Late-night television made a successful return last Wednesday following a two-month hiatus… Late-night television made a successful return last Wednesday following a two-month hiatus because of the Writer’s Guild of America’s nationwide strike.

No, the strike isn’t over yet, but late-night shows have taken such a hit from missing nearly 40 episodes worth of production time that the networks desperately needed new shows.

The strike is still going strong, and shows that heavily rely on writing, such as sitcoms and dramas, are beginning to feel the hindrance. Television is about to see a huge upsurge in reality TV, and the last thing anyone in America needs is more reality shows.

But late night shows found a way to overcome the strike.

David Letterman and his private company that produces “The Late Show” returned to CBS after striking a deal with the WGA so he can pay his writer’s out of his own pocket. NBC’s shows did not have this luxury, and – not to be outdone by CBS – were forced to return without writers. Jay Leno (“The Tonight Show”) and Conan O’Brien (“Late Night”) actually had to resort to the primitive method of being funny on their own.

While O’Brien proved that he was clearly the best at filling time and still being humorous, all of the late night TV shows became a forum for discussing the WGA’s strike.

For those of you who aren’t really sure what this is all about, here is a crash course on the great WGA Strike of 2007-08: The Writer’s Guild of America includes nearly every writer for every television show and every movie that is produced in the United States. Its contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expired in early November, and an agreement has still not been made on many crucial issues.

One issue is DVD Residuals, where the writers are receiving the same percent of profits as they did for VHS revenues. The VHS residual (0.3 percent of gross profits go to writers) was unreasonably low, but the VHS market never actually accounted for much profits for television and movie productions. However, the DVD market has skyrocketed and is now the major source of revenue for today’s productions, and the writer’s are demanding a higher dividend from these profits.

The crucial issue, however, is new media. This includes downloading movies and TV shows from Internet companies such as iTunes or streaming videos and full episodes from websites, such as the networks’ websites. Currently, the writers do not receive any share of the profits from these new media, but the AMPTP and its negotiator Nick Counter are claiming that the market is too new to predict what kind of share the writers should receive.

Once the contract expired and an agreement had not yet been made, the writers walked out on their jobs and began frequently picketing outside various studios in both New York and Los Angeles.

Television has taken the hardest hit from the strike because companies can no longer produce new episodes and they are running out of previously stockpiled episodes.

Late night television was the first to go off the air, and many weekly sitcoms and dramas are just now running out of new material. That is where everything stood as of last Wednesday before the late night shows came back on the air.

Leno and O’Brien firmly announced that they support their writers’ cause (probably because they are both members of the WGA themselves), and by going back on the air they attempted to prove how valuable their writers are. They even went so far as to picket with them outside studios in Los Angeles. While the hosts are supportive of the writers, that love is not necessarily a two-way street. Many members of the WGA are now picketing against the production of the late night shows without their writers, claiming that it is a breach in the WGA’s strike guidelines.

While I do enjoy seeing some controversy, this all seems a bit much. After all, don’t we get enough controversy from reality TV? How can the producers of TV shows and movies not be willing to give their writers more money?

It can be safely said that writers are the most important part to a production. Without writers, how would the actors know what to be talking about? There wouldn’t be anything to produce without written screenplays.

Producers of television shows and movies make millions of dollars each year. There are dozens of producers on the Forbes list of the 400 Richest Americans, including George Lucas, creator and producer of “Star Wars.” Sumner Redstone, part owner of Viacom, which is one of the world’s largest media conglomerations, has a net worth of $7.1 billion.

The writers are some of the lowest paid employees in the production line of TV shows and movies. Actors, directors and producers all tend to make more money than the writers.

If the writers are the most important aspect of the production, there is no reason that the producers and the AMPTP can’t give them a little more money.

The WGA has vowed not to give up until its terms are met for an agreement. It would be interesting to see how this standoff would end. Who would break first, the writers who no longer have an income or the producers and networks that are losing millions every day without new episodes?

But nobody wants to see this strike continue for much longer. We can only watch Conan O’Brien spin his wedding ring on his desk so many times. The AMPTP and the WGA need to come to an agreement soon, for the sake of the television audience.

Television is already competing with the Internet, and this strike certainly isn’t aiding their side of the battle. The AMPTP needs to face the facts – if television wants to survive the digital age, the writers deserve what they are asking for.