Mediaite’s Joe Concha Talks Leno, Today Implosion With Brian Kilmeade: Matt Lauer’s ‘Gotta Go’
Mediaite contributor Joe Concha joined Brian Kilmeade on his radio show to talk about the much-discussed late-night switcheroo starring Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon — as well as Today‘s very public implosion.
Kilmeade began with Today and Matt Lauer, whose public image doesn’t appear to be improving. “You can’t leave that network and break up nicely,” Concha said of NBC, contrasting that with Dave Briggs‘ departure from Fox, which was smooth and cordial. But with MSNBC and NBC, the “bridge is napalm.” (Though, for us, does provide some entertainment.)
It’s hard for Today to get past the Ann Curry incident, Concha continued. “Somebody’s gotta go, and I think it’s Lauer at this point because of what happened with Curry and the way that this whole PR fiasco’s being handled.”
The bottom line about the morning shows and what differentiates Good Morning America from its NBC counterpart, he asserted, is that the folks on GMA seem to actually like each other. “You can’t fake that,” Concha stressed.
The pair then jumped to the other end of the television day: late-night shows and the Leno debacle. Kilmeade simply couldn’t grasp NBC wanting to oust Leno at this point in time. “What’s the rush?” he asked, to which Concha argued there isn’t any. Offering his own advice, Concha said he’d pick Tina Fey over Fallon to draw in an entirely new audience. Leno, though, “is the only commodity at that network who is performing well.”
Kilmeade jumped in to ask about the argument some on the right have made about Leno getting the boot due to the jokes he makes at the left’s and the president’s expense, but Concha didn’t believe that could prompt such a drastic consequence. “Too much money at stake there,” he noted.
Listen below:
