Jay Leno on Oprah

[Disney Doll]

Personally, I would take on any of their "problems" in a heartbeat.
Wouldn't you?

Yeah...all the poor sad millionaires. My heart bleeds for them.....

 

[N.Bailey]

The did the same thing to Leno with Letterman. When Letterman's contract ran out they offered him the tonight show when Leno's contract ran out. Letterman did not accept.

It's wiki yes, but this can be verified on any number of other sites.

Letterman and Carson

NBC's decision to select Jay Leno and not Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show was an embarrassment to Carson, who had all but promised the succession to Letterman.[34] Letterman maintained a close relationship with Carson through his break with NBC. Three years after he left for CBS, HBO produced a made-for-television movie called The Late Shift, based on a book by New York Times reporter Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for the coveted Tonight Show hosting spot. Letterman would mock the film for months afterward, specifically on how the actor playing him, John Michael Higgins, did not resemble him in the least.[citation needed] ("They took a guy who looked nothing like me and with make-up and special camera angles, turned him into a guy who looked nothing like me, with red hair.")[citation needed]

Carson later made a few cameo appearances as a guest on Letterman's show. Carson's final television appearance came May 13, 1994 on a Late Show episode taped in Los Angeles, when he made a surprise appearance during a 'Top 10 list' segment. The audience went wild as Letterman stood up and proudly invited Carson to sit at his desk. The applause was so protracted that Carson was unable to say anything, and he finally returned backstage as the applause continued (it was later explained that Carson had laryngitis, though Carson can be heard talking to Letterman during his appearance).[35]

In early 2005, it was revealed that Carson still kept up with current events and late-night TV right up to his death that year, and that he occasionally sent jokes to Letterman, who used these jokes in his monologue; according to CBS senior vice president Peter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), Carson got "a big kick out of it." Letterman would do a characteristic Johnny Carson golf swing after delivering one of Carson's jokes. In a tribute to Carson, all of the opening monologue jokes during the first show following Carson's death were written by Carson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Letterman#Letterman_and_Carson

 

[N.Bailey]

I don't think the drama turned out all that bad for anyone involved really.

Sure, it was handled poorly. That being said, I don't think anyone involved is crying themselves to sleep at night.
NBC got Jay back. Which they wanted. Jay got the Tonight Show back...which apparently he wanted.
Conan's Tonight Show didn't have the ratings. He would have gotten the boot eventually. It came sooner than later. On the plus side...he got a HUGE amount of publicity. Many more viewers the last week of the show than they've ever had in the entire 7 months it was on. He's probably got more fans now than he had before. This will serve him well in his future endeavors. Likely by September he'll be on another network.
$45 million isn't exactly chump change. Jeeze..I think the guy will live.
Oh..and it gives us people here on the Dis something to talk about.
Win/win all around!


Letterman...he can go back to sleeping with the interns again. and no one will care.

Well, I think you overlook a lot in your analysis. Hosting the Tonight Show is a dream of anyone in the business. It was Conan's dream and NBC never gave him a proper lead in, nor did they give him an opportunity to build up a viewer base. Of course he feels cheated.

No one said he won't go on and be VERY successful during his career. He also had a huge payday, so bill collectors won't be breaking down his door, but figuratively speaking, his dream was robbed from him.

Oh and while it was a 45 million payout, 13 million was for the staff specifically, and it's been reported that Conan will be giving the staff more from his personal share.

 

[tinatark]

I wonder if Oprah's interview, while it was excellently timed, was also testing the waters... who thinks Conan will be on the Oprah network?

I also think NBC shafted D. Letterman by offering the Late Show to Leno...

 

[chisnpeke]

I wonder if Oprah's interview, while it was excellently timed, was also testing the waters... who thinks Conan will be on the Oprah network?

I also think NBC shafted D. Letterman by offering the Late Show to Leno...

