Writers' strike means late-night reruns

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Late-night talk and comedy shows are set to be the first casualties of the looming strike by U.S. movie and television writers.

"Late Night With Jay Leno," "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" and "Saturday Night Live" on NBC and "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" on Comedy Central are already planning to go into reruns starting Monday, The Hollywood Reporter says. CBS has not announced what it plans to do with its late-night lineup, "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson."

ABC does not plan on reruns for its daytime talk show, "The View."

"Late-night is what gets hit the hardest," said Nancy Huck, of Starcom Media Vest's Spark Communications. "It becomes rerun city."

Television dramas and sit-coms are unlikely to be affected unless the strike is a very long one. Most soap operas say they have enough scripts in hand to see them through the end of the year and into January.