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  • 5 months ago
🎬 Today’s Story:

In 2010, late night television was rocked by one of its biggest controversies Jay Leno handing off The Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien, only to take it back months later. What really happened behind the scenes? In this deep-dive documentary, we break down how Jay Leno’s actions affected Conan's career, NBC’s reputation, and the future of late night TV.

🎙️ Explore the timeline, shady network decisions, and the cultural fallout of the scandal that changed everything.

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Transcript
00:00it was one of the messiest dramas that took place in television history the scandal would turn a
00:13once beloved public figure into a villain for the ages let's take a look back at how the former
00:19late night host jay leno ruined his legacy forever before late night talk shows were used to push
00:26political agendas they originally were just humor driven programs aired to entertain millions before
00:33settling in for bed the tonight show with johnny carson was one of the pioneers of the growing
00:38genre the interview style talk show provided thousands of hours of entertainment to millions
00:45for nearly three decades over the years the tonight show would become quite revered in the
00:50world of show business when johnny decided it was time to retire most assumed his successor would be
00:57his peer on the network letterman followed carson's show for a number of years and dave received a good
01:03amount of viewership as well however in a rather shocking twist the hosting job went to the stand
01:11up comedian jay leno while it wasn't the obvious choice leno did occasionally fill in on the tonight
01:17show as a guest host so he indeed had a history with the network dave who felt slighted decided to
01:24leave the company and take his talents to cbs for the first few seasons leno struggled in the viewership
01:32department with letterman consistently outperforming him it would be the same story for conan o'brien
01:38who had been tasked to replace the very popular letterman but after a few years on air both new host
01:44began to thrive and boost ratings for nbc the older demographic enjoyed leno's well-polished sense of humor
01:53and the younger crowd gravitated towards conan's supreme wit and quirkiness
01:58but the new kings of late night soon would clash
02:03after the start of the new millennium the contracts for leno and o'brien were close to expiring
02:08other notable networks were very interested in luring conan away from nbc fox offered him much more
02:16money and a much more appealing time slot that would garner a larger audience however conan like many
02:23other comedians always dreamed of hosting the tonight show at some point in their careers
02:29but the question still remained how long was leno planning to stick around
02:33to keep o'brien from jumping ship and joining the competition nbc decided to strike a unique deal
02:40with him in the new proposal conan would inherit the tonight show once leno's contract ended
02:47when the deal was explained to jay he reluctantly agreed to step aside behind the scenes
02:53not long after leno would make the announcement about the transition to his audience
02:58uh about six months ago i sat down here with the folks at nbc and they said we want to re-up and i
03:03said okay what do you want to do because i don't have a manager an agent i i like the people i work
03:07with they're nice folks and they said and this is a high-paying job oh it's a great so they said listen
03:14we would like to do five more years i said great i'd love to do five more years and that was six months
03:19ago and then time went by uh there's all talk about conan o'brien will he go to abc will he go to one
03:24of these other networks and and they came to me and they said we don't want to lose conan o'brien
03:29and i said okay what does that mean and they said well um we think conan would be a good replacement
03:36as i do conan is a gentleman funny the hottest late night guy out there excellent i said you know
03:41something i don't want to see conan go anywhere else i'm 59 i'll be 59 years old when this leaves
03:47five years from now that's 1200 shows they're not going anywhere tomorrow and i said you know
03:53there's really only one person who could have done this into his 60s and that was johnny carson i
03:57think it's fair to say i'm no johnny carson so i call up my buddy uh no no no i called my buddy jerry
04:03seinfeld i said jerry what do you think you know and jerry quit his show when it was the most popular
04:07and i'm proud to say this show has been number one we will keep it number one and then in 09
04:12i'll say conan it's take it over it's yours because you know you can do these things until they carry out
04:18on a stretcher or you can get out when you're still you know you're still doing good and think
04:22i'm not quitting show business you know you know i've but i realized i'm not spending enough time
04:27with my cars no no no no but anyway this is not tomorrow it's five years from today and i want to
04:36say uh i i don't think there's a better choice because you know when i took this show over boy there's a
