Yesterday, I hearkened back to September 2004 when NBC made the announcement that Conan O'Brien would be replacing Jay Leno as the host of the Tonight Show, five years in the future, in 2009. In hindsight, knowing what we know now about the events of the past week and a half, the New York Times article detailing the deal is quite an extraordinary read. In the same way, watching this clip from the same day — September 27, 2004 — of Jay Leno announcing the handover, the events behind it and his satisfaction with it is also pretty extraordinary. I've transcribed his full statement, and, as with the NYT piece, I'm presenting it in its entirety without comment...just a little emphasis here and there. The transcription begins just after Leno explains that, despite re-upping for five more years, he'd be leaving the network in 2009. "Let me explain how these things work," he said:
Time went by - there's all talk about Conan O'Brien, will he go to ABC will he go to one of these other networks. And they came to me and they said, "We don't want to lose Conan O'Brien." And I said, "Okay, what does that mean?" And they said, "We think Conan would be a good replacement" - as I do - Conan is a gentleman, funny, the hottest late-night guy out there [applause]- and I said, "You know something - I don't want to see Conan go anywhere else." I'll be 59 years old...5 years from now, that's 12,000 shows, I'm not going anywhere tomorrow. And I said, "You know, there's really only one person who could have done this into his 60s, and that's Johnny Carson. And I think it's fair to say, I'm no Johnny Carson." ["Awwww" from crowd.] No no no. So I called up my buddy Jerry Seinfeld and said, "Jerry, what do you think?" And Jerry quit his show when it was the most popular. And I'm proud to say this show has been #1, we will keep it #1, and then in '09 I'll say, "Conan - take it over, it's yours."
Because you know, you can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher, or you can get out when you're still, you know, when you're still doing good — I'm not quitting show business! — but I realized, I'm not spending enough time with my cars. [Laughter] But anyway, this is not tomorrow, it's five years from today, and I want to say, I don't think there's a better choice — because, you know, when I took this show over, boy, there was a lot of animosity, between me and Dave and who's gonna get it — and quite frankly, a lot of — well, good friendships were permanently damaged. And I don't want to see anybody ever have to go through that again. 'Cause this — you know, this show is like a dynasty. You hold it, and then you hand it off to the next person. And I don't want to see all the fighting, and all and "who's better?"and nasty things back and forth in the press.So, right now, here it is: Conan — it's yours. See you in five years, buddy. Clear enough? Enough said? All right.
Once again: Jay Leno will be 60 in April. Video below:
Related:
The Way We Were: Revisiting The Conan-Leno Swap In 2004 [Mediaite]
Jay Leno Would Like You To Know That This Is Not His Fault [HuffPo]
Conan Insider: "People Blame Jay and NBC in Equal Measures." [Mediaite]
(This post originally appeared at Mediaite.com. Hat tip: ErockAppel.com)
Follow Rachel Sklar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rachelsklar
Leno isn't that stupid. I also think Jay doesn't like change in general -- he's had the same wife for thirty years, he's been with NBC for nearly twenty years. When he does comedy gigs out of town, he likes to fly back and sleep in his own bed. For him it's the comfort factor.
The excuse for Conan's bad ratings were Jay's bad lead in. With new NBC programming at ten and Jay back on The Tonight Show, it will be very interesting to see how things play out. If the new shows suck and have bad ratings, but Jay still gets great ratings again, it will be obvious that the "bad lead in" excuse was nonsense and Conan just couldn't manage.
It must be terrible to be on an opinion segment and be constantly interrupted, especially when you're the only intelligent contributing member.
Keep it up.
M
"The FUTURE, Rachel??"
Wow. Jay should've really gone back and reread this statement when the whole current mess started. He could see it coming and should've done the best thing for both him and Conan by bailing on NBC and moving to another network if he still wanted a show so badly.
Seems clear now that the primary reason NBC wanted Leno around with the prime time show was so they could easily ditch Conan (whom they obviously had no confidence in from the start) and conveniently fall back on Jay again. They've just been manipulating both these man for over 5 years now to satisfy their own foolish greed. I just wish Jay had maintained his decency and respect for Conan enough to not go along with it.
Airing his dirty laundry on the air, while collecting a paycheck from NBC was totally unprofessional and tacky on Conan's part. He should have been fired on the spot for that narcissistic spectacle.
The network jumped the shark five and half years ago by making a decision of that magnitude that so ahead. I think NBC was already suffering a case of 'buyer's remorse" as the date approached for the *hand off*. If not, why the scramble to keep Jay at NBC? All this toxic fallout is the result of a horrible management decision. Nothing more, nothing less. This is NOT Jays' fault.
This is NOT Jays's fault.
since jays ratings sucked, and his show was EVERY night, the new ratings sucked...which in turn meant less people would 'stay on' for conan unless they were his audience from before
its like me talling you to run a marathon, and i give you a pair of wingtips.
Part 1
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2fZH2XqNw&feature=related
Part 2
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJVH6SzYRlk&feature=related
And O'Brien (and his team of lemmings) think this is Leno's fault HOW?!?
Or, they'll watch Craig Ferguson. Who is actually funny, and edgy, and needs a budget.
18 months of being in the basement.
Now, if only they had been watching his show this consistently over the last seven months and actually enabling Conan to retain the number one status that the show had when he received it from Jay, NBC wouldn't have a leg to stand on with regards to bumping him off.
Too bad most of these so-called Conan "fans", as not really fans of his at all, but really Jay-haters and Letterman fans holding that 20 year grudge (like Dave himself), and looking for an opportunity to stick it to Jay.
Sad really. But then again, we're all only human.
Guys like Zucker and Ebersol appear by all measures to be completely clueless, but they can't be this stupid. Who would willingly invite this mess into their business?
This entire debacle just screams of Leno refusing to let it go. I don't think this has anything to do with Conan or ratings for The Tonight Show or even Jay Leno's failure at 10PM.
I think Jay Leno just wants The Tonight Show back and he obviously had enough leverage with NBC to get his own way... to hell with everyone and anything else.
This is all about Leno and has been completely orchestrated by him. There is just no other logical or rational explanation for any of this.
I'd be willing to bet that someone will get the story after the dust settles and Jay Leno will come out looking worse than anyone could possibly imagine at the moment.
then then took our money
now, they are taking away our entertainment,
next will be our internets!!!!!
Team Conan also means sticking it to the CEOs!!!
If you want to read the entire article it's right here on HP inthe Media section by Rachel Sklar.
NBC executives are now pushing Conan out the door.
And somehow this is ALL Jay's fault? Yeah, sure.
But Leno is clearly not Mr. Goody Two Shoes like he makes himself out to be. His ego's as big as his huge noggin.