I doubt it. Oprah has a huge female audience. I think Conan attracts both genders. I also think it won't benefit him to be on cable if he wants viewers.

 

[lillybug]

I wonder how Jay would have done if Johnny Carson had decided not to retire and just put a show on an hour ahead of The Tonight Show when he took over. I think the network should take most of the blame but Jay didn't help the situation much.

Exactly!

 

[auntie]

Yeah...all the poor sad millionaires. My heart bleeds for them.....

Exactly..

 

[AndyLL]

Yeah, but go back and see the shows that Jay had as a lead in. Jay did NOT provide that type of lead in for Conan, thus his ratings really dropped. Moving time slots would have still had Jay running the lead in for Conan, and thus, Conan still wouldn't have had great ratings. NBC never gave Conan an honest chance.

Conan had 3 1/2 months in the tonight show before Jay's new show started and his ratings were already lousy. They started dropping like a rock his 1st week.

Lets see what NBC has done:

Carson retires - NBC picks Leno over Letterman ( Carson's choice )

Letterman's contract is up - NBC promises him tonight show when Leno's existing contract is up. Letterman declines.

Conan's contract is up - NBC guarantees Conan the Tonight Show when Leno's contract is up.

Leno's contract is up - NBC offers him prime-time show to keep him from competing with Conan.

Hard to blame anyone but NBC.

 

[N.Bailey]

Conan had 3 1/2 months in the tonight show before Jay's new show started and his ratings were already lousy. They started dropping like a rock his 1st week.

Lets see what NBC has done:

Carson retires - NBC picks Leno over Letterman ( Carson's choice )

Letterman's contract is up - NBC promises him tonight show when Leno's existing contract is up. Letterman declines.

Conan's contract is up - NBC guarantees Conan the Tonight Show when Leno's contract is up.

Leno's contract is up - NBC offers him prime-time show to keep him from competing with Conan.

Hard to blame anyone but NBC.

Did you get that from a link you failed to provide? Letterman didn't decline taking over as host of the Tonight Show, they offered it to Leno.

By MANY accounts, Leno hid in closets to listen to the execs making the decision of who was going to become host.

Leno refused to allow ANYONE to host the Tonight Show the ENTIRE time he was host. He refused to take vacations and such to make certain no one else had the opportunity. When he was in the hospital, NBC ran reruns, so there was no other host during that time even. It was the only 2 shows Leno missed since replacing Carson in 1992. It's merely my speculation, but Anderson Cooper was suppose to host the show on Friday, did Jay raise a fuss and demand the network not allow anyone else to host the show? Jay checked into the hospital on Thursday, the network ran a rerun, Anderson cooper was to do Friday's show, and Jay was to be back at the beginning of the week. Somewhere along the line though, Cooper was canceled, and a rerun aired both nights.

Yes, agree that NBC is to blame here, but Leno isn't innocent.

As for the ratings prior to Leno's 10 PM show starting, do you have a link to show what they were for the TS during that time frame? It doesn't matter however because any host has to build their audiences. That's accomplished thru time, AND thru lead in. Conan had neither.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Let me get this straight - Leno went on Oprah's show?

 

[DancingBear]

Did you get that from a link you failed to provide? Letterman didn't decline taking over as host of the Tonight Show, they offered it to Leno.

Much more complicated than that.

ON FRIDAY EVENING AT ABOUT 7 P.M. DAVID LETTERMAN was back in his office going through the usual post-mortem of the show. A call came through. It was Mike Ovitz.

At 7:20 P.M. the main members of the Letterman staff -- including Peter Lassally, Robert Morton, the producer, and Hal Gurnee, the director -- heard the news. One hour earlier David Letterman had officially been offered the job as host of "The Tonight Show." But the terms, as explained by Ovitz, were more than a little maddening.

