TV writers' strike costing David Letterman and Jay Leno $500,000 each a week

A TV writers' strike is costing talk show kings David Letterman and Jay Leno half-a-million dollars each a week, according to reports.

Both late-night stars have stayed off the air since a walkout began last night, causing their networks to stop paying them, say TV insiders.

The pair - whose shows air on CBS and NBC respectively - are paid more than $100,000-a-night each.

Their programmes, the Late Show With David Letterman, and the Tonight Show With Jay Leno, air five nights-a-week.

Letterman's annual salary is a reported $31.5 million, while Leno's is around $27 million.

Letterman "owns" the Late Show," so when he stopped making new episodes last week, CBS ceased paying his production company, the New York Post reported.

Letterman has continued to pay his production staff, but it's not known how long that will continue.

Meanwhile Leno last week stopped receiving his $520,000 weekly salary, according to production sources.

Because NBC owns The Tonight Show, the network is said to be exploring the idea of using guest hosts to replace Leno until he returns.

But it's not known who would write those shows.

The strike has been prompted by a disagreement over royalty payments.

Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down last week.

Writers want higher fees, or "residuals", derived from work released on DVD or online.

Letterman and Leno chose to stay off the job because of their close relationships with the writers who create their nightly monologues and segments.

Spokesmen for Leno and Letterman declined to comment, as did NBC and CBS officials.

During the last writers' strike, in 1988, Johnny Carson - who famously used to joke about how much vacation time his NBC contract allowed - took nearly nine weeks off before returning to work to write his own monologues.

That strike lasted five months.