The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy

When the Lay Leno/Conan O'Brian "Tonight Show" debacle began, everyone knew there was only one person who could tell the true story: Bill Carter. 15 years after his excellent "The Late Shift," Carter finally gives us the follow-up and it's just as wonderfully detailed and excellent as the first book was.

Carter's writing is amazing as he makes you feel like a fly on the wall for the various meetings. He doesn't make judgements but gives us a balanced tale of the various players with full bios on Conan, Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson and more. This allows you to get behind the people who are fleshed out wonderfully.

With Conan, Carter shows that his big problem was being too nice a guy and niave to the network politics. It's astonishing to discover that his people never secured a deal to make sure "The Tonight Show" always followed the evening news, which gave NBC some ammuntion. Another telling remark is on how Conan didn't do as much audience interaction as Leno or Letterman and considered himself a writer, not a performer, which cost him down the line. While Conan is shown as a sympathetic figure, he's not given a free ride by the author.

Leno, meanwhile, doesn't come off as some evil schemer but a nice guy in a hard situation. Carter paints the picture that Leno's decisions are due to his thinking in a time warp, still under the impression that "Tonight Show" is the only late night program people care about. As far as Jay's concerned, HE was the one who had "The Tonight Show" taken from him and he sees nothing wrong with taking it back.

While the focus is on those two, David Letterman gets a lot of attention as well. As in "The Late Shift," Carter illustrates that Letterman was always his own worst critic, taking so much blame on himself despite the wide respect people had for him (such as his post-9/11 speech). That attitude helped him remain popular in the wake of the intern scandal and gave him new fire when he took on Leno. As Carter points out, Letterman was the true heir to the Carson legacy, something NBC always ignored.

The other late night players are focused on (Although Carter does give short shrift to Craig Kilborn, dismissing his five-year run in a page) with how Colbert and Stewart robbed Conan of some of his buzz with younger viewers and their political influence as well as how Kimmel and Ferguson rose well. Jeff Zucker is also given huge attention as a man who can't seem to understand how bad NBC is in the ratings and putting way too much faith in Leno and other quick fixes that don't pan out.

The book comes alive when Leno's prime-time show crashes and burns and the fight for "Tonight Show" ignites. The meetings are wild and dramatic with Conan at one point exploding at NBC execs "what does Jay have on you?" The epilouge notes the shift in power with Jerry Seinfeld making the nice observation that people don't think about "Tonight Show" or "Late Show" but Jay/David/Conan.

While much of it may sound familiar ("the Late Shift" was powerful because there was no Internet back then so much of it came as a surprise) the book is great in its details and that it doesn't take sides helps you connect better. Thankfully, Carter avoids traps such as speculating how Johnny Carson would feel over all this and for anyone who wants the full story of how such a ridiculous situation took place, this is the best source you can possibly read and a great character piece to boot.

This is one of the most purely interesting books I've read in a very long time. As someone who is fascinated by the entertainment industry, and television in particular, this is about as good as it gets. Bill Carter is a fantastic writer, and he manages to make the events surrounding the Jay-Conan fiasco accessible and exciting without being overly dramatic. It is a solid piece of entertainment journalism, and is seems to be very fair and even-handed. There does seem to be a slight pro-Conan tone throughout, but this could be because many pages are spent on Conan's background and history. This part really drew me in as a reader and I more readily sympathized with Conan because of all the personal details provided. However, I never got the impression that Carter was telling only one side of the story. All three sides (Conan, Jay, and NBC) are all given fair treatment, and Carter's assessment of the actions of each is masterfully related to one another to provide a fuller picture of what transpired. At different points in the book, I got a strong sense of what it must have felt like for each party.

The writing style and flow of the story is excellent. The author does assume the reader has some basic knowledge of how the television industry works, but still provides concise and helpful explanations when needed. The access given to the author is amazing. Bob Woodward-type access. It seems that literally everyone involved talked to Bill Carter, and quite candidly at that. Granted, all sides surely gave their version of events, but thoughts and feelings are always clearly attributed to the different players.

