HTNut

This kind of stuff seems childish to me. God forbid NBC tries something new.

Producers attack NBC: 'They should take down the American flag and put up a white one' | EW.com

Aaron62

How are the ratings on Leno's show now?

bicker

It hasn't premiered yet.

The network producers fear the fact that more programming, like the Jay Leno Show, translates into less demand for their work, and therefore reduces how much they can command in compensation and in budget for what they want to do. It is perfectly reasonable for people to fear things that harm them. I think to view comments like Tolan's in any other way is missing the point. He's afraid: He should be. Even if Leno fails, things are still heading in a direction away from where his own personal best interests lie. I don't see any reason not to feel sorry for his position and the position of his colleagues and cohorts. Sympathy should be directed their way, without a doubt.

But just sympathy.

No one should really take their emotional response as anything other than an expression of fear and sadness at their own misfortune or that of people that the care about. NBC isn't doing anything wrong. They're not any less American than they ever were. They're not "bastards". The still stand for what they've stood for since 1939 -- the best interests of their owners.

Aaron62

[quote=bicker;23921]It hasn't premiered yet.
QUOTE]

Haven't kept up much with NBC latenight lately as you can tell.

bicker

Leno's last Tonight Show was on Friday May 29, 2009. The Jay Leno Show will debut on September 14, 2009.

bicker

It is official: NBC will be pulling Leno from prime time. More details to follow, of course.

In the absence of the pressure that what-could-have-been manipulation of public opinion by irate affiliates, the gamble that NBC took, was almost surely the better bet for the network, though surely not for the affiliates. The affiliates attacked hard, or some others attacked hard, still to their benefit. They fought for what was better for themselves, rather than what was better for the network, and in doing so they were doing what they were supposed to be doing, trying to push things in a direction that they believed would be to their own benefit. And they were successful. They won the battle.

Now the real question is whether or not "what comes next" is even worse for them. Business is a matter of risk. And whatever forces worked to push back at this move by the network took a big risk that, in getting the network to back-pedal on this. They could have essentially jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.

Only time will tell.

Jay

As for Leno, I thought I heard on the radio that he was going back to late night??

bicker

Apparently, Leno is willing to do a half-hour show, right after the late local news. That pushes Conan out a half hour, which is still within his contract parameters, apparently. I don't envy Conan.

Orrymain

Remember a big part of this started about a month or so ago when Leno stated that he'd return to the Tonight Show. Now that was a pretty big comment for him to say. I think that opened a lot of doors, especially with the affiliates being angered. I don't blame affiliates -- they were losing money and ratings to competitors. They have to survive, too.

Having Leno back at 11:35 is just having the 'real' Tonight Show back; just reduced in time. Conan is back to being late late night, whether or not they want to say that. It means Leno is still #1. It's a kick in the face for him (which is what stirred Letterman away from NBC -- a similar kick in the teeth).

In truth, NBC did this to themselves two years ago when they committed Leno to retiring from the Tonight Show. It was a bad move because when the time came, Leno didn't want to go.

I think folks will go back to watching Leno and changing the channel or going to bed afterwards.

bicker

While I agree that the affiliates didn't do anything illegal, they did engage in tactics that loads of curmudgeons on the Internet would have viciously ripped-into the networks for doing. The only thing I find objectionable in all of this is that double-standard.

Whoa, let's not rewrite history! This was an agreement between NBC, O'Brien, and Leno, and that agreement was struck back in 2004, not two years ago. As a matter of fact, Jay Leno made the first public announcement of the arrangement: "I felt that the timing was right to plan for my successor, and there is no one more qualified than Conan. Plus, I promised my wife Mavis I would take her out for dinner before I turned 60."

Also, it is important to remember that there were outstanding reasons to do this. The New York Times wrote, at the time, "One of the main inspirations for concluding the deal this early was NBC's conviction that it could not go through the painful and at times embarrassing process that attended the last decision to turn over the host job on 'Tonight.'"