BEHIND THE CURTAIN BEHIND THE CURTAIN BEHIND THE CURTAIN (29 page)

I’m sitting in my office, an NBC executive comes in and says to me, “Listen, Conan O’Brien
has gotten offers from other networks. We don’t want him to go, so we’re going to give him
The Tonight Show.
” I said, “Well, I’ve been number one for twelve years.” They said, “We know that, but we don’t think you can sustain that.” I said, “Okay, how about until I fall to number two, then you fire me?” “No, we made this decision.” I said, “I’ll retire just to avoid what happened the last time.”

He said he never wanted to do
The Jay Leno Show
, but NBC wouldn’t let him out of his contract, which meant he couldn’t go anywhere else for a year to eighteen months. Yet Jay wasn’t entirely helpless. He could have gone to ABC, even if it had taken longer than he preferred. If he had, there’s a good chance he would have continued as the ratings leader on network television, going head-to-head against David. And the fiasco known as
The Jay Leno Show
would never have happened.

As for Zucker, I believe he made a valiant effort to keep both Conan and Jay at NBC. The 10 p.m. prime-time show was a gutsy, new idea that didn’t work. I think he, like many other NBC executives before him, never had enough faith in Jay, despite his consistent ratings victories. Instead, Zucker chose to back Conan.

This misguided decision led to a debacle described by former NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer as “the dumbest thing in the history of television.” He was right. And if Jack Welch had still been at GE during the Zucker era, I firmly believe Jay never would have been fired and Conan never would have been hired to replace him.

Conan—who had a background as a writer, not on-air talent—struggled from the beginning as a late-night host at NBC, relying on quirky, juvenile jokes and bits. He ignored suggestions from NBC executives to appeal to a wider, mainstream audience on
The Tonight Show
, as Letterman had successfully done when he moved to 11:30 at CBS.

Jay was coming off a fifteen-year run as the late-night leader when he handed off
The Tonight Show
franchise to Conan on June 1, 2009. In nine days, Letterman surpassed him in the overnight ratings. By the end of Conan’s run seven months later, he had hemorrhaged 50 percent of the viewers Jay had built up. While it’s true that Jay’s 10 p.m. show was providing Conan weak lead-ins, Jay had always kept his ratings crown in place throughout long stretches of feeble NBC lead-ins.

When NBC Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin announced the network was pulling the plug on
The Jay Leno Show,
an old dilemma re-emerged: who should host
The Tonight Show,
Jay or Conan? According to the Hollywood trades, Gaspin came up with a compromise, proposing that Jay do a half-hour comedy program at 11:30 and that Conan do an hour-long
Tonight Show
at midnight. Jay accepted the idea, but Conan strongly rejected it, saying he would not participate in a plan that would destroy
The Tonight Show.

I believe NBC’s offer to Conan
was more than reasonable. He had already shown he was incapable of connecting with a mainstream audience. Legendary NBC executive Dick Ebersol put it more succinctly: “What this is really about is an astounding failure by Conan
.” In the end, NBC bought out Conan
’s contract, and he walked out the door with $45 million.

This led to a huge, worldwide story pitting Jay against Conan
. The media and Jay’s late-night rivals once again painted him as a schemer, this time pushing poor Conan
out the door after Jay had announced he was retiring and handing off the late-night crown to Conan
. In reality, Jay didn’t have the power to manipulate anyone. He was literally fired, and he wasn’t given a choice in the matter other than to accept or reject an offer to work five more years. Zucker
allowed Jay to announce his “retirement” so he could save face.

Conan ended up signing with cable outlet TBS to do a late-night show after FOX turned him down. His new show debuted in the fall of 2010, and within a year it lost 60 percent of its viewers. These days, Conan lives in talk show oblivion, averaging fewer than a million viewers a night.

Jay came back to
The Tonight Show
on March 1, 2010. In his first month,
Tonight’s
Nielsen ratings shot back to number-one in all demographics. Jay averaged 4.9 million viewers, while Letterman
garnered 3.7 million.
TV Guide
called Jay’s comeback “miraculous.” Still, there was lingering fallout from the disastrous
Jay Leno Show
experience. The ratings tapered off in time, but Jay maintained his ratings dominance.

In 2011, Comcast acquired NBCUniversal from GE, and
in August 2012 it made cutbacks totaling $25 million at
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Twenty staffers lost their jobs, and Jay took a 50 percent pay cut to avert even more layoffs, according to NBCUniversal. Comcast insisted it was only trying to make back its investment, yet the company extended no public or private show of confidence to Jay following the cutbacks.

