Roush on Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien
Question: Although I really can't stand
Jay Leno and much prefer
Conan O'Brien, I was very surprised when NBC announced Conan would be replacing Leno in the near future. I assumed eventually it would be revealed why this happened, but I haven't read anything about that. I can't see Leno wanting to step down, and his ratings have been stellar for NBC. I could see NBC worrying about losing Conan, but Leno is young and hungry enough to captain
The Tonight Show for many more years of big ratings. So do you have any insights about why this is happening?
— Steve
Matt Roush: NBC made the announcement three years ago that Jay would step down from the
Tonight throne in 2009 and Conan would succeed him, the idea being to keep Conan at the network and lay the groundwork for a more orderly passing of the torch than what happened when Johnny Carson retired (a bruising and messy tug-of-war involving Leno and
Letterman). The reason it's making headlines again is because there's new management at NBC Entertainment (although
Jeff Zucker is still pulling all the strings at the top, more's the pity), and when the new guys met the press at TCA a week or so ago, the issue came up again. Like you, many of us are skeptical that Jay will leave
Tonight on this deadline without being dragged kicking and screaming, or without at least a deal ensuring him a visible and active role at NBC (something more, I'd bet, than the comic emeritus role
Bob Hope played for years). I'm no fan of Leno's tenure on
Tonight and am eager to see what Conan could do with it (probably initially to lower ratings than the masses who find some comfort in Leno's bland blandishments). But this is a story that isn't going away, and from now until 2009, I would expect to be hearing and reading much more speculation about NBC's plans for this historic and still wildly profitable franchise.
