In a decision that may seriously botch the landscape of late night TV, Conan O’Brien rejected NBC’s proposal to push the Tonight Show back to 12:05am in order to make room for a half hour show featuring Jay Leno. While it is still uncertain how this will all play out, Conan surprised many in the industry by not simply accepting NBC’s new work shift.
For a plan flawed from the start, Leno’s attempts at a 10:00pm primetime comedy show have failed. Miserably. Viewing audiences for The Jay Leno Show have dropped more than 30 per cent compared with programs in the same timeslot a year ago. Even as early as last Thursday, when the other major networks were airing encore episodes of their shows because of the BCS National Championship, NBC was live with a new Leno. The ratings for that show fell below those of Law and Order reruns. Jays’ decision to come back to TV after only a short hiatus was risky, and something that both he and NBC must have understood. It was five years ago that he announced he would step down from the Tonight Show and that Conan would take over. During that time, Jay realized that he couldn’t walk away from showbiz, and NBC couldn’t walk away from a marquee name. That’s what a network will do when it’s in fourth place in the ratings and in danger of being passed by the CW. Instead of developing new show ideas, they try to breathe life into old ones.
Now it may cost them up to $80 million dollars. That’s how much Conan O’Brien’s buyout clause is if his contract is broken in any way. At the same time, NBC may be seeing some repercussions of giving Leno a gentle nudge out the door. Remember back when Conan was NBC’s hot new commodity and had his eyes set on the Tonight Show gig, whenever Jay Leno decided to step down. I think Conan may have played some hardball at the end of his last contract saying if he wasn’t the one to replace Leno, he may jump ship to another network. That may have expedited Jay’s decision, as he would have had to set a timeline for his departure. And after the incident with David Letterman getting burned and going on to star at CBS, this may have become a decision that NBC didn’t want to mess up — and yet they did anyway. Of course the winner in all this is Letterman who has become stronger than ever in the coveted 11:30 time slot and really solidified his ratings.
Filed under: Entertainment, Straight Up (News), TPB General | Tagged: comedy, conan obrien, david letterman, Entertainment, hollywood, jay leno, nbc, primetime, tonight show, tv | Leave a comment »