The Lex Files:
A Retired Blog

Conan, Leno, and Letterman

Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and David Letterman all return to the late-night airwaves tonight. (As do Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Kimmel, but they’ve never really captured my attention.)

Letterman managed to strike a deal via his Worldwide Pants production company, so he gets to have his writers back. Leno and Conan, however, will be forced to fend for themselves. They get no writers and must improvise their entire shows. (That’s no big deal if they stick solely to interviews, but what are the odds they’re going to do that?)

Reached for comment, Leno said this in a written statement:

But seriously, folks… I’m TiVo’ing Leno and Conan tonight, because I can’t wait to see what their writerless shows look like. Obviously they’ll have to talk about the strike. Will they take a hard line against their own studios? Or will they try to deftly tow some corporate line?

Letterman will probably have the funniest show tonight. But I’m not interested in his; it’ll just be business as usual.