In the face of the ongoing writers’ strike, NBC has struck a deal with online show Quarterlife and will likely start airing episodes in February.

The show’s creator, Marshall Herskovitz, wouldn’t reveal the exact details of the deal except to say that NBC is paying a licensing fee and it’s not nearly as much as what’s normally paid out for regular TV shows.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. The show has a big following on the web but that doesn’t necessarily ensure that it’ll do well with television audiences. On the other hand, it could go over so well that more and more of these agreements start cropping up and before you know it, Jay Leno’s monologues will be written by non-union writers who, let’s be honest, could write them all in Chinese and get as many laughs (maybe more).

NBC Acquires ‘Quarterlife’; Internet Series Will Run First Online [New York Times]