Leno on Oprah

[SludgeFactory]

I don't have a problem with Conan asking for that job in 2004. He made up his mind to move up to 11:35. He wanted to do it at NBC and follow in the footsteps of Johnny Carson. You can't get what you want if you don't ask. If they'd outright said no then, he would have gone to another network. The fact remains that Leno went along with the plan to have Conan take over. He went back on that. I don't think Leno is quite the scheming villain that he's being made out to be on internet forums, but he's not an innocent party here either.

The whole 2004 arrangement just reeked of Zucker saying "Conan's leaving *now* unless I do something. I'll put this decision off for 5 years and dominate the ratings in the meantime, string both of these guys along, and deal with it later." That's really the way it seemed to me then.

NBC has always been deathly afraid of Leno going to ABC and killing them at 11:35, they're a lot more afraid of that scenario than Conan leaving and doing a competing show, and we now know that for a fact because of how they treated Conan this month.

I strongly suspect that in 2009, if they hadn't been able to lock Leno in with the harebrained 10:00 show and feared him going to ABC, they would have paid the contractual penalty to Conan and said goodbye to him. Conan is kryptonite to the 49+ demo that makes up so much of the ratings in that time slot, a demo that Leno dominates. NBC knew they would take a hit on the Tonight Show ratings, and they knew Leno would be a perennial 3rd place show at 10:00. What brought Zucker's house of cards down was how local 11:00 news ratings went to shit and affiliates revolted.

 

[SKORPI0]

There's even at least one instance of him doing some underhanded stuff to get his hands on a car (I'll try to find that story in just a second).

Talk show host Jay Leno gets sued over ownership of a 1931 Model J Duesenberg

 

[darkswordsman17]

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.

Everyone, even Leno knew he wouldn't be able to do the show forever. NBC wanted to get the younger audience that Conan has. Leno even claimed that he was ready to part ways and was glad about Conan taking over. Of course, now he also admits he was lying about that.

 

[aceO07]

They both said they'd quit. Which one did as he said?

 

[darkswordsman17]

I don't have a problem with Conan asking for that job in 2004. He made up his mind to move up to 11:35. He wanted to do it at NBC and follow in the footsteps of Johnny Carson. You can't get what you want if you don't ask. If they'd outright said no then, he would have gone to another network. The fact remains that Leno went along with the plan to have Conan take over. He went back on that. I don't think Leno is quite the scheming villain that he's being made out to be on internet forums, but he's not an innocent party here either.

The whole 2004 arrangement just reeked of Zucker saying "Conan's leaving *now* unless I do something. I'll put this decision off for 5 years and dominate the ratings in the meantime, string both of these guys along, and deal with it later." That's really the way it seemed to me then.

NBC has always been deathly afraid of Leno going to ABC and killing them at 11:35, they're a lot more afraid of that scenario than Conan leaving and doing a competing show, and we now know that for a fact because of how they treated Conan this month.

I strongly suspect that in 2009, if they hadn't been able to lock Leno in with the harebrained 10:00 show and feared him going to ABC, they would have paid the contractual penalty to Conan and said goodbye to him. Conan is kryptonite to the 49+ demo that makes up so much of the ratings in that time slot, a demo that Leno dominates. NBC knew they would take a hit on the Tonight Show ratings, and they knew Leno would be a perennial 3rd place show at 10:00. What brought Zucker's house of cards down was how local 11:00 news ratings went to shit and affiliates revolted.

I'm not saying Conan didn't have any part in pushing Leno out, however what he did was pretty typical. You've got the younger up and coming popular person. Hell, NBC wanted this (Conan take over the Tonight Show) to happen as being able to move onto a younger very popular new host would make any network drool. In fact I don't see how anyone can fault NBC and Conan for that part. It looked like all but a guaranteed success, even Leno says so. The problem is, NBC gave up on it too early and Jay took advantage of the situation. NBC looks like idiots and Leno looks like an asshole.

This is just a bunch of business decisions that went terribly awry. You could compare it to Favre and the Packers. Did the Packers make the wrong choice by moving on? I wouldn't say so, but they knew it would take time before Aaron Rodgers would bring them success which is why they aren't sitting around trying to get Favre back.

If NBC would have given Conan more time, I doubt we'd even be discussing this.

Talk show host Jay Leno gets sued over ownership of a 1931 Model J Duesenberg

Thanks for finding the link. Read that article. Leno admits to doing shit to keep other buyers away from being able to get the car in some book, although he doesn't admit to everything that he's claimed to have done to get the car (of course why would he since it'd be criminal).

 

[AdamK47]

Talk show host Jay Leno gets sued over ownership of a 1931 Model J Duesenberg

What was the result, if any?