NBC was offering a deal that would give Letterman a "Tonight Show" with a budget no more than 5 percent bigger than what Leno currently had. Letterman himself would be paid a fee that was described as between his present annual salary of about $7 million and the $12.5 million base salary in the CBS deal. Then came the punch line: The deal would not go into effect until May 1994. NBC was offering David Letterman "The Tonight Show" after a 17-month waiting period.

The May date, as everyone knew, coincided with the end of Jay Leno's current contract. So the implication was clear: NBC wanted to avoid paying off Jay. He could stay until the end of his deal, with Letterman sitting on his shoulder waiting to step in, or he could quit and forfeit his $10 million penalty payment.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/30/m...s-in-the-leno-letterman-war.html?pagewanted=1

This is the story that became the HBO special "The Late Shift".

 

[Amy&Dan]

I have always liked Leno the best. Letterman was never my style and his latest antics sort of make me realize why.

In the end, in my opinion, Conan got a bit of a raw deal, Jay did what I think anyone would do and I don't really feel sorry for any of them when people who make millions less lose their jobs with nothing but measley unemployment to support themselves until they find a new one.

As for Oprah, she has lost her ability to do an interview. She used to be the Queen of the talk show circuit. If she had been this lousy when her show started out, she would never have made it. She's lost her touch. Maybe because she's burned out, maybe because she has gotten complacent with her arrogant assumption she's smarter than the the people she interviews or maybe because I have just gotten old and she bugs me. I think her show should have ended years ago because to me, its better to go out when you are on top of your game, not burned out and out of fresh ideas.

 

[themilesfamily]

What I want to know is what NBC is going to do if Leno comes back on in March and his ratings stink. I know his ratings were good before he left, but the mood has shifted somewhat toward him.

Assuming that happens, what are they going to do? Live with low ratings? Kick Leno back out? And if so, replace him with who?

I think they should have stuck it out longer with Conan and Leno never should have been given the time slot preceding the news. If they'd had stronger/more interesting programming leading into the news hour -- and then leading into Conan -- I think the whole network would be better off.

 

[N.Bailey]

Much more complicated than that.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/30/m...s-in-the-leno-letterman-war.html?pagewanted=1

This is the story that became the HBO special "The Late Shift".

I was really asking for a link for the ratings that you'd stated. While I didn't doubt what you were saying, I was curious as to what exactly you were reading. Ultimately, Conan did not get a "fair" shot at it, IMO. He believes as much too.

As for turning down the deal at a later time, even Carson told Letterman he should walk at that point (and who in their right mind wouldn't agree with that, hmmm, stay at NBC, or sign with CBS and own your show and make more $$$). NBC was fully aware of the deal that CBS offered Letterman by this time, so they really weren't offering anything for him to stay. Sure, they put out an offer, but they certainly didn't make it an attractive offer, and Letterman was better off to go with CBS on every level except fulfilling his dream of hosting the Tonight Show (maybe NBC thought that's where the beef was in their offer?). BTW, by at least one account, I think it's Forbes, Letterman is paid 40 million a year now.

Carson didn't know that Jay Leno, then the permanent guest host of the show, had secretly obtained a contractual guarantee from NBC that he would be "The Tonight Show"'s successor. NBC concocted this plan to keep CBS from luring Leno away�they did not think it would become an issue, because they did not expect Carson to retire so soon.

NBC wanted to keep David Letterman in the 12:30 "Late Night" time-slot and have Leno at 11:30 in the "Tonight" show slot. The network wanted to keep both stars and it certainly did not want Letterman to go. But Letterman also wanted the "Tonight" show.

NBC offered Letterman a primetime show�he didn't want it. In January 1993, facing the upcoming expiration of Letterman's contract, NBC did finally offer Letterman the "Tonight" show (at this point Leno had already been permanent host since Carson had retired)�if Letterman accepted the offer, he would take over when Leno's contract expired in 1994. Although the gleam of the "Tonight" show had been somewhat tarnished by recent maneuverings, Letterman still grappled with the decision because it was the show he had always wanted. It had been his childhood dream to host the "Tonight" show�Johnny Carson was his hero and the show had an illustrious history. CBS, on the other hand, offered Letterman millions of dollars, ownership of his program, and respect.

