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Late Night Wars - Conan's last Tonight Show was TONIGHT a long time ago

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The Wall Street Journal just put out a piece, with a very detailed recap of the events:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...482898148788.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories

But Mr. Leno's show didn't do well in the ratings at its new time. Mr. Zucker repeatedly urged patience and said it would be a "marathon, not a sprint." But local TV stations lost as many as half their key viewers for the late local news following "The Jay Leno Show."

"I think NBC fairly accurately projected how the show would do at 10 p.m. but did not contemplate the drastic falloff in [NBC's local stations] and affiliate late news as a result," said Perry Sook, chief executive of Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc., which owns or operates a dozen NBC stations.

Mr. Zucker and Jeff Gaspin, tapped last summer to lead the company's entertainment-TV businesses, in recent weeks made their first approach to Mr. Leno's representatives. The comedian made plain his willingness to return to his 11:35 p.m. time.

The two sides quietly discussed moving Mr. Leno to a half-hour late night show.Marc Graboff, who oversees NBC's business affairs, and Mr. Leno's attorney, Ken Ziffren, also left open an option for NBC to turn "The Tonight Show" back over to the 59-year-old Mr. Leno.

NBC and Mr. Zucker had for more than five years tried to placate both Messrs. O'Brien and Leno. Now they made one last effort to do so.

On Jan. 7, Mr. Gaspin proposed to Mr. O'Brien and his producer, Jeff Ross, to delay Mr. O'Brien's show to 12:05 a.m. Mr. O'Brien seemed displeased. Mr. Gaspin, according to a person familiar with the matter, said he decided on the late-night shuffle only within the last few days, and he insisted it was his idea and not Mr. Zucker's.

"We really wanted Conan to stay at the network," Mr. Gaspin said in an interview. "We really thought it was a reasonable approach."

But neither show worked. Mr. Leno couldn't draw enough viewers to satisfy local TV stations, and NBC felt Mr. O'Brien didn't do enough to adapt his comedy to "The Tonight Show," which began to lose money, according to a person familiar with the matter.

After Mr. O'Brien on Jan. 12 publicly rejected moving to 12:05 a.m. in a letter addressed to "People of Earth," NBC switched from trying to mollify him to finding the most expeditious way to push him out.

"The Tonight Show' at 12:05 simply isn't 'The Tonight Show," Mr. O'Brien wrote. "I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction."

The exit deal took days of back-and-forth. In a testy meeting Jan. 12, NBC threatened to prevent Mr. O'Brien from working at another network for 2½ years, the remaining term of his contract, said people familiar with the matter. Mr. Graboff asked if Mr. O'Brien would show up for work if NBC carried out plans to move "The Tonight Show."

Hollywood litigator Patricia Glaser, newly added to Mr. O'Brien's team, replied that he would, but Mr. O'Brien's allies added a threat. "As they say, 'We'll see you in court,'" the comedian's manager lobbed. Mr. O'Brien's representatives marched out of the meeting.

Messrs. Gaspin and Zucker then asked Universal Studios boss Ron Meyer, a former Hollywood agent, to step in as a more neutral negotiator. Working closely with Mr. O'Brien's agent, Rick Rosen, and after hours of shuttle negotiations, the two sides agreed on broad-brush terms for Mr. O'Brien's exit, including a settlement of roughly $40 million, which includes a payout for Mr. O'Brien's staff, and a provision that he can appear on a competing network after less than a year.
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Mikey Jr. said:
Doesnt Conan shoot at 5 or something? There are no tweets or anything about who the guest is or what is monologue is?
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I think it starts at like 5:30 and lasts almost an hour. You can't use cell phones or anything in there.
 
Transcript of what Leno said is up:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sho...es-light-on-the-jokes-heavy-on-the-truth.html

"I thought maybe I should address this. At least give you my view of what has been going on here at NBC. Oh, let’s start in 2004. 2004 I’m sitting in my office, an NBC executive comes in and says to me, listen, Conan O’Brien has gotten offers from other networks. We don’t want him to go, so we’re going to give him ‘The Tonight Show.’ I said, ‘well, I’ve been number one for 12 years.’ They said, ‘we know that, but we don’t think you can sustain that.’ I said, ‘okay. How about until I fall to number two, then you fire me?’ ‘No, we made this decision.’ I said, ‘that’s fine.’ Don’t blame Conan O’Brien. Nice guy, good family guy, great guy. He and I have talked and not a problem since then. That’s what managers and people do, they try to get something for their clients. I said, ‘I’ll retire just to avoid what happened the last time.’ Okay.

