The War For Late Night - Bill Carter

Jay Leno is a sad individual.  That is the one main takeaway from this, the tale of the late night showdown of 2009-2010, and author Bill Carter’s previous work, The Late Shift, which chronicled the first occurance when Leno’s people ousted Carson from The Tonight Show.  Jay is quoted numerous times as saying his only purpose in life is to “tell jokes at 11:30,” no matter who, or what, gets in the way.

In 2004, NBC had a (good) problem: two successful late night hosts who both wanted to host the same show.  In an effort to keep Conan O’Brien from moving to ABC or FOX and competing directly against Jay Leno, they promised him that Jay would retire and he would get The Tonight Show in 5 years.  This book tells the familiar story of what happened after those 5 years, when a hurt Jay Leno wouldn’t (couldn’t?) just walk away, a naive Conan O’Brien thought that his loyalty counted for something, and a happy David Letterman watching it all unfold from the sidelines.  We all know how the story ended, with Jay back on The Tonight Show and Conan off on TBS, but the destination is not as intriguing in this case as the journey.