Why would the new owners gut the budget of its one and only consistently number-one franchise and leave their other shows untouched? The cutbacks weren’t strictly about budget. Comcast was sending Jay a message that he would not be their chosen one in late night. Jay shot back with thinly-veiled jokes in his monologue: “Welcome to
The Tonight Show,
or, as Comcast calls us, “The Expendables.”

By February 2013, Comcast, which had already been making great strides at dismantling the once-proud peacock network, reached record-low Nielsen numbers. Jay responded with jokes such as this one: “For the first time in history, NBC is going to finish fifth in the ratings period. We are behind the Spanish-language network Univision—or as we call it here in Los Angeles: Cinco de Ratings.”

NBC’s Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt reacted sharply to the jokes, complaining about them in an angry email to Jay. Jay was shocked and replied that all late-night hosts make fun of their bosses, going back to the days of Johnny Carson. But Greenblatt already knew that. His real purpose was to intimidate the late-night host.

Back in January, Greenblatt told the press that NBC was extending Jay’s contract through September 2014, avoiding questions about rumors that NBC’s thirty-eight-year-old late-night star Jimmy Fallon would be taking Jay’s job. But according to the
Hollywood Reporter,
by March NBC had already devised a plan to make Jimmy the host of
The Tonight Show
when Jay’s contract expired.

Jay was reportedly upset when he heard about the story, but not because he would be losing his job
.
He knew he had no future with the Comcast executives, who didn’t show Jay the respect he deserved. They never once bothered to come to the studio to watch his show. Jay was not happy because he believed NBC leaked the story to the
Hollywood Reporter
, and he didn’t want to go through yet another public late-night war in which he was portrayed as the bad guy.

On St. Patrick’s Day, Jay responded to the story with this joke: “You know the whole legend of St. Patrick, right? St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, and they came into the United States and became NBC executives.”

Shortly thereafter, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke entered the fray in an attempt to fix the damage inflicted by Greenblatt. The
Hollywood Reporter
announced that Burke met with Jay to smooth things over
.
Later, Greenblatt had dinner with Jay, and the two apparently came to terms about the succession. Jay’s show finale would be February 6, 2014, and Jay would be paid through September, according to his contract. As always, he put his staff first and insisted that they also receive wages through that same time period. Greenblatt agreed. Jimmy would take over the show on February 17.

As his show entered the home stretch, Jay put on some of his finest performances. He had some great monologue jokes about President Obama, including this zinger delivered during his final broadcast: “The worst part about losing this job, I’m no longer covered by NBC. I have to sign up for Obamacare.” Jay, who had always been considered the milquetoast comedian by critics, was getting into edgy territory, as the other late-night comedians, particularly Letterman, had been staying away from Obama jokes. After a while, they had no choice but to follow Jay’s lead.

Viewers appreciated that he was carrying on the great late-night tradition started by Johnny Carson of lampooning whoever was president, regardless of party. I believe this was a big reason Jay increased his ratings dominance over all the other shows in the late-night ratings to the highest level in three years. In his final season, Jay’s nightly viewership averaged more than four million, which was 25 percent greater than Letterman’s and included 35 percent more eighteen- to forty-nine-year-old viewers. This capped Jay’s unbelievable run as the number-one late-night host for almost two decades
.

Comcast had a right to replace Jay with Jimmy Fallon, who is young and talented. Jay himself has been very supportive of Jimmy, and he has said on numerous occasions that it was the right time for him to step down. Nevertheless, I have no doubt Jay would have continued to be number-one in late night for several more years if his contract had been renewed.

On March 10, 2014, the Television Academy recognized Jay’s unique contributions to the medium by inducting him
into its Hall of Fame. Bill Maher
, a frequent guest on Jay’s show, introduced his long-time friend at the ceremony. He took the occasion to attack critics and others for perpetuating the
myth that Jay was mediocre as a host, while his predecessor, Johnny Carson, was “rebellious” and “edgy” by comparison. “[Jay was] suited to his time, just as Carson was when he hosted
Tonight,”
Bill said.

The
Real Time
host also berated the media for buying into the idea that “Jay Leno stole Conan O’Brien’s dream” when NBC rehired Jay to host
Tonight
after the show’s ratings plummeted in 2009 during Conan’s watch.

Bill’s strong defensive posture may have seemed out of place at an awards ceremony, but I believe he did the right thing by setting the record straight about Jay’s amazing legacy to late-night television, a legacy that has too often been misunderstood, not only by media critics but by NBCUniversal executives, as well.

