"Tonight Show" lays off staff; corporate says: "If your services are needed, we will contact you"

Today was the last day for most of the 120 staffers on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” who left with an early Christmas bonus check and no guarantee of a job when the strike ended. [An NBC source puts the number at "just under 100."]

“Do we have a job when the strike ends? That’s what everyone keeps asking,” said one former staffer. “They’ve guaranteed no one a job. They just keep saying, ‘The letter explains it.”

That letter is a notice from NBC’s human resources department that says, “If your services are needed, we will contact you.”

Sources said that while some higher-level executives received severance packages, other staffers received only Leno’s traditional bonus of $100 times the number of years the staffer has been on the show.

Writers were not included in the bonuses, but one writer emphasized that “he's not being Scrooge. He just wanted to get the staff taken care of first. I can't emphasize enough how generous Jay is.” 

Others were less forgiving.

“We haven’t heard from him since the second or third day of the strike,” said a former Leno staffer. “He called on speakerphone while we were in our daily meeting and said, ‘Don’t look for other jobs, no one’s going to lose their house, we’ll get though this.’ Two weeks ago, we got the heads up that we had two more weeks (of pay) and that’s it. Everyone wondered, ‘Is Jay going to come through?’ And nothing happened. Conan makes less and he said, ‘I’m going to pay for my people.’ ”

Still on the payroll are the exec producers and a skeleton crew to answer phones. Leno was not on hand for the layoffs. Instead, Leno’s assistant notified the staff yesterday that they would get their Christmas bonus early. Leno's bonuses usually go out the week before Christmas.   

"People are devastated today because we thought that he meant something more than an early Christmas bonus," another said. "A lot of people didn't look for other work, based on Jay's assurances."

UPDATE: Insiders confirm that the staff of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" were formally laid off by NBC today as well; the show's employees received similar letters to the ones sent to "Tonight Show" staffers. Like "Tonight Show's" team, "Late Night" employees are officially laid off effective Friday. But as has been reported previously, O'Brien will continue to pay "Late Night" staffers himself. But because they're no longer officially employed by NBC, they won't be reporting to the "Late Night" offices come Monday.

Late Friday afternoon, a spokesperson delivered this statement:

NBC 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.

-- Dave McNary and Dana Harris

Comments

[davenp35]

Their blame should lie with the Commmunists who run the writer's union, for their selfish actions are what led to the firings and nothing else.

[RobertSeattle]

$100 per year on his staff? What a cheapskake!

[TC Rider]

Waaa waaaa waaaaaa

Don't blame Jay, blame the strikers.

120 staffers to put on the Tonight Show??? Give me a break!

Sounds like someone decided to clean up a bloated payroll. Good business!

[Ray Tate]

Leno is a punk. He is very transparent and also...not funny.

David Letterman rocks!

[MikeA]

Nice Jay. Lay people off at Christmas because of your liberal fanaticism treating a union picket line like some sort of sacred object. Why not do like Carson Daly and Ellen Degeneres and go back to work writing your own monologues? I thought you were a comedian. You can't come up with a monologue, even an abbreviated one, without help?

And can't you interview celebrities without writers? I won't be watching your show again if this is how you treat people who helped make you successful. Get over your liberal nonsense about supporting greedy strikers and get back to work so your employees can get back to work. The strikers made a decision to go without a paycheck. Your employees didn't. What a prick. Maybe you ought to continue to pay the people you're letting go out of all those gazillions you're sitting on. Put your money where your liberal mouth is. But instead, you'll expect the government to pick up the tab for your own slavish devotion to a bunch of greedy unionite fools.

[Art Vanday]

Davenp35 is a right wing loon and/or one of the blood sucker execs who refuse to pay their workers fairly. Thanks to unions, workers have a minimum wage, safety standards, and proper work hours. These short sighted, selfish right wing loons would rather go back to the days of sweat shop and child labor.

[joe]

They can always depend on their union to assist them - yeah right.

[Mike]

I'll take that job, and I'll work for LESS and remain NON-UNION!!

Hire ME, Jay!

[Steve in Wichita Falls]

The strikers are greedy slackers. You want to see real protesters with real grievences? Look at the courageous people in Venezuala. The striking writers are pathetic.

[Other Brother Darrel]

I agree with Ray Tate. Leno just isn't funny, and even worse, he has zero class. Letterman should have inherited the Tonight Show in '92 instead of that slimeball Leno.