Late Night Wars

I still remember vividly the late-night battle that was waged almost 18 years ago, when Johnny Carson announced that he would be retiring after nearly 30 years as the host of The Tonight Show. NBC badly bungled the selection process of Johnny's successor, waffling between Jay Leno, who was the regular guest host of The Tonight Show, and David Letterman, who hosted Late Night, which immediately followed Carson. Ultimately, NBC gave Tonight to Leno, and shortly thereafter offered the same show to Letterman, but only after Leno would have had it for a year. Letterman replied, "Then it's Jay's show; I don't want Jay's show - I want Johnny's." After consulting with Johnny Carson, David Letterman bolted to CBS for his own show, The Late Show with David Letterman, where he remains today.

In an effort to prevent a similar fiasco, NBC acted quickly in 2004 when Jay Leno announced that he wanted to retire when he was 60 (in 2009) and Conan O'Brien (who took over Late Night when Letterman left) was announced as the new host of The Tonight Show, beginning in 2009. But in 2008, Jay Leno changed his mind about retirement, and made very public rumblings about jumping to a rival network, like FOX, when his run on The Tonight Show ended. In an effort to placate Leno and keep him on NBC, he was given the Monday - Friday 10:00 p.m. time slot to continue his same show as The Jay Leno Show, while Conan O'Brien assumed the mantle of The Tonight Show. What no one at NBC foresaw was that the local newscasts who followed Leno's new show would suffer such drastic drop-offs in viewership (and local news is where local stations make the bulk of their advertising revenue) that they would very loudly and publicly decry the feasibility of a five-night-a-week variety show to lead into their local news. As a result, NBC executives in their infinite "wisdom," decided that they would give Jay Leno a half-hour show back in his old Tonight 11:35 p.m. home after the late local news, while bumping the Conan O'Brien Tonight Show back to 12:05 a.m. Except they forgot to check with Conan first.

In a public statement released this past Tuesday, Conan O'Brien slammed both NBC and Jay Leno, and refused to move The Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m. In the meantime, O'Brien, Letterman, and even Jimmy Kimmel (who has his own late-night show on ABC) have pulled no punches, pummeling both NBC and Jay Leno relentlessly. NBC has already assured network affiliates that The Jay Leno Show is officially canceled, effective mid-February, right before the Winter Olympics begin from Vancouver. But the NBC late-night schedule is still very much in flux, as neither Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien have reached any new contractual agreement with the network.

To me, there are two villains in this story: Jay Leno and NBC network executives. When Johnny Carson retired in 1992, he never appeared on NBC again, and only made one other television appearance (on The Late Show with David Letterman in 1994) before passing away in 2005. Jay Leno should have honored his commitment to both NBC and Conan O'Brien and graciously walked away from television in 2009. He could still have performed his stand-up comedy routines across the country and maintained some shred of integrity. By bullying NBC into giving him an ill-fated 10:00 p.m. show, and now demanding the 11:35 p.m. slot back, Leno is demonstrating an obvious lack of class, as evidenced by the vicious backlash he so deservedly is receiving. And NBC is showing a lack of principles (or backbone, take your pick) by repeatedly acquiescing to an aging performer and throwing a loyal employee (Conan O'Brien) under the bus.

If NBC truly had any courage, they'd tell Jay Leno to go take a hike, apologize profusely to Conan O'Brien, and turn their late night programming over to Conan and Jimmy Fallon (who inherited Late Night from O'Brien), ensuring some sense of stability for the next 20 years. And if Jay Leno had any sense of decency, he'd apologize to both NBC and Conan, and fade off into the obscurity of the comedy shows of the Las Vegas Strip. But if not, I know the first person Conan O'Brien will call.

David Letterman.