Jay Leno's last "Tonight" is tonight

The Last Shift is one of the best looks at the TV/entertainment biz ever. Hands down. It's fifteen years old but still holds up really well, even now.

Also, this is the network equivalent of NBC deciding to be the 1998 Florida Marlins. They are dumping salary and trying to figure out what to do in a 2011 or 2012. Sure, they are paying Leno a ton of cash and "surrendering" the 10pm ET hour. However, they will not have expensive CSI/Grey's to produce at that hour.

The people who are really going to take it are local NBC affiliates who count on the revenue from the late newscast to pay the bills. The commercial spots they sell are 100% theirs. Early projections are that Leno at 10 pm ET will lead to a 20-30% erosion of the 10PM CT/11PM ET news audience for NBC stations. People will watch at the start of Leno's show -- MAYBE -- but will they stick around after 60 minutes?

Those who will benefit? FOX stations with a 10/11 news and NBC's network bottom line. CBS and ABC affiliates will gain more of the shrinking pie known as late local news

 

yup. for a guy everyone thinks is a regular joe -- and i'm among those who think jay's boring as hell -- he's a barracuda.

me? i don't find him funny in the least. but he sure has been masterful, gotta give him that.

 

I know Leno's manager played hardball with NBC, threatening to go to ABC, CBS or Fox if he didn't get the Tonight show. And apparently Carson didn't do much heavy lifting on Letterman's behalf - interesting that Kushnick once repped Letterman as well.

 

Yeah but Carson's actions after the dust settled spoke volumes about who he preferred.

Leno got The Tonight Show, but my guess is that in his deepest darkest moments, he'd rather have Carson's approval.

 

I dunno. I suspect that in his deepest darkest moments... he really enjoys the $340 million he's made from the Tonight Show. He's got a hell of an antique car collection to show for it.

I could be wrong about this, but I've always had the impression that the connection with Carson meant more to Letterman than it did to Leno.

 

I thought Jay's bringing out the children of staffers who have been born since he went on to replace Carson (68 all totaled!!!) was an interest idea.

I have tried to watch Fallon but I guess I am showing my age here when I say he is youth oriented and I guess I prefer watching Ferguson on CBS since he is closer to my age. Him, I get.

BTW, does anyone know why Conan will be coming to us from Universal Studios instead of "Beautiful Downtown Burbank"? Conan mentioned that during his talk with Jay and I wondered what NBC was thinking.

 

PCLoadLetter, Considering Letterman does some Carson-like bits and Jay never did, I would tend to agree.

 

It will be interesting to see if either of them appear on each other's shows now that they're not competing against each other.

And yeah, I think Leno loved the Carson show - Letterman admired Carson.

And NBC is moving a bunch of their production to Universal Studios to save money. There was talk about shutting down all of their Burbank operations (to save money), but I think Leno will still be there in the fall, but at a different studio.

 

I think Leno's monologue's were generally solid and occasionally side-splitting, not nearly as many bombs as Carson had in his final 10 years or so. And Headlines was awesome. Yeah, his interviewing skills were not so hot (and I found it sad that many times, he'd have to say "I know you have to go" to guests who wouldn't deign to remain for the rest of the show. Did people ever do that to Carson?), Jaywalking was beyond lame, and relying on Fred Willard, Gilbert Gottfried and the awful Bush imitator so much wasn't a good choice.

But I give him a helluva lot of credit for doing the free shows during this recession. I think his self-effacing was a kind of penance for all the bridges Kushnick burned. He could be doing this new gig because he truly seems to be one of those types that always has to be working 100 hours a week.

 

That's a fair point, and I'm sure the money goes a long way towards repairing any bruised feelings he might have had over Carson's preference. But as someone who inherited the most famous talk show ever, don't you think he wishes, at some level and at some point, that Carson also approved of him?

Maybe I'm trying to give the guy a layer he doesn't have, but I pictured it absolutely burning him up when Carson went on Letterman.

 

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm sure he wishes it had gone down differently, and that his relationship with Carson was better.

At the same time, he pretty clearly won the war. He got the show he wanted, made more money than he could ever have imagined, and has consistently beaten Letterman pretty soundly in the ratings.

 

[quote author=DanOregon link=topic=70248.msg2480322#msg2480322 date=1243732805]
It will be interesting to see if either of them appear on each other's shows now that they're not competing against each other.

I read one of Leno's interviews this week and he mentioned Letterman had invited him to be on next week (during Conan's first week", but Leno declined for obvious reasons. Leno also went on to say that any hardship with Dave has been mended and they are still friendly and that one day, he would go on his show.

And I thought the ending to Leno's run was pretty darn poignant. Takes a lot of dedication and loyalty to remain in the same place for 17 years, as Leno mentioned that most of the staff at the end of his run were the same as what he had at the beginning of it. That's pretty remarkable, especially in show business.