No Late-Night TV Tonight
“There will be no ‘Tonight Show’ tonight,” said Joe Meceiros, the show’s head writer, outside NBC Studios in Burbank, California today, according to the New York Times' TV Decoder blog.
Celebrity guests won’t feel the same financial pinch as writers, of course, but some authors and performers [scheduled to appear on late-night talk shows] will undoubtedly miss out on what might have been rare opportunities at national exposure.
Garth Brooks was expected to perform on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” tonight, in his “first late-night television performance since announcing his retirement nine years ago,” NBC said last week. But Mr. Brooks’ appearance is on hold, along with the late-night programming on NBC, CBS and Comedy Central.
In a strange way, ABC may benefit from the postponement of “The Tonight Show” and “The Late Show with David Letterman,” because its news program “Nightline” will be live and original tonight. However, “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” which airs at 12:05 a.m., will revert to a repeat tonight. “We will take it day by day,” an ABC spokeswoman confirmed today.
