NBC: Let It Die
Battle of the network late TV hosts was caused by the network, one network, NBC. And scandal ridden David Letterman is not involved. It seems the whole thing was started by affiliate gripes about NBC’s time slot arrangement as indicated below.
Feeling pressure from affiliates, who have been griping for months about how Leno’s 10 p.m performance is hurting their late news and bottom line, NBC is scrambling to put together a strategy to appease them and keep Leno on the payroll.
Now it seems Conan O’Brien will jump ship over the situation.
The part O’Brien omits from the excerpt above and possibly any statement he has made is how the ‘franchise’ was built with the likes of Paar and Carson. That was the Tonight Show. This is not.
The opinion that no one will care about is offered here. In reverse order, O’Brien may be a capable TV host but nothing about his version of the show lives up to the history of it. Jay Leno is also quite capable. And he’s more likeable than O’Brien. While he maintained some aspects of the ‘franchise’ it appeared he had a tendency to inject a bathroom humor style of jokes as his episode progressed.
Steve Allen was first. Carson was King. Allen was impeccable and a ground breaker as were Paar and Carson. The same cannot be said of what followed. Putting Leno and O’Brien back where they were would probably be a good idea but won’t likely happen.
Let it die just like NBC has done with anything they touched over a number of years.
Stanford Matthews
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