Maybe I always just assumed, but it was my understanding that NBC felt they needed to offer Conan the Tonight Show to keep him from going to another network, and from that I assumed that they told Jay he needed to step aside.
Is this what Jay is saying now, since shit has hit the fan or is this something that was floating around before all the drama and his 10 o'clock show got canceled?
I remember seeing some Jay quotes once he announced his retirement about wanting to take out his wife to dinner before he turned 60. Just hard to believe him when he is now firing all cylinders to rehabilitate his image from all this.
No, that's actually what happened. Most people have gotten it wrong (I got it wrong, and it's why I've been on Team Coco).
Basically, this is how it went down.
- Conan was getting offers from other networks (ABC, Fox).
- NBC didn't want to let Conan go.
- NBC was more interested in keeping Conan to carry the network from 2009 forward than they were about keeping Leno.
- NBC basically tells Leno, this will be Conan's show in 2009 -- you have 5 years to get used to that idea.
I have no reason to doubt Leno (now that I understand what went on) -- hell, the guy doesn't even use an agent. A handshake is good enough for him
Again was this said BEFORE this whole mess occurred or is this some new story being told.
Published: Sept. 28, 2004
Shortly after he signed his latest contract extension, Leno said NBC executives approached him, saying they didn’t want to lose O’Brien. He endorsed the move and set his own 2009 exit date, when he’ll be 59.
Leno’s renowned workaholism also made the announcement surprising. He never missed a show until he had to, when NBC had him trade jobs for a day with Katie Couric in a promotional gimmick, and does live stand-up comedy dates when he’s not working on TV.
O'Brien, whose contract was to expire in December 2005, had been very public about his displeasure when NBC locked up Leno on the "Tonight Show" through the end of the decade. O'Brien made no bones about the fact that he thought he deserved the earlier time slot after 11 years following Leno. Soon, reports emerged that he was being wooed by other networks....
Television industry executives contacted yesterday weren't surprised that O'Brien had been told he would get "Tonight" when Leno's contract ran out. They were very surprised, however, that it had been written into O'Brien's new contract and that NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker had gotten Leno to agree to quit in five years -- and on a night that was supposed to have been about celebrating the long-running franchise and Leno's own ratings supremacy.
This was said way before the mess occured dude.Again was this said BEFORE this whole mess occurred or is this some new story being told. And I recommend you watch The Late Shift about the original nightmare that Leno caused with the Tonight Show. He used an agent back then which is what led to him hosting The Tonight Show.
I don't blame Leno entirely for what happened with Conan. NBC bears the majority of the responsibility. Though Leno deciding to sticking around NBC just added fuel to the fire. At anytime he could have told NBC NO, just like Conan told them to move the Tonight Show to midnight. He cared more about himself than his crew or Conan or The Tonight Show.
In the interview I found it amazing that he said it was an ego thing to just retire because then his crew would lose their jobs. No shit!?! Guess Carson had a huge ego when he decided to retire and let his crew hang out to dry. He was playing the victim card on Oprah wonderfully.
Yeah, that was pretty much the story. Darth Zucker is an idiot. I can't understand how that guy has kept his job after running NBC into the ground.
He didn't choose to retire. He was forced out by NBC execs to stop Conan from leaving. I didn't realize this until now.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6115643/
Another 2004 report:
Something was definitely fishy about the whole thing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55572-2004Sep27.html
I missed it, is it online anywhere?
You think? Would you take Leno's word on any of this? Like others said, read up on his past history. When it comes to business, he is clearly not the person he makes his persona to be. My guess is NBC knew Leno was going to cause problems so they setup contracts to make it clear that they were going to move on, hoping to not repeat what had happened before (and figuring that transitioning between two very successful hosts should go smoothly). Then, Leno made a fuss, and NBC, worried about having just booted a #1 rated person, thought they would be able to appease him and get some good ratings so they agreed to let him do another show. If I'm not mistaken, it started out as a different show from how Leno did the Tonight Show, but then Leno changed it back to doing his same old shit at a different time. When Conan's ratings tanked, Leno saw blood and probably went after him.
NBC thought they were going to look less stupid bringing Jay back. Hell, I wouldn't even lay the blame all on Zucker, as he probably thought, hey this will make me look smart by getting Jay back on the air. The problem is they royally fucked that up, and it royally fucked everything up.
I see them reference the cost of Conan's poor ratings and paying him off. How much did Leno lose them with that new show? Factor in how much they fucked over their affiliates, and this has probably done damage that will take years to clear up just on that alone, even completely ignoring the Tonight Show. In fact, between this and the Olympics, NBC might have lost half a billion in roughly half a year. They panicked and just dumped what were long term investments for them. They might have tried to minimize the immediate losses to look better for Comcast.