04:41lot of animosity between me and dave and who's going to get it and quite frankly a lot of what
04:47i thought well good friendships were permanently damaged and i don't want to see anybody ever have
04:51to go through that again because this you know this show is like a dynasty you hold it and then
04:55you hand it off to the next person and i don't want to see all the fighting and all and who's better
05:00and nasty things back and forth in the press so right now here it is conan it's yours see you in five
05:06years buddy okay clear enough all right let's get on with the show jay choosing to gracefully give
05:17the show over to conan generated a very positive reaction amongst viewers and it made him seem
05:22rather selfless but behind the scenes leno wasn't a happy camper and still wanted to host the tonight
05:29show for the foreseeable future in preceding episodes jay would let his frustrations out
05:35making subtle digs at the company during his long monologues nbc now feared leno may move on to
05:42another network creating big competition the higher ups decided to offer leno a new show which would air
05:49right before conan's leno decided to take the deal and stay with nbc jay leno america's favorite tv
05:58personality is going to host a brand new comedy show weeknights at 10 9 central with comedy like this
06:03identify this photo it's good thinking of the titanic so this fall you'll get more comedy and
06:10will make you happy how funny is that on nbc in the summer of 2009 the new generation of late night
06:20would finally begin the tonight show with conan o'brien would kick off on a very high note for the network
06:27the much anticipated first episode garnered over nine million live viewers
06:34you know uh ladies and gentlemen this is a huge night for me i remember watching johnny carson when
06:38i was a kid and thinking that's what i want to be when i grow up and i'm sure right now somewhere in
06:45america there's a little kid watching me thinking what is wrong with that man's hair
06:50is is that even a man why is she crying while the premiere did generate a great deal of attention
07:03over the course of the next couple weeks and months the tonight show's ratings would start to decline
07:09soon the king of late night became dave letterman the late show was consistently pulling in more
07:15viewers than o'brien was able to it was the first time in nearly 14 years that dave was able to
07:21surpass the tonight show in viewership the quirkiness that the younger audience enjoyed about conan
07:28seemed to not quite resonate with the older generation that normally would tune into the tonight show
07:34but the boomers wouldn't have to go too long without their favorite appearing on screen again
07:39the jay leno show would debut three months after conan's version of the tonight show aired
07:46it drew in a big audience initially but slowly for an unforeseen reason the numbers would decrease
07:52steadily the slight rearrangements disrupted the audience experience more than nbc anticipated
08:00local nbc news outlets lost viewers because of the shifts in time
08:04and primetime dramas that were competing in the same time slot as leno began to prevail
08:11as a result of nbc's changes other networks like abc and cbs were also benefiting greatly from the misstep
08:19board members for the network began scrambling for ways to recover from the issue they created
08:25the higher-ups came up with a solution they perceived would correct everything
08:29the plan would be to move leno back to his old 11 30 airing and push conan's tonight show to after
08:36midnight the reconstruction would inevitably leave one late night host without a job jay was on board
08:43with the change but o'brien on the other hand felt it was a slap in the face the ultimatum left conan
08:50with two options accept the change or walk away from the company he'd been a part of for more than 15 years
08:57conan would decide to leave nbc and he was paid out the rest of his contract
09:04when the story broke of leno returning to host the tonight show
09:08the announcement was met with a negative reaction from millions and also from others in the entertainment
09:13industry what's the best prank you ever pulled i think the best prank i ever pulled was i told the
09:19guy i told the guy that five years from now i'm going to give you my show and then when the five years
09:25came i gave it to him and then i took it back almost instantly
09:32i think he works at fox or something now yeah i got you all right number six
09:41the gracious speech he made years prior came back to bite him in the end
09:46conan on the other hand being the perceived victim of it all gained more fan support than
09:50he ever did prior millions elected to follow him over to a new network as he embarked on the next
09:57chapter in his late night career jay leno and the tonight show performed moderately well but he was
10:04unable to pull in the big numbers he once did three years after his return he would officially retire
10:10leaving the show in the hands of jimmy farlin which many believe is a big downgrade from both former host
10:17who was your favorite host what are your thoughts on this story who was your favorite host leave a
10:24comment below and let me know
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