The section about Conan's early years leading up to landing the Late Show in 1993 was very enlightening. Most of the information was new to me, and I have been following Conan for years.

The final few chapters, after the dust had settled, were especially readable and emotional. Carter clearly understood both sides of the story: on the one hand, some people become attached to television shows and talent on an emotional level. To others, it's all business and being a host is nothing more than a job. He cleverly steers clear of making any strong judgments in this respect, instead letting the story (and it's players) speak for itself. The epilogue, however, did give me the impression that that take-away message of this book is that late night television, at the end of the day, is a business. That may be true, but for the viewers, it's much more than that.

Turns out that the battle for late night success at NBC was more layered and complex than many of us thought. Thank you, Bill Carter, for bringing some much-needed detail and perspective to this ugly battle played out in the media. This was a battle with no clear winners but a lot of collateral damage.

Two major issues were at play during this brief yet heated battle for television survival: the first was the issue of what made good business sense, and the second was the question of honor. Unfortunately the two rarely co-exist harmoniously.

It turns out that re-installing Jay Leno in the 11:35 pm slot made good business sense primarily because the cost to NBC to have Jay taken off the air entirely after the failure of "The Jay Leno Show" at 10:00 pm would have been prohibitive. Jay Leno's contract was unique and unprecedented in late-night television history, and it was probably the most significant single factor of this whole sordid mess. And Conan O'Brien's contract was missing a crucial element, the importance of which was not lost on every other major late-night television host and left them mystified as to why Conan's managers and lawyers hadn't insisted on it. Ironically, there is the very real possibility that even if Conan's contract did include this provision the end result of this whole affair would have been roughly the same, though it likely would have all transpired with considerably less acrimony, drama, and hoopla.

But business sense aside, there is still the issue of honor. Did everyone involved act honorably during this, in an industry certainly not known for honorable and ethical behavior? Goodness, no. You can question the business decisions all you want, but those decisions were made for reasons financial and not artistic. But it would be hard to challenge the opinions held by many that the acts of pettiness and selfishness by many of the key players were made for reasons other than financial and were reflections of character, or rather a lack of character.

Carter's book is remarkably even-handed in its retelling and description of the events, and any reader with a preconceived idea of who was a hero and who was a villain in this matter might find his opinion challenged a bit. Though much of this fiasco played out on television and other media, this was not a scripted movie with simple characters, situations, motivations, or outcomes. This was a real event with real people, and - and as in real life - nothing was in simple black-and-white. It had much more nuance and complexity. It would be a disservice to everyone involved to take sides in this fight without knowing more details than could be gleaned from the heavy yet still oversimplified and superficial media coverage at the time.

So how did the principal players emerge from this whole affair? Jay Leno got "The Tonight Show" back but not without some damage to his reputation in the show business community, not that it was all that stellar a reputation to begin with. From all appearances, Leno doesn't have much of a life outside of doing "The Tonight Show" and working on his cars. Leno's resentment about being forced to give up "The Tonight Show" to Conan in 2009 could well be traced to his fear and insecurity about being cast out into a world where he had nothing else to do to fill the long hours he would normally spend putting his show together. Nearly everyone who spoke on record about Leno said that he had a very workman-like approach to the doing the show, and some even likened it to a political campaign where all that mattered was "getting the numbers" and that artistic integrity was never as important as the ratings. If Jay didn't have his show, some argued, he wouldn't have a life at all. "The Tonight Show" was the property of NBC, not Jay Leno. It was their show to do with as they pleased. But Leno seemed to adopt a sense of entitlement about the show, determining that the person who could get the best ratings should be the one to keep the show, and he had no doubts that he was the man for the job. With that criteria in mind, Leno could not understand why the show was taken from him in the first place. But he could certainly understand why he should jump at the chance to reclaim it when Conan's job was on the line. In this book, Leno comes across as a hard worker who is almost completely incapable of showing any emotion, compassion, or empathy. For him it is all about the work and any other considerations are secondary. That quality might make him successful at fine-tuning "The Tonight Show" for maximum ratings, but it also leaves him looking cold, calculating, borderline sociopathic, and horrifically insecure. His many supporters acknowledge his "factory assembly line" precision for regularly cranking out jokes for his nightly monologue and stand-up routine. But they are also quick to acknowledge that that same quality makes him a somewhat uninteresting and uninspiring talk show host. And perhaps therein lies the chief flaw of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". Leno also publicly announced in 2004 that he would hand off the show to Conan in 2009 and talked about what a great thrill it would be for Conan to get a turn behind the desk of such a storied franchise, and he even wished him well. Six years later he happily took it back, seemingly without consideration for the damage it might do to Conan or his own reputation. To Jay it was just a job opening, but to Conan it was his entire world. It is hard to see Jay as being anything other than disingenuous.

