(This section, incidentally, reflects quite well on Jay Leno.
After being assured that nothing would change with the production of a half-as-long Jay Leno Show, that no one on the crew would get fired, Jay assented to NBC’s plan. Jay doubted Conan would go along with it Gaspin told him they were 75% sure Conan would. Leno’s people were initially suspicious of NBC, especially after the network explained its full scheduling plan. “Yeah, let’s do it!” he said, the pitch of his voice almost as high as his performance level. Jay’s relief, Gaspin noticed, was instantaneous. Gaspin told Leno the network was aborting the failed Jay-Leno-in-prime-time experiment, news that Jay met with a glum “OK.” Then Gaspin told him the good part: Jay would be going back to 11:35.
When Jeff Gaspin, head of NBC’s entertainment division, visited Leno’s studio, it was clear there was a problem. show was underperforming and that NBC affiliates were threatening to revolt over the issue. Leno for a second there thought he was fired “You guys got that for Conan, too, I’m sure,” Morty said.Ĭrucially, they had not, leading to NBC’s infamous attempt to shift Conan’s Tonight Show back to 12:05 to make room for Jay Leno at 11:35.Ģ. During a dinner with Conan O’Brien’s producer and manager in December 2009, Letterman’s producer Robert Morton happened to mention the clause: Jay Leno’s Tonight Show deal had similar language. As Carter tells it, when David Letterman was negotiating his move to CBS, he made the network give him a contractual guarantee that his show would air immediately after CBS’ late local news. The five best revelations:Īn oversight by Conan’s lawyers in their negotiations with NBC was the hidden germ of the scheduling conflict. There are no landmark surprises - Jay Leno comes off as affably opportunistic, Conan O’Brien as a tragic self-dramatist with a little bit of a martyrdom complex - but it’s a worthwhile look at the procedural negotiations that led to last winter’s messy divorce. Vanity Fair today just released an exclusive except from Bill Carter’s upcoming book The War For Late Night.
Follow all it needs is a Ken Burns documentary!
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