Writers unamused by Leno monologue

American TV host Jay Leno was back on air after an enforced two-month break on Wednesday, delivering a monologue he wrote himself. The writers' strike in America meant the silver-haired comic was unable to call upon his usual team of 19 to script NBC's Tonight show. He joked that as was back to his roots, waking up his wife in the small hours to ask her if his new joke was funny. If the monologue bombed it was all her fault.
 
The show went well, but now the striking Writers Guild has given Leno a public scolding – saying that his monologue violated their rules on industrial action. Leno maintains that as he was writing for himself without "outside guys" he was "following the guild thing", but the Writers Guild strike rules state: "This prohibition includes all writing by any guild member that would be performed on-air by that member, including monologues… if any portion of that written material is customarily written by striking writers." One expert said yesterday that the rules were notoriously difficult to interpret, and the Guild was unlikely to carry out sanctions against Leno.
 
Leno has been a very public supporter of the strike – bringing donuts to the picket line, and paying the wages of all of his employees while he was off the air (except, of course, his writers). Writers for the Tonight  show did not take part in a picket at the NBC studios when the new show was recorded on Wednesday. Legitimate or not, Leno's show attracted a record audience of 7.2m viewers. ·