The Late Show with David Letterman may go back on the air in early
January with a major advantage over its competitors ? writers.

Letterman, off the air for six weeks due to a continuing writers'
strike, on Monday plans to pursue an interim agreement with the
Writers Guild of America that would permit his full staff to return
as early as Jan. 2.

The Writers Guild Saturday announced plans to begin negotiating
individually with companies, after the umbrella organization
negotiating on behalf of networks and studios broke off talks on Dec.
7. The Guild already has granted one-time waivers to allow some
awards shows to be produced with striking writers.

Unlike the Late Show's rivals ? which are properties of their
networks ? Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company owns his
program and its companion, the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Both shows are hoping to return.

"We're happy that the Guild has now adopted an approach that might
make this possible," said Rob Burnett, executive producer of both
programs and head of Worldwide Pants, in a statement. "It is our
strong desire to be back on the air with our writers and we hope that
will happen as soon as possible."

NBC is expected Monday to announce plans for the Tonight Show with
Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien to return, also in early
January, but absent a similar agreement with NBC Universal?considered
highly unlikely?they'd do the show without writers or much of a
monologue.

Letterman, the only host to have worked during the last writers'
strike in 1988, when he followed Johnny Carson on NBC, has taken an
early lead. He was the first host to pay his non-striking staff
members threatened with layoffs, and is continuing to do so at a cost
of more than $200,000 a week. Returning to the air with its writing
staff intact would ensure the shows have an easier time booking
actors, some of whom have been uneasy about crossing picket lines.
And it would preclude protests that have affected Ellen DeGeneres and
Carson Daly, who returned to work without their writing staffs.

It's possible Letterman would come back even without an interim
agreement, but a Worldwide Pants executive declined to comment on the
likelihood of such a move. The Association of Motion Picture and
Television Producers, which represents the studios, accused the
Writers Guild of "grasping at straws" by pursuing separate talks.