WGA STRIKE UPDATE: Jay Leno to Pay Nonwriting Staffers

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno host decided to follow in the footsteps of David Letterman and Conan O’Brien and pay his nonwriting staffers out of his own pocket as the writers' strike drags on into a fifth week.

NBC laid off its late-night show staffs as of Friday. O’Brien decided last week to pay his staffers himself. Now, Leno decided to follow suit. Last Call with Carson Daly, however, went back into production Wednesday night.

Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, which owns both Late Show with David Lettertman and Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, already announced that it would pay nonwriting staffers percentages of their salaries based on how much money they made.