Bianca Bartz
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 Jay Leno & Conan O'Brien Support Staffers The Writers Guild of America strike has had some interesting twists. Tonight Show host, Jay Leno, said today he would personally pay the staff of his show after Friday’s announcement they would all be out of jobs. That includes payment out of his own pocket to keep his crew, band members and other employees. Leno’s decision follows late night host, Conan O’Brien’s announcement earlier this week that he too would begin paying non-writing production staff. The payments will start on Monday, the first day they will no longer be on the NBC payroll. 
This comes on the heels of NBC’s announcement that the network “regretfully informed the people who work on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O’Brien that their services are not needed at this time due to our inability to continue production of the shows.”
A show insider tells PEOPLE, “NBC kept the Tonight Show staff on the payroll until Friday and Jay has given the staff their usual Christmas bonus early this year. The bonus amount is based on the number of years the employee has worked for the show.”
And despite published reports, “the great majority of the staff was very grateful on Friday to get the holiday bonuses early,” said one show insider. “‘Jay never intended for that bonus to be his only step to help out.”
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