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Jay Leno Would Like You To Know That This Is Not His Fault

by Rachel Sklar | 4:46 pm, January 12th, 2010

» 11 comments

Team Conan.

Conan O’Brien’s kiss-off letter to NBC is going to make him a hero, not only to people who started off loving him (and watching him!) and not only to creative types sick of being pushed around by The Man. It’s because he’s been cast as the underdog here, unfairly subject to the failings of Jay Leno both as a stand-alone 10 p.m. show and as a crappy lead-in for the Tonight Show.

Conan’s statement is funny, but principled and resolute, and this will only add to the popular support he’s received as this story has unfolded. It will also add to the Leno backlash.

The Leno backlash has been furious. Despite the fact that he was number one for years in that spot, he seems to have virtually no one on his side. “Team Conan” is now to be everywhere (40,500 results in Google to a whopping 36 for “Team Jay“). There is already an TeamConan on Twitter, and both “Team Conan” and “#TeamConan” are now trending huge on Twitter. Conan won TMZ’s “Team Jay or Team Conan?” poll 60-40%; our poll, which asked readers to focus on business, not loyalty, went to Conan by an even wider margin at 69% – 31%. Comedian Patton Oswalt thinks Leno is uncreative and doesn’t deserve the spot; even the most cursory of Twitter scans will turn up plentiful, scornful calls for Leno to go away. Even Jerry Seinfeld, who came out in favor NBC, came out in favor of NBC. not Leno. And notably, O’Brien’s letter mentions fairness to Jimmy Fallon and a shared history with David Letterman, but has no kind word for his predecessor.

Leno has GOT to know this. And he’s got to be very, very unhappy about it. He certainly seems unhappy with it, based on the three shows he’s done since the news broke. Right at the top, in his show on Jan. 7th, he made it clear that this was not his choice and he was not happy (and he was the first one to invoke Fox with “I hear Fox is beautiful this time of year”). As the story unfolded, Leno refused to accept the spin that it was a “move” rather than a cancellation — and refused to accept the role of the person benefiting from it all (“To be fair, NBC is working on a solution they say in which all parties would be screwed equally”). Last night, he made his contempt for NBC even more clear, and again cast his lot in with the underdogs (“Supposedly we’re moving to 11:30, but even this is not sure. See, my people are upset, Conan’s people are upset. Hey, NBC said they wanted drama at 10—now they got it!”).

Everyone has spent the past few days wondering, what does Conan want? But the other question that no one has asked is, what does Leno want? He has made the point repeatedly that he left late night at number one — does he really want to come back like this? Does he want to have to fight back against Letterman, fight against Conan at another network, be cast as the bad guy in this drama in which by all accounts, the nervous, trigger-happy suits at NBC are the ones to blame? He’s got money, he’s got fame, he’s got a legacy and he went out at the top. Why on earth would he want to go backwards, with an added plus of being hated for it?

He doesn’t. That’s why he has made it so very clear that this was not his move, this is not what he wants, and it’s definitely not his fault. But that doesn’t matter, because there can only be one hero here, and that’s Conan. Ironically, in dismantling and destroying their late-night franchise, NBC has undermined their star, their hero who was supposed to save the day, who has now been cast as the washed-up has been for whom it wasn’t enough to just fail once.

And that’s what NBC is left with: Thanks to their terrible judgment and collosal lack of vision, they’ve built up the guy they’re kicking out the door and torn down the guy coming in. Way to save late night, you idiots.

Related:
Conan Wins the Hearts and Minds of the Internet [Mashable]

******

Here’s Leno’s monologue from last night. Seem like a fan of NBC to you?

http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

Good post.

I’m guessing that Leno has the old-time work ethic of “you go where the bosses tell you”, but let’s hope he takes ahold of the bar that Conan significantly raised. For if moving the Tonight Show back half an hour would damage the franchise, then what I termed a “hostile takeover” in another forum would also do it great harm.

Supposedly, Jay banked his NBC money and lived off of the stuff that he made from casinos. So, he still has that money, a lucrative career in stand-up and after this debacle at least a book or two.

He didn’t cause the situation, but he’s no more under an obligation to move than Conan, so in my humble opinion — he should honor the legacy.
slk

Ah Rachel. You exhibit the naivete of someone who would interview her ex-boyfriend and expect everyone to see it as a semi-objective q&a puff piece on web 2.0, as opposed to the fun-sy, wink-wink, isn’t–it-cute-i’m-interviewing-my-similarly-narcisisstic-ex-boyfriend that it was.

Leno is a passive aggressive politician who knows exactly what he’s saying and doing. That “company man” shit is a ruse. he forced NBC’s hand on Carson, he took the10 o clock demotion knowing it would undermine Conan (as opposed to trying to go to another network or bowing out gracefully, as Carson did), he let it “slip” in a trade publication that he would retake 1130 again if asked, and of course, he can’t be seen as the one forcing out Conan in 1/3rd of the time he himself was given, so he blames the faceless powers-that-be. (Not that they’re any less culpable.)

