Well, even without a writing staff, Jay Leno managed to beat David Letterman in the ratings last night. The New York Times reports that Leno pulled in 5.8 million viewers, while Letterman only managed to grab 4.7 million. After watching both shows, it’s easy for me to see why.

Jay Leno was as funny as I’ve ever seen him last night, but it looks like the WGA isn’t very happy with him. It turns out that, despite what Leno kept insisting last night during his monologue, it is NOT within the WGA strike rules for him to write and perform his own material during a strike.

There also appears to be speculation on if he even wrote it himself – but I have to say, based on having seen his stand-up, and having also watched his show regularly – if he didn’t write that material, he needs to hire whoever did, because it was great, and his normal stuff is just plain bad. I have seen Leno do stand-up before, though, and it was very much like what I saw last night, so I think he wrote it himself – but that’s just my personal speculation.

The WGA could attempt to make an example out of Leno and go as far as kicking him out of the Union, but its doubtful. We’ll let you know if anything happens.