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.