Chapter Sixteen

The Future

Jay Leno hosted 4,610 episodes of
The Tonight Show
, seventy-nine more than Johnny Carson, who held the job for thirty years. In twenty-two years as host, Jay delivered approximately 160,000 monologue jokes and interviewed more than 14,000 guests. In his final episode, he described the experience as “the greatest twenty-two years of [his] life.” He got teary-eyed as he summed up what it all meant to him: “The first year of this show I lost my mom; the second year I lost my dad. Then my brother died. After that I was pretty much out of family. The folks here became my family.” So now what? Will Jay just quietly walk away from what he called “the best job in show business”? There’s been much speculation about his future.

Jay has been very open about the fact that it wasn’t his idea to leave
The Tonight Show
in February 2014. He was fired at age sixty-three for the second time. He said if it were up to him, he would have stayed for another year or two. I personally suspect Jay would have continued doing the job for another five years, assuming he continued his lead in the late-night ratings. He once told me that hosting a late-night show is like golf: “You can play the game pretty well into your 70s.”

Of course, Jay wasn’t offered the opportunity to keep his job—one he was performing better than anyone else at the time. His departure from
The Tonight Show
has left a huge void for his viewers. Who will they spend time with now just before they go to bed?

The so-called “late-night wars,” which have always been
associated with Jay (Leno vs. Letterman
, Leno vs. Conan
, Leno vs. Kimmel
, etc.) will not fade away just because Jay is no longer a player. He actually brought stability to the increasingly fractured late-night competition because everyone knew he was the top dog.

The only certainty is that the wars will intensify, as the growing number of late-night shows battle for a limited supply of A-list celebrities, advertising revenue, and viewers. It will soon become apparent, if it hasn’t already, that Jay Leno was not responsible for cut-throat competition in the late-night environment. He just played the game better than anyone else.

NBCUniversal has entrusted its storied
Tonight Show
franchise to Jimmy Fallon, an enormously talented performer who excels at comedy sketches and musical numbers with his guests. He has brought many new, young viewers to the table and has enjoyed an initial ratings success, as well as critical acclaim. But late-night is a long-distance race. David Letterman learned this lesson the hard way. He reigned as the late-night ratings king for two years but lost his crown to Leno in 1995 and never got it back.

For all of his talent as a performer, Jimmy needs to work on his interviewing skills. Successful late-night hosts need to know how to talk with their guests about a variety of topical subjects, including serious ones. Jimmy loves playing games (charades, Catch Phrase, Pictionary) with his guests, and it’s entertaining to watch. But one gets the feeling he’s doing it because he doesn’t know how to have a serious conversation with them. His monologue was also a little weak at first, but it has improved.

Fallon faces fierce competition from his late-night rivals, who include Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Jon Stewart, Stephan Colbert, Chelsea Handler, Arsenio Hall, and Conan O’Brien. But of these, Kimmel represents the biggest threat. Like Fallon, Kimmel specializes in quirky comedy sketches, which appeal to young viewers. Kimmel is also a stronger interviewer than Fallon. That may be why Kimmel seems to be taking a page out of Leno’s book and making a strong push to land interviews with political figures. Such interviews often resulted in strong ratings and great press for Leno.

In April 2014, David Letterman, always a strong presence in late night, made a surprise announcement on his show that he would be stepping down as the long-time host of
The
Late Show
some time in 2015. His decision came less than two months after Fallon replaced Leno at
The Tonight Show.

In 2013, CBS extended Letterman’s contract from the fall of 2014 through the end of 2015 amid widespread speculation that he had been planning to call it quits. I suspect Letterman, who perennially trailed Leno in the ratings, wanted to stay in the game a little longer in hopes of finally achieving the ratings crown once Leno was out of the picture in February 2014. But Fallon’s strong ratings may have proved to be too much for Letterman, who will be replaced by
Comedy Central’s
Stephen Colbert.

There’s another possibility here that must be examined. In the not-too-distant future, there may not be any late-night television as we know it today. Many viewers, especially younger ones, are no longer watching television shows, including late night. Instead, they are viewing video clips from these programs on the Internet. If this trend continues, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and their colleagues would essentially become performers in self-contained, five-minute comedy routines.

