I have to admit it. While my favorite late night TV is Craig Ferguson, I watch Leno and I like it. It's not difficult to understand why. I go to bed at a certain hour and that hour is before 11 pm. When I do happen to watch Letterman I am struck what a cruel jerk he is. I prefer people who make jokes - especially with a self-effacing way - rather then represent the joke. When I watch Conan I am struck at what an incoherently cruel jerk he is with, to be fair, far more incoherence than cruelty. So, it is with some relief that the mess may well settle out in favour of Leno based on Conan's indignation:
Though some rumors appeared saying NBC might be lining up guest hosts, NBC quietly dismissed that notion. Indeed, such a move could have legal implications because it might be interpreted as NBC firing Mr. O’Brien, which could lead to a bigger settlement for him. Jeff Gaspin, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, who broached the idea last week of shifting the late-night lineup, said he was motivated by trying to retain both stars, not to drive Mr. O’Brien away. But other NBC executives indicated privately that they would be satisfied with a new late-night lineup with Mr. Leno back at “The Tonight Show” at 11:35 and Mr. Fallon settling in at the “Late Night” show at 12:35.
The most important figure is that when Leno left the tonight show he was #1. The network's error was listening to Conan's wishes to run the Tonight Show. They forgot the at Leno's warm, goofy, best pal act was liked and watched. By siding with Conan, the network almost killed the golden goose. They did such a hatchet job that Letterman's sex scandal was not the big story in late night TV for 2009. Now, by creating another anti-Leno force in the universe, they have a chance to resurrect it. Maybe that was the plan for dealing with Conan all along. If they can be considered to have had a plan.
Comments
Mike C - January 13, 2010 11:15 AM
Craig's the only guy I watch these days, and that is the next day from DVR recordings (Atlantic time's a bitch for late nite talk show watching), so I guess it matters not much to me who goes where or when they might be on.
P of K - January 13, 2010 11:25 AM
A very good description of the snarky jerks that Letterman and O'Brien seem to be. Their humour has always been without class and at the expense of others . Perhaps I am just getting geezerish but I preferred Leno and even Carson.
Rob MacD - January 13, 2010 4:37 PM
I am always chagrined when people profess an appreciation for Leno, Air Farce and/or Just For Laughs: Gags. To me, they are all the epitome of lazy comedy for the MOR crowd.
The way I see it, NBC thinks/thought that Jay Leno is/was the golden goose to which you refer. Not The Tonight Show. I believe they (mistakenly, horrendously, hugely mistakenly) thought that the grampie and granny viewers who adore him (his bread and butter demographic) would go with Jay to 10pm Eastern and ratings would be consistent with the numbers he got at 11:35. Obviously that didn't pan out.
I disagree with your assessment that NBC valued Conan over Jay. That would have been true, I think, if they didn't offer Jay the 10pm show. But when they did offer it to him, it was quite obvious, to me at least, that they were putting their money behind Jay and letting Conan (and the Tonight Show) scrounge for Jay's leftovers.
And now that they are trying to put Jay back at 11:30 (and screw Conan even more by shuffling him back half an hour), it once again proves to me that they will do anything to keep Jay happy and try to get things back to the way things were.
And the anti-Leno force is anti-Leno, not because of Conan, but because Leno is not funny, hasn't been funny forever and yet NBC blindly backs him and ruins everything in the process.
Their caustic nature and cruel jerked-ness doesn't matter much to me. To me, the important thing is a) are they funny, and b) do they do a good job. For me, both Conan and Letterman are much better than Jay.
But, yeah, Ferguson is the man.
Alan - January 13, 2010 6:04 PM
Good points. I don't equate Jay with Air Farce but what a curse on him if you do.