You think? Would you take Leno's word on any of this? Like others said, read up on his past history. When it comes to business, he is clearly not the person he makes his persona to be. My guess is NBC knew Leno was going to cause problems so they setup contracts to make it clear that they were going to move on, hoping to not repeat what had happened before (and figuring that transitioning between two very successful hosts should go smoothly). Then, Leno made a fuss, and NBC, worried about having just booted a #1 rated person, thought they would be able to appease him and get some good ratings so they agreed to let him do another show. If I'm not mistaken, it started out as a different show from how Leno did the Tonight Show, but then Leno changed it back to doing his same old shit at a different time. When Conan's ratings tanked, Leno saw blood and probably went after him.
Lol Conan's the guy who made a fuss about wanting the tonight show in the first place. This wouldn't have happened if Conan didn't threaten to leave NBC if he didn't get Leno's job. Why couldn't Conan just stick to the Late Show? Why did he want to steal Jay's job? Like you said, Conan should have just left NBC 5 years ago.
You think? Would you take Leno's word on any of this? Like others said, read up on his past history. When it comes to business, he is clearly not the person he makes his persona to be. ...
What I don't understand is why Leno, being the biggest car freak in quite possibly the world, would even want to do the Tonight Show gig at all anymore....? He has more money than God, and car fans all over would love to see him host Top Gear America... his knowledge of the automobile is second to just about no one. This is a no-brainer to me... and if anyone has the Hollywood clout to make such a thing happen, it's Jay Leno.
NBC is dumber than a box of rocks, but I think Conan and Leno seem like nice people. The real problem is that the previous setup was so damned ideal in the big picture. The Tonight Show is a really old show, been on for decades, and Conan's edgier/zanier style didn't suit the format. He was great with the late night show, free to be wacky from NY in the middle of the night. Leno was not as cool, but he was great at what he did.
Another thing to remember, both of these guys came from basically nothing, they're not spoiled brats living off of royal showbiz blood, they came from the bottom and worked their way up. They've both been EXTREMELY loyal to their staff, and people who run into them on the street almost invariably are impressed with how personable and down-to-earth they are.
I'd take either of them eleven days of the week over bitter old cheatin' Dave, nice-but-utterly unfunny Fallon, misplaced Kimmel, and so on. The only other nighttime talk host worth a damn is Ferguson, another nice guy who came from nothing big, just a working class family from Glasgow.
What bothers me is why Conan gave up the Tonight show just because it was moved 30 minutes back. It boggles me to no end. HE is rich. He is married. He has a Harvard degree.
So the worst male talk show host meets the worst female talk show host. It's a match made in heaven. If they had a kid together his name would be Jimmy Fallon.
or maybe he has a spine and will stand up to leno.
Kinda like how he tried to steal Leno's job on the Tonight Show? He kept it up for 7 months but that crook couldn't get the ratings.
he stole nothing, he had a deal. leno was the one that hung on like a wet blanket in the wings to drag away audience, making it even worse with horrible ratings lead in. if johnny carson had hung around leno like that leno might have also failed.
Lol Conan's the guy who made a fuss about wanting the tonight show in the first place. This wouldn't have happened if Conan didn't threaten to leave NBC if he didn't get Leno's job. Why couldn't Conan just stick to the Late Show? Why did he want to steal Jay's job? Like you said, Conan should have just left NBC 5 years ago.
Exactly when do you think Leno had this power to compel NBC to do ANYTHING? He doesn't own the network - he doesn't say what gets programmed and what doesn't. You think he marched into NBC and said "Give me the Tonight Show back"? Do you think this would even be an issue if Conan had any ratings to speak of?
Or, think of it this way... you have an opportunity to have your dream job (regardless of what it is - be on TV, run Microsoft, etc.). You know it's between you & one other person. You know taking the job will have adverse affects on the other person. Are you honestly going to say you'd pass on the job because of what it would do to the other guy?
I don't have a dog in this fight - I find both of them to be terrible and watched none of the shows involved. But to think that Leno somehow has control over this situation or that he should walk away from what he's said all along was his dream job, is just silly.
Yup, that's the thing. Somewhere between 2004 and 2010, history somehow got rewritten as to what actually happened. And people are using the revised history -- as I did -- to show their support for Conan.
However, the two links that I posted above show what really went down.
What I don't understand is why Leno, being the biggest car freak in quite possibly the world, would even want to do the Tonight Show gig at all anymore....? He has more money than God, and car fans all over would love to see him host Top Gear America... his knowledge of the automobile is second to just about no one. This is a no-brainer to me... and if anyone has the Hollywood clout to make such a thing happen, it's Jay Leno.
What bothers me is why Conan gave up the Tonight show just because it was moved 30 minutes back. It boggles me to no end. HE is rich. He is married. He has a Harvard degree.
You're an idiot. 6 months before the deal was announced, around when Leno got his 5 year deal, Conan's people were raising hell. Conan wanted the show and he threatened to leave NBC if he didn't get the show. Conan wanted to steal Jay's job.