Late Night Wars

Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien,. . . .Jay Leno (again)




As has become a well documented incident, The NBC has quiet the conundrum on its hands. After replacing Jay Leno with Conan O'Brien as the host of The Tonight Show, NBC is once again replacing it's host, (not even a year in) with the guy whom they had already replaced. That's right, Jay Leno.

It all began back in the Fall when Jay Leno and NBC decided that while Leno would retire as host of the tonight show (already promised to O'Brien) he would stay on at NBC and be given his own show at 10:00, never before heard of in Prime time television.

Many people thought this was a terrible idea. The show would have to compete with 10:00 local news and pimetime dramas of other networks. I was with NBC on this one. I thought the idea of dropping a variety show one hour earlier would be gold for Leno and NBC. My thought was that not everybody would want to stay up past midnight to watch a late talk show and that this show could potentially tap into a brand new audience. What else were people watching at 10 anyway? There was a reason that the drama's that came on and 10, well, came on at 10 and not 8 or 9 (a much better primetime viewing slot)

Well they (that is the critics) were right and I was wrong. While neither the Jay Leno Show or O'Brien's Tonight Show flopped in the ratings category they did not get the expected ratings boost and Local NBC affiliates began to complain that Leno's show was a poor lead-in to their local news programmes. And since the local NBC's were a prime source of income for the Network, what the affiliates wanted they got.

NBC immediately announced that they would move both comedians back to their old slots and O'Brien immediately announced that NBC could go to hell. Well not in those words. But in a matter of days Conan made it clear he would rather quit than have such a humiliation forced upon him.

It seems kind of childish on the surface but you have to remember that the Tonight Show meant alot to O'Brien. He grew up a big fan of Johnny Carson and after writing for both the Simpsons and SNL O'brien was also a writer for the early years of Leno's Tonight Show. The Tonight Show itself is more than half a century old, had already gone through several hosts, but none were forced to to give it up after only 6 months to the guy whom had already retired. It was a public humiliation.

But don't feel too bad for Conan he and his writers ended up with a pretty nice 45 million dollar seottlement with NBC and thats a pretty nice parting basket. And NBC made a nice bundle as well. The last Month also saw some of both show's highest ratings, as auidences just couldn't get enough of the two commedians taking both jab's at each other and NBC.

But the questions still remain. What will happen to the Tonight Show once Leno returns? Where will Conan go?