So where does this leave Jay? Would he want to get back into the fray? He has said that he has come to terms with the idea of moving on from late night. Some of my former
Tonight Show
colleagues believe he is happy with the idea of going out at the top of his game as the long-time, undisputed champion among viewers, if not among the critics. The staffers say Jay is ready to devote all of his time to doing standup comedy and working on his classic cars and motorcycles. I don’t believe it.

There’s no question Jay is booking more stand-up appear
ances. He has always first and foremost considered himself a comedian. Even with his
Tonight Show
duties, he did about
150 gigs a year at corporate events, casinos, comedy clubs, and fundraisers for police, firefighters, and others.

Jay will also devote more time to cars, but he won’t just be working on them. He will, no doubt, write more articles and columns for automotive publications and the general press. He may even create documentaries about cars and conduct more interviews with automotive experts for his Emmy-winning internet show,
Jay Leno’s Garage.

But will life after
The Tonight Show
be limited to cars and stand-up comedy for Jay? Not a chance. I worked with him for eighteen years, and I know he has the mentality of a champion fighter. No boxer would ever walk out of the ring in the middle of a fight in which he was pulverizing his opponent. I have no inside information here, but I just don’t see Jay hanging up his gloves in daily television.

So where will Jay go? NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt has said he would love to keep Jay in the fold: “Nothing would make us happier than to have him
à
la Bob Hope—stay on the network.” Hope had a long and fruitful relationship with the “Peacock Network,” hosting many variety specials, but he never did a daily comedy program.

Jay lives, eats and breathes monologue jokes that feature topical and observational humor. I don’t think he has any interest in doing an occasional, or even a regular, variety program. When Jay was fired the first time, he was offered a similar gig and turned it down flat.

Other media companies and individuals have been courting Jay, including the Tribune Company,
American Idol
producer CORE Media Group, and former NBC chief Jeff Gaspin. The most intriguing possibility is FOX, the only major broadcast network without a late-night entertainment show. FOX would provide Jay the opportunity to return to a daily late-night show, allowing him to go head-to-head with his competitors. Several prominent people have publicly backed this idea.

One of Jay’s most vocal supporters is Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren. In a blog post, she urged her
employer to hire Jay: “. . . I think Fox broadcast should sign
him up and compete against his old network.” Steve Pruett, the chairman of the Fox affiliate board, floated the idea of having Jay host a late-show on FOX in the
New York Post,
saying the board would be interested with the right business
plan.

However, according to one former FOX executive, a late-night show for Jay on FOX isn’t very likely. He told me he would be surprised if the FOX affiliates, who turned down a deal with Conan because it didn’t appear profitable, offered
a five-year contract to Jay, who would be in his mid-sixties. I certainly wouldn’t discount a FOX show, but it’s by no means
a done deal.

That leaves the most bizarre possibility: CNN.
Variety’s
TV columnist Brian Lowry was the first person to suggest the cable news network would make an ideal home for Jay. Media commentators quickly picked up on this quirky, crazy notion. After all, CNN Worldwide president, Jeff Zucker, is the former NBC executive responsible for firing Jay the first time. Lowry admitted he was pushing the Leno-CNN matchup because he loved coming up with an ironic solution that could actually work.

CNN’s ratings have been sagging in recent years, so the network could potentially benefit from a show hosted by Jay—and the publicity it would generate. Why would Jay want to have anything to do with the guy who canned him in the prime of his career? First of all, Zucker probably didn’t act on his own. Decisions of this magnitude are never made in a vacuum at global corporations like GE, then the owner of NBCUniversal. Others at the highest levels were surely involved, but they never owned up to it. Jay, one of the savviest entertainers about the business of show business, is surely aware of this.

Jay went through fourteen NBC presidents. Of all the
executives, he got along best with Zucker
, a likable and charismatic man. He and Jay shared a competitive spirit and a
tenacious desire to vanquish David Letterman in the ratings. Zucker also served as an unofficial producer of
The Tonight Show,
frequently suggesting guest ideas and personally calling celebrities to invite them on the show.

I have no way of knowing what Jay’s future will look like, but he has said he doesn’t want to do another version of
The Tonight Show.
Still, I believe he would love to continue doing a daily, scaled-down show that includes monologue jokes and guest interviews. The format could include a panel of commentators, which Jay would moderate. It could work. CNN, or another cable news network, could afford him that opportunity.

Whatever Jay does, one thing is certain: He won’t be quietly fading into the woodwork, as Johnny Carson famously did when he retired from
The Tonight Show.
Jay was fond of saying that hosting
Tonight
was like being the most popular kid in high school. It wasn’t just a joke. He liked that job more than anything else in the world.