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February 1, 2010

Publisher's Desk - Money changes everything

Anonymous The Randolph Guide Mon Feb 01, 2010, 09:49 AM EST

I must admit, I’m not a late-night TV junkie. But I watched with amusement these last few weeks the dance between NBC, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.

Don’t get me wrong: I can watch some late-night TV. I’m a fan of Saturday Night Live and I can watch David Letterman unless the cameraman decides to give Paul Shaffer more on screen time than should be allowed by law. Then I can’t get my hand on the remote fast enough.

The Tonight Show just never tripped my trigger. I’m guessing it’s because when it was in its Johnny Carson heyday, my bedtime was 9 p.m. I never got to watch it until I had moved out of my parents house.

But I did think Johnny Carson was a comic genius. And Ed McMahon was a hoot. But those were the good old days of late-night television.

I’ve never been a Jay Leno fan so when he took over The Tonight Show in 1992, that pretty much meant I would never watch it again.

I’m not sure why, really. Could be the hair. Could be the chin. Could be the fact that it’s obvious he reads off cue cards. I’m not naive; I know the show is not taped at night and it’s not really live.

But come on: You’re a comedian and you used to do standup. How is this really any different?

When Jay Leno took over The Tonight Show, I’m sure it came with a pretty hefty salary. Using the numbers batted around about him, Conan O’Brien and all that contractual mumbo jumbo, I feel safe in saying he was pulling down some big bucks.

But when Leno decided he wanted to leave The Tonight Show, my interest was piqued. Then NBC batted a big old goose egg on that one. The only late night TV host I like less than Jay Leno is Conan O’Brien.

I have trouble with his name. Is it “Con-in” as in pulling a scam on you or is it “Co-nan” as in the Barbarian?

But I digress. Back on point.

Jay Leno left The Tonight Show in 2009. That’s all fine and good. But NBC, in all its infinite wisdom – I’m still mad at them for pulling the plug on Chicago Hope and ER – came up with a plan that would keep Leno on the air. They might as well have tied a cement block to it and thrown it overboard.

It would have been a lot less messy and wouldn’t have cost them nearly as much.

So Leno’s show tanks. O’Brien tanks on TTS. What to do, what to do? Somewhere in corporate America – the halls of NBC, no doubt – a giant light bulb went off and an idea was born. Pull Leno. Pull O’Brien.

Never mind that we’ve spent $30 gazillion building them both new sets, paying them, feting them, advertising them.

We’ll move O’Brien to the time slot he used to have, put Leno back on at the time he used to have. Advertisers will be happy, fans will be happy and all will be right with the world.

But then, God bless him, O’Brien strikes back. He pulls his pre-nup on them and brings the whole plan crashing down.

Got to give the man credit though. Credit for looking out for himself when he signed his original contract, credit for not being bullied by NBC into walking away and credit for being tough – like a barbarian, if you will.

He walked away last Friday with $33 million and made sure his staff was taken care of as well. Kudos to him for sticking to his guns and for standing up for his employees. But in the end, all that talk about how much money he was going to get – to walk away, mind you – was enough to make me never want to watch late night television again.

I guess money really does change things. But not always for the better.

Patricia M. Edwards is the publisher of The Randolph Guide. She can be reached at (336) 625-5576 or by e-mail at pedwards@randolphguide.com

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