ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
And I'm Michele Norris.
More fall-out from the writers strike in Hollywood today. The Golden Globe awards may not go on as they always have because the actors refuse to cross picket lines to attend. Tonight, "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are going back on the air without the benefit of writers, and it appears that United Artists may cut its own deal with the writers union.
NPR's Kim Masters has been following all these and she joins us now. Kim, first, what's going on with the Golden Globes?
KIM MASTERS: Well, I would like to know. There have been a lot of rumors, some of them published about it on the Internet, that the globes will be canceled. On Friday afternoon, the Screen Actors Guild announced that they had pulled their members and no one who is nominated will show up. So NBC, which broadcasts the Golden Globes every year, is hoping to salvage something. They have yet to say uncle, but the belief is that it's awfully hard to put on that show when no one shows up.
NORRIS: Now, this deal that the writers union may cut with United Artists, is this a deal like, like David Letterman has? He went back on the air last week with jokes written by his staff.
MASTERS: Yes. That would be a solar sort of an arrangement. The hope of the writers guild, of course, is to split up the block of producers that make up the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Again, we've had a lot of reports that Tom Cruise's supposedly revitalized United Artists, which has released one movie so far, that was "Lions for Lambs," it did not do well, would make a deal and — that it would assume they would then want to follow up by making deals with other smaller companies. Now, there's been no official confirmation of this.
I assume that United Artists, which is part of MGM, which is one of the big Hollywood studios, I assume there is a lot of screaming and yelling going on right now to prevent United Artists from going forward with the deal and opening the door to perhaps some other — there aren't very many, bear in mind, small companies that would break off. But I think it would be a psychological victory for the writers, and the producers would be determined to prevent it if they can.
NORRIS: Kim, remind us. How long has this strike been going on, and are there any plans for the writers union to go back to the bargaining table with all the studios?
MASTERS: The strike has been going on for about two months. And I would say at this point, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers would rather have their collective fingernails pulled out than go back to the table with the writers. There's been a lot of rancorous rhetoric. Things are extremely negative. And I think that basically, right now, they're just going to — there's no discussion.
NORRIS: Now, as we mentioned, Comedy Central's two marquee shows back on the air tonight without writers, "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." It's kind of hard to imagine an unscripted Jon Stewart.
MASTERS: I know. And people have been waiting to — and in the middle of an election season. But what's going to happen, according to the people I've talked to, is things that some viewers of the show might love such as Jon Stewart's "Headlines" and Steven Colbert's "The Word" will not be part of the show because they are written. And so what you would expect to see, they — I feel that they - they feel that they can do those field reports where somebody like Rob Riggle is somewhere and there's a banter back and forth between Jon Stewart and his staff. Of course he could still book guests. He does not tend to book, you know, as many movie stars, perhaps, as some of the late-night shows do or television stars. So that can go ahead.
NORRIS: And a lot of pressure on those two men.
MASTERS: Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, they're both writers guild members and staunch supporters of the guild. So I think that they will, you know, use their show as you saw David Letterman do to try to advance the cause of the writers and remind people of what's going on.
NORRIS: Thank you, Kim.
MASTERS: Thank you, Michele.
NORRIS: That was NPR's Kim Masters.