So time goes by and we stay number one up until the day we leave. We hand - (applause)-No, no. Okay, but I’m leaving before my contract is out. About six to eight months early. So before I could go anywhere else, I would be at least a year or 18 months before I could go and do a show somewhere else. I said to NBC, ‘would you release me from my contract.’ They said, ‘we want to keep you here.’ Okay. What are your ideas? They said, ‘how about primetime?’ I said, ‘that will never work.’ No, no, we want to put you on at 10:00. We have done focus groups. People will love you at 10:00. Look at these studies showing Jay’s chin at 10:00. People will go crazy. Didn’t seem like a good idea at the time. I said, ‘alright, can I keep my staff?’ There are 175 people that work here. I said, ‘can I keep my staff?’ Yes, you can. Let’s try it. We guarantee you two years on the air, guaranteed. Now for the first four or five months against original shows like “CSI” you’ll get killed, but in the spring and summer when the reruns come, that’s when you’ll pick up. Okay, great. I agree to that.

Four months go by, we don’t make it. Meanwhile, Conan’s show during the summer, we’re not on, was not doing well. The great hope was that we would help him. Well, we didn’t help him any, okay. They come and go, ‘this show isn’t working. We want to let you go.’ Can you let me out of my contract? No, you’re still a valuable asset to this company. How valuable can I be? You fired me twice. How valuable can I be? Okay. So then, the affiliates are not happy. The affiliates are the ones that own the TV stations. They’re the ones that sort of makes the decisions, they’re not happy with your performance and Conan is not doing well at 11:30. I said, ‘what’s your idea?’ They said, ‘well, look, how about you do a half hour show at 11:30?’ Now, where I come from, when your boss gives you a job and you don’t do it well, I think we did a good job here, but we didn’t’ get the ratings, so you get humbled. I said, ‘okay, I’m not crazy about doing a half hour, but okay. What do you want to do with Conan?’ We’ll put him on at midnight, or 12:05, keeps “The Tonight Show” does all that, he gets the whole hour. I said, okay. You think Conan will go for that? Yes, yes. (laughter) Almost guarantee you. I said okay. Shake hands, that’s it. I don’t have a manager, I don’t have an agent, that’s my handshake deal.

Next thing I see Conan has a story in the paper saying he doesn’t want to do that. They come back to me and they say if he decides to walk and doesn’t want to do it, do you want the show back? I go, ‘yeah, I’ll take the show back. If that’s what he wants to do. This way, we keep our people working, fine.’ So that’s pretty much where we are. It looks like we might be back at 11:30, I’m not sure. I don’t know. (applause) I don’t know. But through all of this - through all of this, Conan O’Brien has been a gentleman. He’s a good guy. I have no animosity towards him. This is all business. If you don’t get the ratings, they take you off the air. I think you know this town, you can do almost anything. You get ratings they keep you. I don’t get ratings, he wants. That was NBC’s solution. It didn’t work so we might have an answer for you tomorrow. So, we’ll see. That’s basically where it is."
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NimbusD said:
Whatever it is, it appears to be a shop.
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Not a photoshop, unless they did it themselves. They showed this on friday right before or after commercials (I can't remember which

Edit: judging by the tv ratings tag, it was when coming back from commercial
 
goldenticket said:
I dont like how they use Mr. so much in that article
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The large professional news outlets typically have style guides that mandate the forms of address that are used when referring to people in articles.
 
Also Leno's monologue sounds exactly what other comedians fucking hate about him: he makes it known to his team what he wants, they get it done, and Leno comes out and puts up a facade acting like he has tried to keep friendships through all of this. Leno, you're a fucking cunt, when will you realize that?
 
numble said:
"I thought maybe I should address this. At least give you my view of what has been going on here at NBC. Oh, let’s start in 2004. 2004 I’m sitting in my office, an NBC executive comes in and says to me, listen, Conan O’Brien has gotten offers from other networks. We don’t want him to go, so we’re going to give him ‘The Tonight Show.’ I said, ‘well, I’ve been number one for 12 years.’ They said, ‘we know that, but we don’t think you can sustain that.’ I said, ‘okay. How about until I fall to number two, then you fire me?’ ‘No, we made this decision.’ I said, ‘that’s fine.’ Don’t blame Conan O’Brien. Nice guy, good family guy, great guy. He and I have talked and not a problem since then. That’s what managers and people do, they try to get something for their clients. I said, ‘I’ll retire just to avoid what happened the last time.’ Okay.

