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In response to
"I never watch late night TV, but all this ST talk has made me midly curious. Can someone give me the readers digest version of what happened on NBC? -- nm"
by
Subversive
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Here goes...
Posted by
Mop (226 lbs) (aka rburriel)
Jan 19 '10, 15:17
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6 years ago, with Conan O'Brien's "Late Night" contract coming to an end, and with NBC afraid he'll bolt the way Letterman did when they gave "The Tonight Show" to Leno instead, decided they'd make a deal. Conan: You get "The Tonight Show" in 5 years and Leno will step down. Leno went along with the deal. He figured he'd go out on top, highest rated late night show. Five years later, Leno goes out on top, highest rated late night show. But he doesn't want to leave. So NBC scraps their 10pm slot and gives the spot to Leno. It's basically "The Tonight Show" but at 10 pm. It's "The Jay Leno Show". It works well enough that it makes money (doesn't cost a lot of money to make a show like that, that's why late night is filled with them) but the ratings are so low that no one's watching the local late news afterwards. Affiliates threaten to drop "The Jay Leno Show" from their line-ups and put their own - syndicated - programming.
NBC relents. They need to find a solution. Maybe they can put Leno on at 11:35 for 30 minutes and bump Conan to 12:05. Everyone's happy, right? Conan thinks this is a disgrace. His spot is 11:35. "The Tonight Show" belongs at 11:35. How do you make this work? NBC has an iron-clad contract with Conan. He gets paid even if he doesn't do his show. Negotiations for Conan to leave "The Tonight Show" begin and Leno's coming back. Rumors have it that Conan will get about $30 mil to leave "The Tonight Show" and not compete (on Fox, ABC, etc.) for a certain amount of time. Leno's coming back to "The Tonight Show".
Mop
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