Los Angeles ? Americans may be getting more sleep after Hollywood writers went on strike Monday and forced the nation’s late-night talk shows to start airing reruns.

NBC said the “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” would immediately air repeats.

Still, Leno made an appearance at the Burbank studio, arriving on a motorcycle to visit strikers walking a picket line.

CBS said “The Late Show with David Letterman” would also offer repeats all week. The list of casualties included every other major late-night show.

The first strike by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way with noisy pickets on both coasts after last-minute negotiations on Sunday failed to produce a deal on payments to writers from shows offered on the Internet.

No new negotiations were scheduled.

Nick Counter, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said he expected a long standoff. “We’re hunkered down for a long one,” he said. “From our standpoint, we made every good-faith effort to negotiate a deal and they went on strike. At some point, conversations will take place. But not now.”

The strike will not have an immediate impact on production of movies or prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and TV shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.

Disruptions by strikers ended filming at a Studio City cafe being used as a location for the CBS show “Cane.” Tom Hogan, a location manager for the show, said the filming began hours before the 20 pickets arrived and involved a script that was finished several weeks ago.

No other major problems were reported at studios or filming locations.

Points of contention

The first noisy strikers appeared outside the “Today” show set at Rockefeller Center in New York, where NBC is headquartered. The show is not directly affected by the strike because news writers are part of a different union.

A giant, inflated rat was displayed, as about 40 people shouted, “No contract, no shows!”

“They claim that the new media is still too new to structure a model for compensation,” said Jose Arroyo, a writer for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

“We say give us a percentage so if they make money, we make money,” Arroyo said.

Writers have not gone on strike since 1988, when the walkout lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million.

Talks began in July and continued after the writers’ contract expired last Wednesday.

Producers said writers were not willing to compromise on major issues.

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 proposals by producers in the area of Internet reuse of TV episodes and films were unacceptable.

Starting TV writers earn about $70,000 per season for full-time work on a show. Veteran writers who move up to a story-editor position make at least a low six-figure salary, with a “written by” credit on an hourlong script paying an additional $30,000 plus residuals.

Early casualties

Networks said late-night shows bound for reruns included “The Daily Show,” “Colbert Report,” “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Last Call with Carson Daly.”

Ellen DeGeneres was a no-show Monday for filming of her daytime talk show on NBC.

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

New episodes of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that were filmed before the strike were set to air Monday and today. But it was unclear what might happen with the show later in the week, Bush said.