I‘m betting Jeff Zucker is wishing he could take it all back. As head of NBC/Universal, Zucker thought he found a way to have his cake and eat it too, i.e., retaining both Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien and saving money at the same time. But as Variety reported over the weekend, the arrangement proved tenuous and is now turning the network upside down.
It all began when O’Brien expressed his desire to take over The Tonight Show, which starts at 11:35pm on weekdays. But the show’s host, Jay Leno, did not have any intention of leaving his popular perch and had the ratings to show for it. But NBC did not want to lose Conan to a rival network, like, say, Fox or ABC. That is when Zucker had the idea of moving Leno to an hourlong slot from 10pm to 11pm, Monday through Friday, and scrapping any hourlong dramas. The way Zucker saw it, ratings for that hour might slip, but the network would save millions of dollars by not running such serious shows as Southland. Conan would then get his coveted Tonight Show at 11:35pm, followed an hour later by Jimmy Fallon, followed an hour later by Carson Daly.
Still following? The main problem, according to the network, was that the local affiliates were up in arms over Leno’s poor ratings, which resulted in fewer viewers tuning into the 11pm news. Facing a mass revolt, it was up to NBC/Universal’s entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin to pull the plug on Leno. As Deadline Hollywood reports, Gaspin fell on his sword, insisting Zucker was the good guy in all of this: “And don’t get me wrong, [Zucker] challenged me every step of the way,” said Gaspin. “All the things you are throwing at me, he threw out every possibility (including having Leno on only a few nights a week instead of five). And in the end, after the answers I was able to give and the conversations we had, we realized this was a best choice and perhaps our only choice.”
Aside from local affiliates upset at poorly rated lead-ins, there was a more basic problem. Though NBC officially handed over The Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien and gave Jay Leno a “new” variety show airing earlier, The Jay Leno Show was essentially The Tonight Show at an earlier hour. Leno still came out to shake the hands of audience members, opened with a monologue, had the same sidekick and band, hosted guests, and ran the same skits as he did at 11:35pm. And nabbing guests at an earlier hour wasn’t exactly making booking for The Tonight Show any easier.
Everyone suffered, particularly in the 18-49-year-old target group. Leno had ratings below some programming even on the FX Network. O’Brien’s numbers were less than Letterman’s. And so in the end, NBC came up with a compromise: Give Leno 30 minutes beginning at 11:35pm, the same time that The Tonight Show has started for decades–but not call it The Tonight Show, which will remain with Conan O’Brien, who would start at 12:05am. Jimmy Fallon’s hour would then start at 1:05am.
According to Variety, “Leno is believed to have already signed on to the plan–but O’Brien’s decision remains up in the air. The ‘Tonight Show’ host has a lot to digest in making his decision, including the value of sticking with the ‘Tonight Show’ brand, even at a later midnight time, vs. what opportunities may or may not exist at Fox, on cable or in syndication.” (It actually wouldn’t be the first time O’Brien worked under the News Corporation at Fox since he was a writer on The Simpsons.)
In short, NBC has a real mess on its hands. Even by making this switch, which should take place after the Winter Olympics next month, it still leaves an entire swath of open air time from 10pm to 11pm, Mondays to Fridays–the network execs won’t get around to a new lineup of dramas until much later. The answer, according to NBC, is to fill in the slot in the meantime with Dateline. Just what we need: Five hours a week of “To Catch a Predator”!
But the real victim in all of this is Carson Daly. Deadline Hollywood quotes Jeff Gaspin as saying, “Carson Daly is going to be part of our schedule, regardless of what happens.” But that technically means Last Call would air at 2:05am. Sweet dreams.