 

[Fritzo]

Talk show host Jay Leno gets sued over ownership of a 1931 Model J Duesenberg

You know, I'm pretty familiar with the way these cars are purchased, and I'm betting Leno told a buyer "go get this for me, whatever it takes", meaning pay whatever they want. The buyer probably took it too far.

"A lawyer for Leno and the garage said the cars went on the block only after Straus became "extremely delinquent" in paying his storage fee." Probably didn't know the whole story behind it.



This just doesn't fit Jay's character.

 

[Turin39789]

You know, I'm pretty familiar with the way these cars are purchased, and I'm betting Leno told a buyer "go get this for me, whatever it takes", meaning pay whatever they want. The buyer probably took it too far.

"A lawyer for Leno and the garage said the cars went on the block only after Straus became "extremely delinquent" in paying his storage fee." Probably didn't know the whole story behind it.



This just doesn't fit Jay's character.

you hang out with him a lot? or do you mean his public persona

 

[darkswordsman17]

You know, I'm pretty familiar with the way these cars are purchased, and I'm betting Leno told a buyer "go get this for me, whatever it takes", meaning pay whatever they want. The buyer probably took it too far.

"A lawyer for Leno and the garage said the cars went on the block only after Straus became "extremely delinquent" in paying his storage fee." Probably didn't know the whole story behind it.



This just doesn't fit Jay's character.

That's where I think people need to see that Leno's persona and who he really is are not one and the same.

The garage's director of maintenance ended up with the Rolls, the suit says, when the company in 2005 refused to accept a $36,000 check from the ailing Straus for garaging the cars.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=227747&highlight=leno

This was discussed before (and hey, see, I used to think Leno was a nice guy too). The article that was linked there was longer than this one and had more details but it isn't there anymore.

http://fourwheeldrift.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/jay-leno-sued-for-buying-duesenberg/

 

[SludgeFactory]

I'm not saying Conan didn't have any part in pushing Leno out, however what he did was pretty typical. You've got the younger up and coming popular person. Hell, NBC wanted this (Conan take over the Tonight Show) to happen as being able to move onto a younger very popular new host would make any network drool.

IMO, NBC was disingenuous about that. They talked about Conan's popularity with a younger audience, but it seemed like spin. When you're delivering a terrible overall rating compared to your predecessor, that's a problem.

I think in their ideal world, where Conan just sits back at 12:35 and waits and hopes and sits on his hands quietly, they would have taken Conan as a successor to Leno, but only after riding the Leno gravy train for several more years and sending him off into the sunset when he was truly ready to quit. Jay would continue to do that show on autopilot until he was 70+ and his monologues and skits were bombing on a semi-regular basis and getting an embarrassing amount of mercy applause. Just like Johnny Carson did, heh.

And now I guess Leno will get the chance to do just that.

If NBC would have given Conan more time, I doubt we'd even be discussing this.

Not to mention the abysmal lead-in he was getting. Leno really benefitted from the strength of NBC's primetime in the 90's, especially Thursday night with Friends/Seinfeld/E.R. I think that had a lot more to do with becoming and staying #1 than a single Hugh Grant interview in 1995 that's mentioned in every article about Leno's Tonight Show ever. Conan, trying to establish himself, had feces like 2 hour Biggest Loser and Leno Show. Is anyone watching NBC on a night like that?

Although truthfully, I don't think they ever had 100% faith in Conan, not enough confidence to tell Leno to go somewhere else and just try to beat us. Yeah, they gave Conan the show, but they were unwilling to let Leno go to the open market, so desperate that they put him in primetime where they openly admitted he'd get slaughtered (again spinning it by touting the potential to make money on a cheap show).

 

[ahartman]

Have you been paying no attention? Look at all the evidence of the double-faced backstabbing shit he's pulled. He has a track record of not being the person he pretends in public and in front of cameras.

I'm still waiting for you to post some 'evidence'. You gave a 2 year-old story about a car lawsuit that shows no resolution. It didn't even seem to implicate Leno in the alleged fraud.

Let's assume, for a minute, that Leno did scheme to get the show back. How is that different from Conan saying he'd walk if he didn't get the Tonight Show. How can one be 'the natural progression of things' and the other be dirty pool?

I still say if Conan had any ratings to speak of, this whole discussion would be moot and Leno would be conning senile old folks out of more cars while Conan ruled the airwaves. As it stands, Conan borked up the Tonight Show and he's out for someone NBC believes can pull better ratings.

Or are you really saying that NBC should've just cancelled the Tonight Show altogether if Leno had been 'a stand up guy' and said no? Continue to flounder in the ratings w/Conan?