Conan O'Brien no doubt suffered the greatest damage during all this. His lifelong dream to host "The Tonight Show" (a hosting job that Leno, at least in later years, equated with mere employment and not the fulfillment of any kind of artistic dream) was rather unceremoniously shattered by various factors, not all of which were in his control. A case can be made from this book that he was a bit naïve and overly idealistic and trusting of NBC and of show business in general. Some on this book, including Jerry Seinfeld, argue that Conan's principles in stepping down and walking away from "The Tonight Show" (instead of simply living with the time slot change and "riding out the storm") were to some extent honorable and understandable but perhaps mostly just misguided. Conan stated that he could not in good conscience participate in what he saw to be the destruction of "The Tonight Show" by allowing it to be moved to a later time slot (which would also have ripple effects on other shows, another undesired impact for Conan). Others argued that the version of "The Tonight Show" that he cherished so much was in fact "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson", and that show ceased to exist in 1992. Conan was campaigning to save a show that no longer existed. He was so enamored of the show's history that he failed to realize that in its present form it was probably no longer the institution it once was and thus was already damaged goods to begin with. Conan wanted to preserve an ideal that perhaps was not as relevant as it once was. The "institution" had changed and perhaps even already disappeared. It might have been noble of Conan to champion that ideal, but in the current entertainment environment it was perhaps ill-advised and an empty gesture. Had Conan agreed to the time slot change he might well have acquired enough staying power with "The Tonight Show" to brand it as his own, and maybe even last long enough to see Leno finally retire for real and see the show moved back to its original time slot. The harsh ugly realities of the business side of show business put a damper on his long-held and perhaps overly-romanticized image of what "The Tonight Show", at least for him, should be --- an unassailable good. To Conan, disrupting the decades-old schedule position of "The Tonight Show" was blasphemy and proof enough to him that NBC did not hold the show in the same high regard that he did. To many others in the industry, the show was just "another entertainment show" and subject to the laws of the show business jungle. Conan's love for his "dream job" may have blinded him to contemporary show business reality. Another illusion shattered.

Of course the book covers a great deal more ground than this, and all of it is fascinating. Again, I give credit to author Bill Carter for being fair and even-handed. But even if there might be just a SLIGHT bit of pro-Conan bias in his telling of the events, I think he paints a more than fair and credible picture of all the players involved. My personal take on the whole affair has been altered. I was decidedly pro-Conan and was quick to demonize Leno, Jeff Zucker, Dick Ebersol, and NBC as a whole. After reading this book and hearing from all sides, I can't be so quick to find unequivocal fault with certain parties anymore. I still feel badly for what I perceive as NBC's and Leno's ultimate betrayal of Conan O'Brien (and the millions of dollars that Conan received to walk away hold no bearing - the money is not and was not ever the point or at the center of all this).

This is ultimately a tragic story about the ruthless practices of show business and about betrayal, greed, ego, insecurity, and the loss of innocence. Everyone can identify with some or all of these issues. Anyone who dismisses the importance or impact of this because the major players are all millionaires is missing the point.

