trade roundup
· Craig Ferguson is writing his memoirs for HarperCollins, detailing his years as a "punk rocker, a dancer, a bouncer and a construction worker." Working title: The Village People in My Head: The Craig F. Story. [Variety]
· No strike talks are going to scare ABC away from casting their pilots: Morena Baccarin (Joss Whedon nerds know who she is) was cast as the lead in "untitled Dave Hemingson drama pilot," and Steve "Reba" Howey and Lee "Nothing You've Likely Seen" Thompson Young have jobs—for now—on comedy pilot Five Year Plan. [THR]
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the return of late night
Thanks to the deal that David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company struck with WGA, The Late Late Show's Craig "He'll Always Be Drew Carey's Boss To Us" Ferguson also had the benefit of his full writing staff. Displaying a refreshing magnanimity, the host promised that even though his picket-line-free program could now easily get him access to a higher quality of guest than he could have attracted before the strike, he'll still welcome the D-listers who stood by him during his lean times. (Kathy Griffin is, of course, touchingly namechecked as a beneficiary of his offer.) Bonus points have been awarded to Ferguson's scribes for supplying him with the "I fucked Paul Shaffer" jokes we'd secretly hoped that the newly bearish Letterman would use to break the sexual tension of his long-awaited reunion with his trusty bandleader.

For those of you whose DVRs lack the capacity to capture all of the action from tonight's much-ballyhooed Return Of The Late Night Talk Shows, we've got you covered: In just a few short hours, we'll be posting clips from the monologues of each host frog-marched before the cameras—even Craig Ferguson, probably!—to see how each handles the delicate matter of explaining to America why they're back at work while their writers are still outside on the picket line without actually using the words, "The network threatened to execute every below-the-line employee if I didn't come back tonight." (Or in the case of Letterman and Ferguson, we'll look at how they show off the competitive advantage that cutting a deal with the WGA affords them.) See you then for what promises to be a magically awkward evening! [Bearded Letterman photo: AP]