NBC host Carson Daly to defy writers strike

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NBC's after-hours star Carson Daly is poised to become the first U.S. late-night television talk show host to cross the picket lines of striking Hollywood writers.

"Last Call with Carson Daly," which immediately halted production at the outset of the screenwriters' strike three weeks ago, plans to resume taping Wednesday for new episodes that will begin airing next week, an NBC spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

No guest roster for the half-hour show, which airs daily at 1:35 a.m. Eastern time, was revealed, and it was not clear which night next week the program would return.

"He wanted to go back to support his staffers," the network spokeswoman said.

The General Electric Co.-owned network had informed the non-writing staff of Daly's show, as well as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," that they face layoffs at the end of this week unless they returned to the airwaves.

All three programs, along with shows hosted by David Letterman and Craig Ferguson on CBS, Jimmy Kimmel on ABC and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on cable network Comedy Central, were thrown into reruns when the Writers Guild of America launched its strike on November 5.

NBC's weekly sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" also was knocked out of production.

NBC said there were no immediate plans for any of its other shows to return to production, and there was no indication the late-night programs on other networks intended to do so.