NBC's Late Night Troubles

Why do TV executives continue to mess with success? Don't they understand that if something works, on the air, you don't mess with it? Those in charge at NBC sure don't.

Before I get into my opinions on the ridiculous problems over the last few months at NBC, let me just say that I am a fan of both Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. If forced to choose sides I'd pick Leno. He's better at stand-up and has a "likeablity" factor. But this isn't about taking sides. It's about the tradition of "The Tonight Show", it's place and contribution in the history of the media of television, and how it's caretakers have messed it up almost beyond repair.

The trouble all started about 5 years ago when NBC arranged through contracts and agreements, to switch Tonight Show hosts from Leno to O'Brien in 2009. It seemed like a long way off at the time. It was probably set up by NBC executives as a means of keeping both of their late night stars. They were counting on Leno being ready to retire in '09 but that didn't turn out to be true.

When it came time to pull the trigger on the prearranged change, The "Tonight Show" was at the top of the ratings. Leno, the perpetual workaholic, was no where ready to leave the gig he had worked so diligently to build up. Nevertheless the deal was, literally, signed. Leno was out. Conan was in at the late night program.

In an unprecedented move to keep one of its few stars and save money on production costs the network moved Jay to a 10PM time slot. Instead of a drama or news magazine NBC decided to launch it's late night schedule while it was still prime time.

The idea might have been brilliant . It was the biggest gamble on TV in a long time; an experiment that if it worked might very well change the face of network television. But it allso had a high potential for disaster. The new "Jay Leno Show" was drastically different from The Tonight Show. I won't go into details but you can read my September 19,2009 post for my initial reaction and criticism. Let's just simply say the show was awful and very difficult to watch. I couldn't stand it. I quit watching.

Conan's switch didn't involve much change as far as his format was concerned. But his comedy style was wrong for the Tonight Show audience. It just didn't work either. Once the novelty of seeing the latest successor to TV's most influential talk show chair and desk wore off the ratings dropped. Of course some would contend that the ratings suffered because of the poor lead in from Leno's show but that's arguable.

So all the problems that having 2 stars on 2 shows that weren't working forced NBC executive's' hand. The first axe to fall was on the neck of The Jay Leno Show at 10PM. It's cancellation set off a chain of speculation about program shifting, media gossip, verbal barbs, jokes, and press releases the world of late night TV hadn't seen since the days following the announcement of Johnny Carson's retirement.

The rumored resolution to the problem (giving Leno a 30 minute 11:35 show and shifting The Tonight Show and Late Night program) was touted as yet another potential disastrous move by the inept NBC execs.

NBC was saved a lot of embarrassment and a lot of money when Conan O'Brien did the most honorable thing of the entire fiasco. He quit. While he might have had many reasons for doing so the main reason he sighted was a respect for the institution of "The Tonight Show" itself.

The negotiations and ultimate settlement O'Brien received (he walked away with $32 million) is not all that outrageous by today's standards. Have you seen what the top movie stars and baseball players are being paid these days?

I also admire both O'Brien and Leno for doing what they had to do to make sure their staffs had jobs or some financial compensation. Leno will take his entire 10PM staff with him back to "Tonight". O'Brien's settlement also included $12 million severance for his employees.

The controversy will have it's closing chapter when Leno airs his last show later this month. Conan's last Tonight Show was January 22. Now after NBC's coverage of the Olympic Games Leno will be back in the place he never should have left; as the host of "The Tonight Show". It's kind of like he went to television "OZ" except the wicked old witch (NBC executives) are the ones who will bring him back to "Kansas".

One final thing I need to address before I conclude this extremely lengthy post: the audacity of David Lettermen through this whole thing. Almost daily I would see banners on AOL's home page extolling, or at least announcing as news, the CBS Late Show host's latest comments about and insults directed toward Jay Leno. Given the moral perversion Letterman has admitted to over the last several months he has no room to judge.

How can he criticize any one's behavior and be expected to remain credible? He lives in a house with paper thin glass and he's catapulting boulders. Even if he's trying to be ironically funny it's very sad and self degrading. There's not even the slightest foothold at all that makes it possible for him to establish even a momentary place of moral high ground. SHUT UP LETTERMAN!

Maybe he should start looking at himself for comedy material and behavior to judge. There's plenty of jokes about sexual harassing bosses and adulterers.

That's all I have to say about that and NBC's Late Night Troubles. I'm glad they're over and look toward seeing The Tonight Show rebound to the pop culture icon Carson and his predecessors made it in the first place.