Late Night Television Goes “BOINK”
Well…what can I say?
Just when I thought I’d seen everything in late night television, we get another seismic shift which sees NBC finally pulling the plug on The Jay Leno Show experiment and attempting to reshuffle the deck yet again. Only this time, the red-headed stepchild ain’t playing along.
The truth is, Conan has been screwed around left and right by NBC and, quite frankly, Jay Leno. I’ve never been a Jay fan, but I’ve always acknowledged that he served his role well and made his network bosses happy. Never mind that his show had become a mediocre snorefest on the receiving end of relentless mocking and ridicule, the likes of which has not been seen since The Merv Griffin Show left the airwaves a generation ago. Or that he made his bones by endlessly exploiting real human tragedies for cheap laughs (no one used the Simpson/Goldman murders or the Michael Jackson molestation charges for personal gain more than Leno, IMO). And now he’s shown himself to be every bit the showbiz phony and greedy opportunist that many of his peers have made him out to be over the years.
Imagine if in 1994 Johnny Carson had announced that he’d changed his mind about retiring and wanted to come back to The Tonight Show, thus shifting Leno to a later timeslot or off the network entirely? Or, worse yet, what if in 1992 he’d announced that he was going to host a nightly primetime clone of his old show on his old stage with his old crew, and then after seven months of lousy ratings and threatened affiliate revolts decided that he wanted his old gig back? Sure, the network would have been justified back then, especially since Leno was trailing Letterman significantly in the ratings and NBC as a whole was struggling in those pre-Seinfeld days to maintain the number-one spot in primetime. But Johnny wouldn’t have done those things, because whatever other flaws he may have had, he was also a class act who knew when it was time to leave and did so gracefully. And ultimately, that’s why Jay could never adequately fill his shoes.
Now, the counter-argument would be that Carson voluntarily stepped down and Leno was ‘forced out’. The only trouble with that scenario is that Leno had the option to go elsewhere (and still does) if he truly believed that he was being unfairly benched. As the likes of John Stewart, Steven Colbert, Wanda Sykes and George Lopez have proven, the late night world of 2009 is vastly different from the world of 1993 when the First Late-Night War occured. There are plently of other places out there (ABC, FOX, Comedy Central, TBS, FX, MTV, USA, Spike TV, etc.) where Leno could have gone to re-establish himself as a force to be reckoned with seven months ago when his Tonight Show run ended, and he would have been well within his rights to do so. But instead he played things safe and stuck with good ol’ NBC, perhaps knowing that they would cater to his every whim and that he’d have no problem getting his old timeslot back if things didn’t pan out. But while Conan has shown nothing but respect and due deference to his predecessor ever since NBC announced the transition years ago, it’s also been clear that Leno has had an insect up his hindquarters about all of this for quite some time now and has done everything in his power to undermine and marginalize his replacement. From whining to the press about his ouster (and yet failing to accept generous offers from NBC’s competitors, proving that he didn’t really have the cojones to leave the corporate nest) to essentially holding the historic Tonight Show stage hostage and forcing The Peacock to build Conan a new facility to this latest stunt, Leno has shown Conan nothing but disrespect. And Conan has had enough:
People of Earth:
In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.
But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.
Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move The Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years The Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t The Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.
So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with The Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.
There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.
Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.
Yours,
Conan
It’s also amazing to see the various responses to this fiasco from the likes of Letterman (who must be having a strange sense of deja vu) and Kimmel (who, quite frankly, showed more balls than I ever gave him credit for) as they’ve just roasted Jay over the coals much to the delight of their viewers. And honestly, the (seemingly) overwhelming negative public response (I’ve seen not one story or article that portrays Leno as the victim or an innocent dupe here or even leaning in that direction) should be enough to convince him that it’s just not worth the hassle to reclaim ‘his’ timeslot. He really needs to salvage what’s left of his tattered image and just slink off with his tail between his legs. Any chance of him successfully relaunching The Tonight Show or trying to start over on a new network now with this hanging over his head is pretty slim. And as he well knows, his late-night brethren can be both relentless and vicious when it comes to mining such material for laughs. And for someone as image conscious and protective of his ‘everyman’ persona as Jay, this has to be his worst nightmare come true.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Fallon’s just glad to have a job. His words, not mine.
TV’s Tim
