of America would not affect the members of his show. He was so adamant about the job security of the employees at his show that many of them had not even bothered to look for new jobs, even as predictions of lay-offs by NBC rose.

Therefore, when the network announced the employees had been fired, and that there was no guarantee of a re-hire after the strike, when the show returned, the impact was that much harder.

There was no comment from NBC about the lay-offs. The network released a statement on Friday to the effect that ‘the network regretfully informed the people who work on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O’Brien that their services are not needed at this time due to our inability to continue production of the shows.’

Sources among the Tonight Show staff said there been increasing tension at the show especially after news spread that other show hosts had been willing to pay their staff out of their own pockets to ensure they were not laid off. Overall, the layoffs at The Tonight Show have been a blot on Leno’s image as one of the nicest guys on TV.

A staffer said after Saturday, not too many of the staff at the show were willing to work with Leno any more. He said Leno had shown his true colors by his actions. There is a lot of hostility towards Leno currently at the show.

The source of the hostility, according to an inside source, is a conference call Leno apparently made just after the writers’ strike started. A staffer said Leno had made a conference call addressing around 80 of his staff on speakerphone. According to the staffer, Leno said, “'I can't get into details, but nobody will miss a car payment or lose their house. We’re family. Trust me. I’m going to take care of this.”

Another bad blow to Leno’s image comes from his public behavior. Privately Leno might have been worried about the jobs of his staff, publicly, in front of the media, he seemed to be a supporter of the strikes, even giving doughnuts to picketers.

The complaints abound. Another staffer said Leno might be taking the credit for getting the staffers work for two more weeks, but that credit should really go to Debbie Vickers, who was actually the person who requested NBC topper Jeff Zucker.

Yet another critical point is the Christmas bonus on offer. Staffers working at the show for two years were given $200 as a bonus, while some of the higher paid employees got about three days worth of salary. As a staffer put it, “When the most powerful man in TV tells you to relax, then you relax. That’s why we expected the bonuses to cover us through the strike. He could have at least covered us through Christmas. That would have been nice.”

A Leno representative did his best to defend him against these charges. Responding to the charges of Leno taking the credit for the efforts put in by Debbie Vickers, he said Leno too had lent his voice to the offer, and that was what had resulted in the workers holding on to their jobs for another four weeks.

Defending the bonus, the representative said if one looked at the cumulative number Leno was paying out of his pocket, it was $500,000, not a paltry amount in itself. The representative also pointed out that when the show was celebrating its 10th year, Leno had paid a bonus of $2 million to his staff.

Whatever be the end result of this standoff, the damage has been done for now as far as the employees of the Tonight Show are concerned.