I looked forward to the release of this book for a long time because I was hoping I would get to read a juicy pro-Conan saga that laid waste to the petty and "despicable ways" of Jeff Zucker, NBC, and Jay Leno. But that is not what I got from this book and it would neither be fair nor accurate to characterize this book in that way. I still feel that at the end of the day Conan was given the short end of the stick and that Jay Leno, when given opportunities to take the high road, acted selfishly and exhibited very little class or decency. You may not agree with me and I will not insist that you do. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, of course. But your views on everyone involved will likely be modified somewhat. Even Jeff Zucker doesn't come off looking THAT bad, and that's saying a lot. Up to a point he was just doing what almost any corporate executive would do. You can't fault him for being corporate-minded. It's the nature of the beast. It would be like trying to find fault with a compass for pointing North.

The fact that NBC has all but erased Conan O'Brien's tenure on "The Tonight Show" from its company website, however, should give one pause. That should lay to rest any argument that this wall "all business" and not at all personal on NBC's part.

But I encourage you to read this Rashomon-like description of one of the most tragically fascinating episodes in the history of television. I particularly liked the epilogue - very insightful and well-written.

Highly recommended book.

From the moment things went down at NBC in early 2010, I wanted to read this book... and it hadn't even been written yet! I just knew there was so much inside baseball going on between the suits at NBC and Conan and Leno that a book would bring to light and I could sink my teeth into.
The War for Late Night is a very good book. There is plenty of juicy inside baseball and if you come into your book reading experience looking for villains in this story, yeah, there are a few. But the reason why I titled my review "Deja vu all over again", is because some of the characters have changed but it's the same story from the early nineties : NBC totally screwed up. This time around I think their folly was trying to have their cake and eat it too. The whole thing started because they didn't want to lose Conan to another network. Then there was the issue of what to do with Jay because you don't want to lose him to another network, either. This book teaches that in life, as in business, tough decisions must be made. It would have been rough for NBC if they lost Conan to another network, but in the end they did anyway, just with more egg on their face. I came away from this book realizing that when you make a decision, you must wait for the fallout, because there will always be a fallout. To try to avoid that is like avoiding the inevitable. You can delay the inevitable, but it will always find its way to you. That's one of those rules of life and the smarty pants executives at NBC tried to best it. That's why this book is perfect for anyone who is sick and tired of those smarty pants media elites and want to read a detailed, compelling, utterly readable book about said media elites being served a humongous, humiliating slice of humble pie.

This book chronicled what actually happened behind the scenes of the 2010 Tonight show conflict. While much of the unfolding drama played out in the media, most of the reports painted Conan as a hero and Leno as the schemer who would do anything to get his job back. Much of the scrutiny and Leno bashing continued even after the truth came out. What sets this book apart from all the other reports is Carter's remarkably unbiased writing. He never seems to paint any of the participants in a particularly bad light, though he makes it abundantly clear that no one involved was particularly heroic. Carter shows us that the situation was more complex than most people thought. He provides us with the backstories of Leno and O'Brien as well as as other late-night competitors Jon Stewart, Craig Ferguson, Steven Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel which give us a psychological snapshot of each of them as well as provides a clue into the perhaps reseeding influence of the Tonight Show d and network television dominance altogether.
Leno's understanding of the ratings and belief that he who remains at the top stays there until he slips left him feeling somewhat perplexed as to why he was being asked to surrender his show five years in advance. Carter paints him not as devious schemer but as a guy who felt he had something taken from him. Conan, with his sense of entitlement regarding Tonight, believed that, as the more talented, he therefore deserves the job and Leno should go quietly. He failed to understand however that in the television industry numbers are what matter.
Zucker, with his desire to keep his still viable late-night line-up in tow is painted not as heartless but as a typically minded corporate executive with a tough decision.
Ultimately though Carter concludes that though networks and the people who run them often make bad decisions, they are and always will be a constant force. Talent, meanwhile will come come and go and numbers will always win out.
Overall, the book's only weakness is its overly detailed nature of the events and the assumption that the reader has a knowledge of network politics.
So whether you blame Leno, O'Brien, NBC itself or even the media's coverage of the fiasco, you will enjoy this book.

