Late-night shows on U.S. networks were preparing to broadcast reruns Monday night, after Hollywood film and TV writers put down their pens and took up picket signs.

The first picket lines appeared in New York on Monday morning, where NBC is headquartered, after last-ditch talks Sunday night failed to avert a strike by the Writers Guild of America.

In Los Angeles, writers were picketing 14 studio locations in four-hour shifts and say they plan to stay until a new deal is reached.

Jay Leno appeared at the Burbank studio to visit picketers, and NBC announced it would broadcast a rerun of his Tonight Show.

Nearly every major late-night show, from The Late Show with David Letterman to The Daily Show, the Late Show and Colbert Report, also will air repeats.

These shows are vulnerable because a team of staff writers keeps the comedy material fresh and based on current affairs.

Daytime show host Ellen DeGeneres, whose shows are filmed in advance, did not cross picket lines on Monday.

"Ellen did not go to work today in support of her writers," said Kelly Bush, her publicist.

The contract between the 12,000-member Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expired Oct. 31.

Writers want bigger slice of pie

Talks that began this summer failed to produce much progress on the writers' key demands for a bigger slice of DVD profits, and revenue from the distribution of films and TV shows over the internet.

Writers and producers gathered for negotiations Sunday at the request of a federal mediator.

The two sides met for nearly 11 hours before East Coast members of the writers union announced on their website that the strike had begun for their 4,000 members.

Producers said writers refused a request to "stop the clock" on the planned strike while talks continued.  

"It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action," producers said in a statement.

Producers said writers were not willing to compromise on their major demands.

Writers said they withdrew a proposal to increase their share of revenue from the sale of DVDs that had been a stumbling block for producers. They also said the proposals by producers in the area of internet reuse of TV episodes and films were unacceptable.

Electronic rights key issue

"This is a fight that was a long time coming," Los Angeles entertainment lawyer Larry Zerner told CBC News.

The roots of the dispute are in the agreement over compensation for reproduction of TV shows and film on DVD struck in the 1990s, he said.

"The studios made a deal with the writers that they would get 1.8 per cent. But they said 'Look, this is a new market. We need money to develop it. We're going to take 80 per cent off the top.' "

What the writers get is only a portion of the remaining 20 per cent and the studios have refused to amend that, despite earning billions from DVDs.

"That 80/20 rule really stuck in the craw of the Writers Guild," Zerner said.

Now the Writers Guild is facing the same issue over digital reproductions, such as rebroadcasts over the internet. The studios are taking the same position — saying they need time and money to develop the market.

Scripts being stockpiled

But the union won't bend this time, Zerner said.

"The writers said, 'We took a broadside on DVDs. You can take a broadside on this one," he said.

The strike is the first walkout by writers since 1988. That work stoppage lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million.

Daytime TV, including live talk shows such as The View and soap operas, which typically tape about a week's worth of shows in advance, would be next to feel the impact.

The strike will not immediately have an impact on production of movies, but some prime-time TV programs could run out of material as soon as January.

That would affect Canadian networks such as CTV and Global that based their prime-time schedules on U.S. shows.

But Canadian actor R.H. Thomson said it is unlikely to provide an opportunity to make Canadian shows.

These networks "have no real inbred appetite to make Canadian programming," he said. "I can't believe this strike would ignite some inward desire to produce Canada drama."

Instead, the strike is important to Canadian performers because it could affect the long-term agreement between ACTRA, Canada's actors' union and its producers.

During ACTRA's labour action earlier this year, Canadian producers had agreed to a settlement but U.S. studios intervened over the terms related to compensation for digital rights.

The U.S. studios demanded a clause that would reopen the terms of the Canadian contract based on what the U.S. screen actors agreed on.

The U.S. Screen Actors Guild contract doesn't expire until next June, but it is expected to follow terms similar to any Writers Guild settlement.   

"We'll get what they get," Screen Actors Guild president Alan Rosenberg told the Associated Press.   

With files from the Associated Press