Nefarious

Hindsight is 20/20 but what would have been much better is for:

1) Jay to have been much more upfront & honest with NBC about his unwillingness to retire. I may be wrong, but from what I gathered based on his comments, etc. is that he waited until the show ended and asked to be out of the remainder of his contract with them so he could sign elsewhere.

2) NBC should have either a) let him out of the contract or b) if, having had ample time, tried to negotiate in good faith with both Leno & Conan about extending the timeline out further. Would Conan have been happy about it? Probably not. But if they threw him $10 million to wait another 2-3 years he probably would have done it. Contracts would have been tighter for everyone, as a result, and this whole fiasco would have been avoided.

Instead, Jay strong-armed NBC which is at fault for being strong-armed and for how it subsequently handled it all. They let it all get out and so public instead of handling it behind closed doors. They obviously under-estimated the backlash for Jay & themselves, as well. A lot of it has nothing to do with Conan's popularity/ratings but is instead more of feeling like he got screwed by both Leno & NBC. They've also forced out someone who was part of their network family for 17+ years in a very ugly way.

Luds

Well the first time, it seems that he got the gig because NBC didn't want to lose him and already had Letterman signed for a few more years on Late night iirc. Evidently both men really wanted the gig.

The second time, he stepped down, let Conan get his show (probably not as cleanly as that but it still happened), got a show at 10PM which failed, and NBC wanted him back at 11:35.

Yep. Clearly he's the devil.

RoyalTea

I'm not saying he's a devil. I'm saying he's not a victim.

Luds

Victim? Certainly not, he got what he never intended to lose

Indeed.

Who's to say though that he didn't clearly make his case to keep the show longer and NBC just decided against it and gave it to Conan?

I still don't see why he didn't just go away, but again, he may just be that loyal to NBC.

Lara Means

Seems like NBC edited out the car/rolling stones bit from the online replay.

kefrank

You've glossed over a pretty significant point in the above bolded section. The impetus for all of this wasn't Conan's lack of ratings, it was Jay's lack of ratings at 10 p.m. causing the local affiliates to apply pressure on NBC to cancel the Jay Leno Show. Conan's ratings have a bearing on NBC's proposed solution to that problem, but they would have been just fine leaving everyone where they are if Jay was getting ratings that the local affiliates were satisfied with.

So, let's recap where Jay carries at least some of the blame:
-- 6 years ago, he could have been principled and refused to let go of the show that he apparently wanted to keep
-- Last year, he could have been principled and gone to another network to do the show he really wanted to do post-primetime instead of doing a prime time show that he has intimated he didn't even believe in and which clearly devalues the show that he left
-- A few weeks ago, he could have been principled and said, "OK, this prime time experiment didn't work out...I'll honor the statements I made years ago and just move on."

I don't think he's the devil by any means and I don't think anyone involved comes out looking very rosy, but if you can't see that Leno has exhibited a significant lack of integrity through all of this, I don't really know what else to say.

RoyalTea

I think the fact that there was never a Jay Leno show on ABC or Fox says a lot about that.

ScissorPuppy

I wonder what effect Dave's trashtalking will have on Leno's return. Some of the old Tonight Show's viewers switched to the Late Show when Leno left. So I wonder if they would be willing to return to Leno from Dave after hearing his stories?

JasonF

Car-sized prop mouse ears and whiskers generally cost in the neighborhood of $1.44 million. Total price tag: $1.5 million.

siddd5

I truly find Conan funny, but quite frankly, I think he 'hijacked' a brinks truck with his exit deal.

1st off : His ratings stunk a long while before Jay's 10PM show even started.

And, to top it all off, his staff got 13 million bucks as severance from NBC! This NEVER happens anywhere but in the fantasy world of late night television. All My Children just relocated to LA & the staff HAD to pay out of their own pocket to move themselves out there. ABC didnt pay a cent for moving expenses. That's a fact. In addition, do you think any of their relocated staffers would get a severance if ABC pulled the plug on the show? As I mentioned previously, they would get 1 week severance for every year they worked there. That's it!

Conan had a way out and took it and grabbed a lot of NBC loot for himself and his staff.

So, curse Jay all you want. He's no saint, thats for sure, but he's going to work to earn the money that he's being paid. Conan got 32 mil not to work for 8 months.

Brent L

Then they absolutely do need to make that segment the "Classic Tonight Show Moment" tonight, maybe tomorrow night too.

chuckd21

Wait, I'm sorry... did you just imply that Conan is an ass for making sure his staff was well taken care of?

shaun3000

I don't know that NBC paid to move Conan's staff, either. I guarantee that there would be a big stink if ABC cancelled All My Children seven months after the move.

MvRojo

You do realize that the terms of the deals state that the amount to Conan will be offset by anything he makes during the duration of the Tonight Show contract. So if Conan makes $32 million over the next 3.5 years from another network, NBC doesn't have to pay him anything.

Mad Dawg

After implying before that he'd probably be an ass and not take care of them, no less.

Nefarious

Not according to the latest info. The mitigating clause was removed. He keeps all that money.

Renee

If that's the case, then here's where the donation to charity should come in to play. Have Fox donate to a charity in leiu of Conan's salary come September. NBC would have to pay Conan's full contract, Fox would get the tax right off and favorable publicity, and Conan's staffers would be back to work.

Win-Win-Win-Lose?

Meglos

Dave's lie isn't hurting someone else's career.

jpb07

Let me get this straight...Jay is the devil for doing what his bosses tell him yet Conan is a swell guy for acting like a spoiled brat? With everything going on in the world that bit with the car and music made me sick. If he pulls a stunt like that again at tapings today I wouldn't fault NBC if they started showing reruns of Jay at 11:35 tonight. I wonder if he's going to destroy his set tomorrow night...

MvRojo

Well, good for him then. NBC bungled this whole situation so I don't feel bad about them having to pay out.

In any case, I read that Conan will be supplementing the severance package to his staff out of his own pocket. He also paid his staff during the writer's strike.

chuckd21

You're taking late night comedy television way too seriously.

Double_Oh_7

Sorry, in my book anyone who takes (steals?) someone else's job is a bad guy. Simple as that.

RoyalTea

I love how Jay Leno has no free will. He's a little subservient monkey that says "how high" when NBC tells him to jump.

siddd5

Why would Conan give his staff his OWN money on top of the 12 million NBC gave? There's no truth to that whatsoever. We make Conan out to be this philanthropist with his staff when its simply not true.

The negotiations for an exit were completed before he did his show last night, and yet he's still enough of a spoiled brat to cost his bosses millions more by doing 'stunts' (band playing expensive 'music', etc.). I'm surprised NBC didnt wipe the music clean before airing.

Look, I think everything that went down was sheer lunacy, but lets not cry so much about Conan getting 'screwed'. Thats a bunch of nonsense. If anything, he came out way ahead of everybody.

MvRojo

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/nb...rts-march-1st/