Jay Leno may walk out on NBC, too

New York Post ^ | January 13, 2010

[999replies]

You might be totally correct, but I swear that I was watching tv the day after all that went down, and I know I watched Jay announce his retirement. Maybe he was just being a loyal soldier and not burning bridges!? No matter what, I would assume that you know way more than I do. The more I hear, the more I am changing my mind. Some things are not always what they seem. Cheers.

[Blue Ink]

Long-time lurker, but first-time poster, because finally it’s a topic I know something about! I work in television.

I don’t understand all the Jay-hate. NBC decided years ago to replace Leno with Conan O’Brien. Although Leno consistently beat Letterman in the ratings, they took a very long view of the situation, concerned that Leno’s viewers were old (by TV advertising standards) and getting older. Jay was forced out by age-ism — that’s a fact. NBC fired him but allowed him the dignity of announcing his “retirement.”

At the same time, NBC desperately didn’t want Jay to take his act to a competing network at 11:30 — he had offers — and beat Conan and “The Tonight Show.” (And by the way, I thought he was “retiring...”) It was an untenable position — we don’t want you , but we don’t want anyone else to have you either.

Jay has every right to work as long as someone will pay him. The ten o’clock show was an ill-considered attempt by bad managers to take advantage of Jay’s still-high ratings AND protect Conan and “The Tonight Show.”

Canceling a proven hit — which is what the “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” was — was utter folly. It would be like retiring Kobe Bryant NOW because you want to get a jump on developing a new star.

Clearly Jay’s viewers don’t want to watch him at 10:00. But they also don’t want to watch Conan in “The Tonight Show” slot. Jay’s ten p.m. show did NOT bring Conan’s ratings down — Conan’s ratings were already in the cellar way before Jay’s new show debuted, when Conan still had the traditional NBC drama shows leading into the local news. Conan may be a nice guy, but he was a bad hire for “The Tonight Show.” Even if Jay doesn’t return to his old job, there’s no way Conan stays in “The Tonight Show” chair — NBC can’t afford to devalue that franchise any further.

And note that NBC is happy to sit back and let Jay be the bad guy in all this. Jay didn’t promise Conan the job and change his mind — NBC fired a ratings winner, hired a ratings loser, and now they’re scrambling to save the second most valuable franchise (the “Today Show” is the first) at a struggling network with little else going for it.

TEAM LENO!

[Blue Ink]

999, you remember it right! But here’s what’s lost in the PR blitz: everyone says Jay “handed over the show” to Conan and should stick to his word.” It’s what we all saw on TV. But it was Soviet-style stagecraft. Jay had absolutely no say in the process. It was one hundred percent NBC’s decision. Tom Brady can name his successor to every sports writer and on every sports show from now till his retirement, but it’s just words and advice. He doesn’t own the Patriots!

NBC owns ‘The Tonight Show.’ They’ve always owned it. They will continue to own it. When Jay announced (with a gun to his head) that he was handing off the show to Conan, he had already been fired. (Or retired.) Granted, it was a slow motion firing, but he had ABSOLUTELY NO CHOICE in the ‘when’ of his retirement or the ‘who’ of his successor. He put the best face on it he could.

Case in point: Carson wanted Letterman. Didn’t matter. NBC hired Leno. It’s NBC’s show. They own this mess.

[999replies]

Good points. I guess Carson did want Letterman huh? Very interesting. Thanks for the facts.

[adorno]

All NBC needs to do is to create another “green week” on both the Conan and Leno shows.

Their ratings will go through the roof.