The Writers Guild of America (WGA), which has been on strike since Nov. 5, says late-night TV host Jay Leno broke the strike rules by writing his own jokes.

Leno's Tonight Show as well as several other late-night talk shows were all back on air Jan. 2. The shows returned without their writers except for David Letterman's Late Show and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, both owned by an independent company that forged a special deal with the union.

Jay Leno, host of Tonight Show, said he had written his own Jan. 2 monologue, which the writers union says is against its strike rules.

Leno revealed he had prepared a monologue he used on Wednesday night. The union says that's in contravention of its strike rules as Leno himself is a member of the WGA.

About 10,500 WGA members walked off the job on Nov. 5 in a dispute with Hollywood studios and networks over how writers should be compensated for work that is distributed on the internet.

During his monologue, Leno said he was "on the side of the writers."

Union officials revealed late Thursday that WGA West president Patric Verrone had a talk with Leno on Thursday.

Guild spokesman Neal Sacharow described the conversation as "very amicable" and refused to call it a reprimand, reiterating that Leno had been a great supporter of the strike.

But there's some confusion about what the strike rules are.

Jonathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer and a former counsel to the union, said the guild's contract "is notoriously difficult to interpret."

Handel points out past contracts have allowed people to perform their own material. He doubts that Leno would be fined or thrown out the of union.

NBC issued a statement defending Leno, saying, "the WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue" for his show.
 
Meanwhile, fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel criticized WGA members for picketing Leno and NBC's Conan O'Brien.

"I think it's ridiculous," Kimmel said. "Jay Leno, he paid his staff while they were out. Conan did the same thing. I don't know. I just think at a certain point you back off a little bit."

Ratings for Leno and his CBS rival David Letterman bounced back as viewers flocked back to their TV sets.

Wednesday's Tonight Show broadcast averaged nearly 7.2 million viewers, up 2.2 million from Leno's pre-strike average.

With files from the Associated Press