Following news that David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants is close to an agreement with the WGA to go live again, NBC has announced that late-night hosts Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien will be back with new episodes starting Jan. 2—and without, so far, agreements with the writers. Instead, they insist, they’re doing this for their non-writing staffers, who have been furloughed since the strike began. The announcement from NBC notes that Johnny Carson did the same thing—going two months without writers during the 1988 strike, then putting the show back on the air. Release |Leno statement.

SEE ALSO: WGA Seeks Separate Negotiations Wth Studios; Agreeement With Letterman Imminent