Bill Carter's book on the Leno/Conan mess

George Lopez agreeing to move his time slot says more about him than Conan. As to Letterman, nobody beats a dead horse more than he does. How's that "Uma, Oprah'' thing working for you, Dave? I don't think I've ever seen a more insecure star than Letterman. Plus, the older he gets, he comes across more mean-spirited than funny.

 

Conan isn't expected to compete with the networks. They want him to compete with The Daily Show.

 

AP had a story about the book.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101102/ap_en_tv/us_book_review_war_for_late_night

I'm kind of surprised Conan is still in L.A. Don't know if that was his choice or if TBS made the choice for him. It seems like he could get different guests by being back in NY plus he and his group spent so many years there. And the big question of course, would ol' Abe be willing to fly to L.A.? ;D

 

It was Conan's call. He didn't want to uproot his kids again by moving them back to New York so soon after moving to L.A.

 

Agree about Letterman, to the extent that I came away from the book with the impression that, had he been more openly eager about getting the job, he had enough friends in his camp to get it (and probably would've had Carson's backing). I still think of a lot NBC honchos just saw Leno as easier to work with, but Letterman could've won if he'd realized there was going to be a fight earlier.

As for Leno, I don't know. That's the impression I had on first-read. Looking back after the Conan mess...I don't know if Jay was really as unaware or naive about what Kushnick was doing as is portrayed in "The Late Shift." It's telling that, while both Letterman and Leno (and NBC) were very cooperative with Carter, Kushnick supposedly shut him down. She didn't put forward her side of the story, Leno did, so of course he comes off better.

I think Leno's not as much the naive schmoo as he'd like to be portrayed. That said, I don't think anything he did during Late Night War I or II was actually terrible, from a business standpoint. He was just looking out for his own interests, and he was better at doing so than Letterman or Conan. He's not a villain, he's just not the innocent bystander he'd like everyone to think he is.

 

The interview with Joey the Hitman was a classic.

 

Accidently caught a few moments of Leno tonight - I can understand why viewers are tuning out. Letterman isn't any better, it's kind of hard to figure out what he still has to feel bitter about.

 

Just got it from the library today.

About 100 pages in - it's a bit "agent story heavy" at the start with even DEEPER detail than The Late Shift.

Incredible read to this point but I've found myself unable to keep up with all the damn network execs and agents with Leno/Conan and their history.

 

Here's TV writer Mark Evanier's blog take on the book:

<i>And I've thought a lot about all the central players in The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy, the new book by Bill Carter about the whole mess with Jay and Conan and time slots and such. There will be folks who'll read this book and decide that whichever host they find less funny was the villain. I think it makes a strong case that neither Jay nor Conan did anything unethical...nor anything particularly noble. They were just two guys trying to get or hold onto the best possible jobs as others moved them clumsily around a big chessboard.

O'Brien, like Leno and Letterman before him (with Helen Kushnick and Mike Ovitz, respectively) had killer agents and attorneys running around trying to nuke anyone or anything that stood in the way of their client(s) getting Johnny's old time slot. That's kind of the way the game is played — it kinda has to be since the network is certainly lawyered-up — and I guess I lost a little respect for Jay, Dave and Conan whenever they used the old "It's not me doing that, it's my agent" excuse. One of the worst things said in this book about O'Brien is that a lot of the anti-Leno rhetoric that turned up on the Internet was planted there by Conan's reps...and not even to try and help their client keep the 11:35 job but just to hurt Jay as much as possible. I suspect Conan will be unhappy to be associated with that.

What I think most will take away from the book is that Jeff Zucker made a bad mistake to shove Leno aside and give the Tonight Show to O'Brien. At one point in the book (I can't find the exact quote at the moment), Lorne Michaels makes a comment about how fortunes have been lost underestimating Jay Leno. That may be a pretty good summary of the entire affair...although the book also makes a credible case that for all the angst and ill feelings engendered, the shuffling-about of hosts still made financial sense for NBC.

Near the end, Michaels and Jerry Seinfeld both make the argument that O'Brien should have taken the offer to do his Tonight Show at 12:05 following a half-hour Leno program...an argument also made to me by a friend who worked for O'Brien and lost a job he'd counted on because Conan said no. I don't think I agree...but then I also don't buy that he turned it down because of some principled stand against despoiling the heritage of The Tonight Show. I think it was just plain a humiliating demotion and a lose/lose proposition for Conan: If the ratings didn't improve, the next step was to fire him or shove him back to 12:35. If they did improve, he'd (at best) forever be the guy who couldn't make it in the big time...and execs would be wondering how much better the numbers would be with a full hour of Leno before him. My friend on Conan's staff sort of agrees with me and says, "If Conan had really been concerned about preserving the glory of The Tonight Show name, he wouldn't have handed it back to a guy he thought did a crappy program."

Carter's book certainly does not support the proposition, which members of Team Coco will probably believe as long as Obama haters insist he was born in Kenya, that O'Brien lost the 11:35 gig because Jay's 10 PM show tanked and Jay demanded his old time slot back. Nor does Carter make it sound like Jay was particularly Machiavellian in any of this. I suspect the player who'd be most upset with how he comes across if he reads the book (which he probably won't) is David Letterman.

It is also interesting to note some developments that have happened since this book went to press. All of the ratings for the late night shows are down and Leno has been hurt more than most. He's now being tied or occasionally beaten by Dave, which can't make anyone at NBC too happy or confident. Also, the shows now ensconced at 10 PM on NBC are all tanking. Much was made throughout this drama about how Jay's bad numbers in that slot were hurting Conan. I never thought that...and not just because Conan's ratings were poor before Leno even went on at that hour. In the book when O'Brien complains about "shitty lead-in" ratings, I wonder if anyone said to him and it just wasn't quoted, something like, "Yes...and what was there before got shitty ratings and what we can replace him with is going to have shitty ratings and recovering from them is part of the job description of hosting the Tonight Show. Jay usually had bad lead-ins and managed to win the time slot in spite of that." What happens with Conan's ratings on TBS in the next few weeks will further advance this whole drama beyond where Carter's narrative leaves off. One gets the feeling the story wasn't over. They just wanted to get the book out in time for Christmas.

In fact, I'm starting to think that there's a whole 'nother chapter coming in this story and that none of these central players will be in the same job five or maybe even three years from now. Bill Carter may get a trilogy out of this yet.</i>

 

NBC's 10 p.m. shows were good for much of the 90s - ER, LA Law, Law and Order, when Leno took hold. And Conan didn't have a problem with Leno leading in when he was at 12:30 p.m. -
and from what I read from the excerpt - Conan's agent didn't have the 11:35 p.m. slot in his contract - he should have demanded that - ESPECIALLY after NBC decided on Leno's 10 p.m. show.

 

Actually, NBC had one genuine 10 o'clock hit in Leno's years -- "ER" was a consistent winner. "Law and Order" had a decent run until it fell and consistently lost the time slot. "LA Law" was on its last legs by the time Leno took over "The Tonight Show."

The most frequent 10 o'clock show in that era was various editions of "Dateline." NBC still had movies (starting at 9) in the 10 o'clock slot for the first few years. Some of the other programs that NBC had at 10: "Cold Feet," "Third Watch," "The Restaurant," "LAX," "Medical Investigation," "Studio 60," "Kidnapped," "The Black Donnellys" and "Real Wedding Crashers."