I am – Hercules!!
TV By The Numbers yesterday posted another of its stories about how many fewer all-important adults aged 18-49 “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” is still attracting compared to “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien.”
Comcast, the incoming new parent of NBC Universal, has kicked CEO Jeff Zucker to the curb, and O’Brien launches his new TBS late-night chat show a week from Monday.
Next Thursday, Viking publishes “The War For Late Night,” Bill Carter’s new book about the Conan-Jay “Tonight Show” debacle.
Carter is the same guy who wrote 1995’s “The Late Shift,” about Leno’s war with David Letterman over “The Tonight Show.”
I could write paragraphs about why Leno so doggedly cleaves to “Tonight.” I’m convinced too much of Leno’s id is wired into the franchise; I believe he would host the show for free if NBC insisted. I think Leno’s obsession with it has much to do with how insanely important Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” became to the incomes of stand-up comedians in the 1970s, when cable barely existed and the other networks couldn't be bothered to air original programming after midnight.
Anyway, Vanity Fair just posted some lengthy excerpts from Carter’s new book. They're an interesting read, and suggests Leno now hosts "Tonight" simply because he hired better lawyers than O’Brien did.
Apparently both David Letterman and Jay Leno long had contract stipulations insisting nothing got between their shows and the late local news. An excerpt from the excerpt:
“You guys got that for Conan, too, I’m sure,” [former Letterman producer Robert Morton] said.
He waited while watching [O’Brien’s agent] Rick and [O’Brien’s producer] Jeff exchange a little look.
“You didn’t?” Morty asked, holding back his next thought, which was: You’ve got to be kidding me.
Another excerpt suggests Leno got an “unprecedented” contract that guaranteed primetime’s “The Jay Leno Show” could not be yanked from the air. With Leno’s ratings ridiculously low and affiliates threatening to end their affiliations, Carter illustrates NBC was really in a spot.
And then this, from the sudden January meeting in which top NBC execs Jeff Gaspin and Marc Graboff told O’Brien they wanted to move him to 12:05 a.m.:
“What does Jay have on you?” Conan asked, his voice still low, his tone still even. “What does this guy have on you people? What the hell is it about Jay?”
Neither of the NBC executives had an answer and cast their heads down. Conan thought they were working at looking sympathetic, following some lesson that had been taught at corporate school.
Another great excerpt, following Conan telling this joke: "I just want to say to the kids out there watching: you can do anything you want in life. Yeah, yeah—unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too.”:
Gaspin got a call from Jay about the joke. This one did not strike Jay as funny. He asked Gaspin, Why the fuck am I giving up a half-hour for this guy?
And Gaspin asked himself: How could these guys work back-to-back if Conan hates Jay? There was no longer any question about resolving this in a fashion that might keep Conan at NBC, as far as Gaspin was concerned. It had come down to how the matter would be settled, and Conan would go on his way.
There’s a lot more. Find all of Vanity Fair’s excerpts here.
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