So time goes by and we stay number one up until the day we leave. We hand - (applause)-No, no. Okay, but I’m leaving before my contract is out. About six to eight months early. So before I could go anywhere else, I would be at least a year or 18 months before I could go and do a show somewhere else. I said to NBC, ‘would you release me from my contract.’ They said, ‘we want to keep you here.’ Okay. What are your ideas? They said, ‘how about primetime?’ I said, ‘that will never work.’ No, no, we want to put you on at 10:00. We have done focus groups. People will love you at 10:00. Look at these studies showing Jay’s chin at 10:00. People will go crazy. Didn’t seem like a good idea at the time. I said, ‘alright, can I keep my staff?’ There are 175 people that work here. I said, ‘can I keep my staff?’ Yes, you can. Let’s try it. We guarantee you two years on the air, guaranteed. Now for the first four or five months against original shows like “CSI” you’ll get killed, but in the spring and summer when the reruns come, that’s when you’ll pick up. Okay, great. I agree to that.

Four months go by, we don’t make it. Meanwhile, Conan’s show during the summer, we’re not on, was not doing well. The great hope was that we would help him. Well, we didn’t help him any, okay. They come and go, ‘this show isn’t working. We want to let you go.’ Can you let me out of my contract? No, you’re still a valuable asset to this company. How valuable can I be? You fired me twice. How valuable can I be? Okay. So then, the affiliates are not happy. The affiliates are the ones that own the TV stations. They’re the ones that sort of makes the decisions, they’re not happy with your performance and Conan is not doing well at 11:30. I said, ‘what’s your idea?’ They said, ‘well, look, how about you do a half hour show at 11:30?’ Now, where I come from, when your boss gives you a job and you don’t do it well, I think we did a good job here, but we didn’t’ get the ratings, so you get humbled. I said, ‘okay, I’m not crazy about doing a half hour, but okay. What do you want to do with Conan?’ We’ll put him on at midnight, or 12:05, keeps “The Tonight Show” does all that, he gets the whole hour. I said, okay. You think Conan will go for that? Yes, yes. (laughter) Almost guarantee you. I said okay. Shake hands, that’s it. I don’t have a manager, I don’t have an agent, that’s my handshake deal.

Next thing I see Conan has a story in the paper saying he doesn’t want to do that. They come back to me and they say if he decides to walk and doesn’t want to do it, do you want the show back? I go, ‘yeah, I’ll take the show back. If that’s what he wants to do. This way, we keep our people working, fine.’ So that’s pretty much where we are. It looks like we might be back at 11:30, I’m not sure. I don’t know. (applause) I don’t know. But through all of this - through all of this, Conan O’Brien has been a gentleman. He’s a good guy. I have no animosity towards him. This is all business. If you don’t get the ratings, they take you off the air. I think you know this town, you can do almost anything. You get ratings they keep you. I don’t get ratings, he wants. That was NBC’s solution. It didn’t work so we might have an answer for you tomorrow. So, we’ll see. That’s basically where it is."
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WTF NBC.
 
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
Can he do an interview on Letterman or does that fall under the 'no appearing on a competing channel' part of the agreement?
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He cannot bad mouth NBC. And likely not allowed to talk details of what happened as part of the settlement. Leno is not part of the ssettlement, so he can say whatever without fear Conan will reply. Dick move.
 
FUN FACT of the DAY:

Exactly one year ago I saw Conan in NYC. Remember it well because it was MLK day and Obama was getting sworn in. Dream come true, as Conan was one of the few TV shows I watched growing up. Me and my friends bought blue Conan shirts in the morning and were first in line. Got to sit in the front row!! One of the cameramen gave us all scripts of the show, and we even got to meet La Bamba and shake Conan's hand after the show.

n714801533_1728723_5810.jpg


My friends and I decided to plan a reunion in LA to watch a taping of the Tonight Show in the next couple years. Little did we know Conan's time with NBC would last just one more year. So much for that idea. Looking forward to see where he ends up.
 
Is it true that Conan was losing money? I knew that his ratings were well below the competition, but Jay's statement is the first I've heard it implied that Conan was operating at a loss.
 
Why do people in this thread seem to take the events so personally?

Is it because they mirror some sort of betrayal event in your past?

Is it because you see it as a component of a generational culture war?
 
It probably wouldn't surprise if he was. But nothing really changed about his show, they could've easily restricted the budget to something a bit smaller.

and tokkun, you keep coming in here saying things like that. I'm angry because my favorite television personality is being booted off what he does best, and everyone is unsure when he'll come back, if he even does. Not to mention that the fucking backstabber is getting his show back, AGAIN, without deserving it, ahem, again.
 
tokkun said:
Why do people in this thread seem to take the events so personally?

Is it because they mirror some sort of betrayal event in your past?

Is it because you see it as a component of a generational culture war?
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Why do people take NPDs seriously? Or anything in any thread for that matter?
 
I'm surprised it's taken Leno this long to come out and say something in seriousness about the situation. He's been getting hammered hard from every corner. This damage control is coming in very late at this point, relatively-speaking.

It really must be like a lot of the comedians say. LEno must really be so insulated as to think that everybody loves him, and he must have been chalking the criticism up to simple digs between comedians, why is probably why he invited Kimmel on his show after Kimmel spent an hour mocking him.

I think Leno finally realized this isn't just something he can go on ignoring as he panders to Middle America. A lot of people are upset with him.
 
tokkun said:
Why do people in this thread seem to take the events so personally?

Is it because they mirror some sort of betrayal event in your past?

Is it because you see it as a component of a generational culture war?
Click to expand...

It's because Conan is funny and Leno is not. A lot of us grew up watching the guy, so his show means a lot to us, and it's not so much that he's leaving, but rather that he is getting screwed out of his job.
 
tokkun said:
Why do people in this thread seem to take the events so personally?

Is it because they mirror some sort of betrayal event in your past?

Is it because you see it as a component of a generational culture war?
Click to expand...

I grew up loving The Tonight Show, and I wasn't able to watch it for 17 years due to extreme mediocrity. I wanted to see the show returned to glory. It's not complicated.
 
Trurl said:
Is it true that Conan was losing money? I knew that his ratings were well below the competition, but Jay's statement is the first I've heard it implied that Conan was operating at a loss.
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Maybe I am just too tired but where does it say Conan is losing money?
 
Zeliard said:
I'm surprised it's taken Leno this long to come out and say something in seriousness about the situation. He's been getting hammered hard from every corner. This damage control is coming in very late at this point, relatively-speaking.
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He waited until Conan cannot legally respond to what is said ... in other words, he waited until it would be a one-sided discussion (ie. bullshit)
 
Raistlin said:
He waited until Conan cannot legally respond to what is said ... in other words, he waited until it would be a one-sided discussion (ie. bullshit)
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Probably a bad move, since I think it'll be too little, too late as far as Leno's reputation goes. He might start putting up decent ratings again, but he'll never fully recover from this. Damage control works a lot better when it comes early on, before people have had a chance to consider things. Right now everything Leno says will seem disingenuous.
 
AlternativeUlster said:
Maybe I am just too tired but where does it say Conan is losing money?
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An article somewhere in this mega posr said nbc w lenos tonight show made 20 mil profit per year and under conans 7 month run he was losing 5 mil (cant remember # might have been 7) due to conans lower ratings
 
Leno's story doesn't even make sense.

He makes it sound like he agreed to go back to 11:35 because they said Conan wouldn't have a problem going to 12:05. Then obviously Conan does have a problem and his response is, what, keep doing exactly what he was doing? Why'd he even ask about Conan in the first place, since he clearly had no intention of keeping his wants in mind.
 
legend166 said:
Leno's story doesn't even make sense.

He makes it sound like he agreed to go back to 11:35 because they said Conan wouldn't have a problem going to 12:05. Then obviously Conan does have a problem and his response is, what, keep doing exactly what he was doing? Why'd he even ask about Conan in the first place, since he clearly had no intention of keeping his wants in mind.
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Exactly, he made it seem as if Conan leaving had no connection to his decision to go along with NBC's retarded idea.
 
Leno has not earned the right for us to give him the benefit of the doubt. When you have a history of stabbing people in the back, you need to earn that respect.
 
goldenticket said:
An article somewhere in this mega posr said nbc w lenos tonight show made 20 mil profit per year and under conans 7 month run he was losing 5 mil (cant remember # might have been 7) due to conans lower ratings
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Also, a show like a late night show would lose money its first year due to set construction and stuff of that type too.
 
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