…and how history repeats itself.
When I was 12, I rigged an old TV set with a clothes hanger and tin-foil so I could watch TV late at night. As the trail of tin-foil grew, so did my admiration for late night talk. I quickly grew to a routine of Letterman then Conan before bed.
I wanted to be Conan. I was fortunate enough to discover Conan early, in the Andy days and the heyday of Late Night. It inspired me to write, to start making dumb home-movies, to try and drive my desk, and even lead to me majoring in television production in college.
As I learned about television, I started to see a clear picture on the culture of the business and how what I wanted to do was really only successful pre-internet, which is killing the late night talkshow format.
In the chaos of the late-night shuffle, a lot of people are quick to blame Leno and NBC and side completely with Conan. Most forget that in 2005, Conan was the one who initiated the deal to have Jay leave the Tonight Show in 2009. Do you think Leno just wanted to leave and do a show at 10? No. This has all happened before…
18 Years ago, Leno’s agent pressured NBC to oust Carson. NBC refused, but Carson resigned anyway… a noble thing to do, go out on top as King before controversy can arise. NBC, shocked by Carson’s resignation, needed to choose: Leno or Letterman (then host of Late Night).
Letterman was seen as a trendier comedian with the coveted younger demographic, seen as the future of TV viewing audiences (sound familiar? Conan has similar appeal). BUT… NBC thought they could keep Letterman after Leno, but Letterman had too much pride for that (and rightfully so!) so, he left NBC for CBS, brining his younger audience and his trendier humor with him. Many forget this fact, he then crushed Leno in the ratings for years! NBC was quite embarrassed by this. It was not until the Hugh Grant/Prostitute episode that Leno’s ratings beat Letterman’s. *Read the Late Shift by Bill Carter
So, now 2005 and NBC is faced with pretty much the same situation: If they stay with Leno beyond 2009, then Conan, the edgy host with the younger audience, is out the door. They saw Letterman gain big success when he left the network, so they don’t want Conan to do the same. They side with Conan.
2009 and Letterman is ahead in the ratings. No one likes talk at 10pm and Conan has watered down his Late Night act, putting himself in an awkward medium of mass-appeal and unique trendiness. Also, the “younger audience” isn’t watching TV anymore. They are on hulu, CollegeHumor, FunnyOrDie and if they are watching TV, they’ve already heard the jokes on todays news from Stephen Colbert or John Stewart.
NBC, realizing the only people still watching TV are slightly older then Conan’s audience (as evidence by the fact that they are now watching Letterman instead of O’Brien), is trying to go back on their decision, which has left them the laughing-stock of television, and Conan out of a job.
What is the true motivation for all the anti-Leno campaigns? Is it envy of success? Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel seek to benefit, ratings wise, from Conan staying. In thinking of a side to take, can I really take Conan’s? Leno isn’t necessarily the bad guy in all this.
I’d love for Conan to keep doing the Tonight Show. It saves me an hour of sleep. I’m not a big fan of Leno’s, I think Conan is funnier and deserves more time… but if NBC keeps Conan at 11:35 and cans Leno, then Leno is the odd man out. Is that fair? He’d be out ultimately because of Conan’s deal in 2005. It’s a shitty lose-lose. You can’t pick a winner.
The only one not supporting Conan is NBC. I don’t believe Leno is leveraging Conan out as Tonight Show host. If NBC decided to keep Conan, I think Leno would respect that, but NBC shows no support for Conan, and they need someone to tell jokes at 11:35, so Leno is it. Otherwise, who would it be?
It all takes these guys down from the pedestal I put them on as a boy. Leno’s agent pressured Carson, Conan pressured Leno, Kimmel and Letterman try to take Leno down… they are all just looking out for themselves, but you can’t blame them, that’s TV.
In my undergrad, I had so much fun producing television, being creative and pushing my boundaries. But that was in an environment where there were no advertisers, no affiliates and no money. I couldn’t survive in ‘real world television’.
Now that the curtain has been pulled and I’ve seen my Oz, that television is something I over-romanticized as a boy, I take it as validation that I made the right decision in changing my career-path.
*Note, in conclusion I see myself mostly behind Conan on this, but I’m a little tired of the naive quickness in which people are bashing Leno