Everyone knew this was going to fail. (Especially Norm McDonald–check You Tube.) So for you to reframe it as Leno being “angry” at NBC, based on what he’s saying in his monologue, makes you either willfully blind, or a schoolgirl who doesn’t know the difference. I would’ve never think the latter, but then again, you did profile Rex whats-his-name.
sarainitaly

great post!
dhg

Wow I didn’t know Leno was psychic slk.Gee maybe he can tell me what the lottry numbers will be too.I particularly like that he somehow pushed Carson out LOL and that he must have also seen to it Conan got shitty ratings for all this to turn out this way.Oh and he also knew the ten oclock show would fail did he?wow…oh and what if he had never been asked to go back to 11:30….?
LMG

“But the other question that no one has asked is, what does Leno want? He has made the point repeatedly that he left late night at number one — does he really want to come back like this?”

Do you live in a cave? Leno said he wanted the 11:35 time back in November (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/366971-Jay_Leno_Talks_Back_An_Exclusive_Interview_With_B_C.php ) And while he phases it as “That would be fine if they wanted to.” He is leaving out one important part of the equation: that he has to agree to it for it to happen, which he obviously did.
nomofo345

People seem to forget that Conan was offered the job 5 years in advance because his contract at Late Night was coming up,and NBC wanted to keep ‘em. Out comes Craig Ferguson. Conan starts sinking. Next thing you know,he’s at the Tonight show getting spanked by Letterman. I don’t think NBC gave him enough time,but I think it’s clear that the network has buyers’ remorse. With the revelation that NBC didn’t guarantee Conan the 11:35 slot (intentionally?) in his contract, they gave themselves an out. Expect them to stonewall. Leno in. Conan out. Dammit!
nomofo345

No matter how you slice it, Jay’s probably gonna come out of this looking like a big douche.
slk

dhg says:
“Wow I didn’t know Leno was psychic slk.Gee maybe he can tell me what the lottry numbers will be too.I particularly like that he somehow pushed Carson out LOL”

Sigh.

Read The Late Shift–Carson had no real intention of leaving when he did, but NBC wanted a younger demo for the Tonight Show and was looking towards a successor. This is when Jay started conveniently started courting offers from other nets. NBC knew they had to act.

“that he must have also seen to it Conan got shitty ratings for all this to turn out this way. Oh and he also knew the ten oclock show would fail did he?”

No. But Jay did know it took him 18 MONTHS to turn around his own Tonight Show ratings–and that during that time, NBC offered the show to David Letterman. (Letterman didn’t want to wait a year, and was advised by Johnny to walk, and he did–to CBS.)

If Conan had great ratings, Jay could either bask in the success of a ten pm show or, if Jay’s 10pm tanks, pick up and get his own show at a competing network. If Conan’s ratings suffer in the beginning (as Jay’s did, see above), knowing NBC is a disaster area and their patience won’t be long, taking ten pm for him was win/win–if his 10pm ratings were decent, he’d be there to step in to Tonight,

“oh and what if he had never been asked to go back to 11:30….?”

Who ELSE are they going to go to? He stayed there because he’d still “in the family.” Any other network would have locked him up.

The worst part is he’s trying to reframe all this as “bad NBC”–which they fucking ARE, but I second with LMG says–Leno’s complicit. He should either have the grace that Carson demonstrated to him and LET GO, or the self-respect that Letterman had when they offered him JAY’S tanking Tonight Show–and walk away to start your own shit.
slk

From today’s NY POST:

One late-night TV executive said Leno, pushed out of “Tonight” last year, schemed his way into a 10 p.m. show on NBC so he could pounce if O’Brien faltered at 11:35 p.m.

“Once they put Leno on at 10, Conan was done,” the late-night suit said.

That sets Leno up as the man who stole “The Tonight Show” twice.

Leno is widely believed to have backstabbed onetime pal David Letterman to get NBC to put Leno behind “The Tonight Show” desk after Johnny Carson retired in 1992. Carson had preferred Letterman.

Rather than retire last year, Leno took the 10 p.m. slot, knowing it could be a bomb that would leave O’Brien with scraps of an audience, the TV exec said.
Lilinzee

Jay Leno should be to blame because he could have done the classy thing here. He could have retired like he said he was going to. He had his farewell show. Conan gave up his Late show for this gig. Now Leno won’t leave and Conan is forced out without anywhere to go. It is just mean. In my opinion Conan O’brien is much funnier than Jay Leno and much more modern. Leno’s jokes are predictable and used. His funniest bit was the jaywalking, which he stole from Howard Stern in the first place ( look it up if you don’t believe me) plus his “jaywalk allstars” were actors we were supposed to believe to be actual people from the street. Jay Leno is 60 years old, lets face it, it was time for him to retire. Carson would have never done this because he was a class act. Jay Leno has proven himself to be a weasel.
jim

How is this not his fault? The classy and right thing for Leno to do is to step aside, like he said he would (http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/leno-conan-tonight-show-yours-13102). But he isn’t. And he can’t sit there and say “NBC offered me the show, so i have no choice but to take it. Not my fault.” Leno’s show failed. Why should Conan be punished for that? That’s why he’s the bad guy in the media. Leno very publicly gave Conan the show, and then when the idiots at NBC started switching things around again, Leno never objected.