Bill Carter does an excellent job of wading through the complexities of the most recent NBC fiasco. Buyers should read "The Late Shift" first, in my opinion, because it tells the reader that some things never change and lays the groundwork for the ultimate conclusion that television is a really brutal business. I found myself shaking my head saying "didn't you guys already mess this up once about 17 years ago?" The book portrays the audacious behavior of NBC executives who (5 years in advance) concluded that Leno would love to retire at age 59 and Conan would just walk down that yellow brick road and believe them! It makes me wonder if ComCast is run any better. One thing that should be clear is people are passionate about their late night viewing. When Carson retired I swore I would never watch Leno. When Leno retired I swore I would never watch O'Brien. The resulting animus was unfortunate, ruined friendships and should teach all of us to take whatever the network says with a grain of salt.

I thought this book would be as interesting as the subject matter. I was wrong. It appears that Bill Carter knows how to chronicle and objectively report events, but falls short in providing the kind of interesting perspectives that would make this book a memorable read. I would recommend it only for a truly rainy day when you have time to rent it at a library before the rain starts to fall a bit too hard.

I'm a huge fan of Conan O'Brien. I dedicated valuable VHS space to Late Night when I was too young to stay up for it, I celebrated his arrival to the Tonight Show, I've seen him live, I even attended the Team Coco rally outside of his studio in the pouring rain after he announced he would be leaving NBC. I like the guy, I think he's hilarious. And I devoured any information surrounding his divorce with NBC. Naturally, The War For Late Night was an instant purchase for me.

The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy chronicles the events surrounding O'Brien's ascension to 11:35 and Leno's move to 10:00, and the fall-out that followed. Bill Carter, who also wrote Late Shift, gives unprecedented access to the inner-workings of NBC's decision making by interviewing each of the key players involved. The perspectives of Leno, O'Brien, and Letterman were to be expected, but the addition of Kimmel, Fallon, Ferguson, Stewart, and Colbert were welcome surprises.

The real treat was reading about NBC executives like Jeff Zucker, Dick Ebersol, Jeff Gaspin, etc... The opinions of each late night host have been well documented, they obviously have their personal soapbox four to five days a week, but you rarely get the perspective of the behind the scenes influences. Jeff Zucker in particular had been demonized throughout the whole process (perhaps rightfully so) that insight into his actual character and personality was really surprising. Sure, he lived a little too much in the present, not thinking about the eventual consequences of his decisions, but he was a good person nonetheless, maybe one of the biggest pro-Conan exec at NBC.

It should also be mentioned that Bill Carter is an excellent journalist and writer. I've always avoided non-fiction that centered on pop culture events simply because the writing often feels dumbed down to appease a mainstream audience. Not so with The War for Late Night. The writing is clear, concise, and fairly eloquent. And although it's easy to become a fan of one or more of the hosts featured, a side is never taken in The War for Late Night. The events are laid out as-is, leaving the reader to decide who was right, who was wrong, and who was just misunderstood. Account that to Carter being an expert in the field.

In the end, The War for Late Night didn't really change my opinion on the events that transpired. I still feel that Conan O'Brien should have remained host of an 11:35 Tonight Show and Jay Leno should have walked away into the sunset... But things aren't as black and white as they used to be. It's hard to deny that Jay Leno wasn't a victim of NBC's poor decision making himself. Whatever your ultimate conclusion may be, The War for Late Night is an enjoyable ride through a controversial period in network television. Absolutely worth reading.

As soon as I heard this book was coming out I raced to put it on hold at the library. The writing style makes you FEEL like you are right there with all the major players. This book does a great job of showing how Conan got screwed. This is a must read.

As a huge Conan fan I really enjoyed it. It gives a very detailed behind the scenes look at all the players in the late night switch up. From Leno and Letterman to Fallon and Kimmel. A very good read on a very current event.