It doesn't seem that long ago that there was a late night war over the Tonight Show between Jay Leno and David Lettermen. Back then if someone had said it would happen again in 2010 that wouldn't be hard to believe. But this battle should have been between Conan O'Brian and Jimmy Kimmel. To see that Leno is still in the battle for me is hard to believe. To say that some are seeing Leno as the bad guy in this would have been even harder to believe in the first battle. Remember he seemed like the good guy in the first one.
Leno gave up the Tonight Show to host his own self titled show every night at 10pm. A bold move by him and NBC. A move that either way would make broadcasting history. Saddly it made history in a bad way. But Leno gave up the Tonight Show. Now he seems to want it back and the network wants him back. Conan wasn't told it was a temp job when he got it. If the only thing that has the network and the affiliates mad is that Leno is a bad lead in for the news then just cancel his show. He has done well enough over the years that he will be well off. Conan of course is too but in my opinion he has done nothing wrong. NBC has botched up their late nights now and Conan will just go to some other network and will be more competation for the Tonight Show.
1 comment:
I think that what's compicating things more is the various contracts involved. If I understand correctly. NBC is contractually bound to support Jay and also contractually able to keep Conan off any other network if he violates his cotract with them.
Remember when Nick Clooney took his show from WCPO (with Wirt Cain as sidekick) to WKRC (with Glenn Ryle as sidekick)? Channel 9 invoked a contractual clause that kept Nick off the air for a full year between those shows!He could not legally appear on any station except theirs and he was mad at them so he sat it out for a year!
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