Carson was surprisingly not given consultation regarding his successor. Although he never openly said whether he supported Letterman over Leno, when push came to shove, he was in Letterman's camp. Letterman sought Carson's advice when he was offered "The Tonight Show" after being wooed by CBS and already having lost the show to Leno. Carson said to Letterman, "I would probably walk."

In January 1993, David Letterman decided to leave NBC for CBS. He would become host of his own "Late Show."


http://journalism.nyu.edu/portfolio/books/book32.html

 

[N.Bailey]

I have always liked Leno the best. Letterman was never my style and his latest antics sort of make me realize why.

In the end, in my opinion, Conan got a bit of a raw deal, Jay did what I think anyone would do and I don't really feel sorry for any of them when people who make millions less lose their jobs with nothing but measley unemployment to support themselves until they find a new one.

As for Oprah, she has lost her ability to do an interview. She used to be the Queen of the talk show circuit. If she had been this lousy when her show started out, she would never have made it. She's lost her touch. Maybe because she's burned out, maybe because she has gotten complacent with her arrogant assumption she's smarter than the the people she interviews or maybe because I have just gotten old and she bugs me. I think her show should have ended years ago because to me, its better to go out when you are on top of your game, not burned out and out of fresh ideas.

I don't watch Oprah so I didn't see the show. I have tried to find it on the net though and have been unsuccessful in doing so. On her site however this video is posted for all to watch. Now as I said, I didn't see the show (maybe you did), but when they are debating the controversy, Oprah is 100% in Jay's corner, so I"m not sure how the show and this video could be so different from one another. It's only a guess, but from all I've seen, Oprah seems very clear in that she totally supports Leno.

If I am ever able to watch the interview, my opinion might change, but I have a hard time believing she attacked Jay at all. If so, it would be in direct contrast to what she's saying here:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Oprah-Debates-the-Tonight-Show-Controversy-Video

I have to admit, she gave me some things to think about that I hadn't considered, but I still fully support Conan and believe he got a raw deal.

 

[N.Bailey]

What I want to know is what NBC is going to do if Leno comes back on in March and his ratings stink. I know his ratings were good before he left, but the mood has shifted somewhat toward him.

Assuming that happens, what are they going to do? Live with low ratings? Kick Leno back out? And if so, replace him with who?

I think they should have stuck it out longer with Conan and Leno never should have been given the time slot preceding the news. If they'd had stronger/more interesting programming leading into the news hour -- and then leading into Conan -- I think the whole network would be better off.

This controversy has turned public sentiment directly into Conan's corner (even those that like Leno don't necessarily dislike Conan). Once the fallout started raining down around NBC, they should have done anything in their power to keep Conan with the network. Regardless where he ends up now, he's going to be HUGE. Everyone wants to see a happy ending for him, and at this point his fan base has grown by leaps and bounds and will follow him wherever he goes.

NBC could have capitalized on it, but by letting him walk, IMO, they show that they don't even have a clue as to how to satisfy the viewer. I think they need a complete overhaul.

Once the controversy against Letterman started falling out, his ratings started skyrocketing too. Americans eat this stuff up! Paris Hilton became more popular after going to jail. Cheat on your wife, and your hot stuff. It was a stupid move on the part of NBC.

 

[ols386]

I like Jay and Conan both, pretty much equally. I think Leno is pretty funny, and Conan is too, but just in sort of a different way.

I really don't blame Jay or Conan. I think NBC is responsible for the whole mess. But, as they say, "that's showbiz".

 

[disney4us2002]

They're all too damn liberal and outspoken for my tastes and I hope the Tonight Show dies a slow, painful death.

I have no idea what Carson's views were and I realllllly appreciated that. He was just funny.