One thing’s certain about the Writers Guild of America strike, it follows no script.
Despite assurances of job security from Jay Leno himself, on Friday the staff of the Tonight Show learned they were all out of jobs—and they were not guaranteed to be rehired once the talk show returns, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
By Saturday, sources close to Jay Leno confirmed to PEOPLE that starting Monday, when workers face their first day off the NBC payroll, the talk show host will begin paying crew and band and other employees out of his own pocket.
This comes on the heels of NBC’s announcement 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.”
A show insider tells PEOPLE, “NBC kept the Tonight Show staff on the payroll until Friday and Jay has given the staff their usual Christmas bonus early this year. The bonus amount is based on the number of years the employee has worked for the show.”
And despite published reports, “the great majority of the staff was very grateful on Friday to get the holiday bonuses early,” said one show insider. “‘Jay never intended for that bonus to be his only step to help out.”
Dissatisfaction with Leno
Earlier, several Tonight Show employees—on condition of anonymity—expressed dissatisfaction with Leno, who had assured workers in a conference call early in the strike that their jobs were safe.
Sources close to the talk show tell the Hollywood Reporter that Leno was optimistic production would resume on his show by relying on a guest host. Another option: Leno would do the show without a monologue or writers. However, none of these options have worked out, and the Tonight Show continues to air reruns.
Leno’s fellow NBC late night host Conan O’Brien announced earlier in the week that he would personally continue to pay his non-writing production workers once they were off NBC’s payroll at the end of November. —Brian Orloff and Pamela Warrick
Photo: Margaret Norton/NBC
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