The NBC late night wars may have ended weeks ago; however, due to a backlash on my Facebook status whereby I expressed happiness to see the (re) premiere of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this past Monday, I decided to write a blog post focusing on the company that caused this mess: NBC.
**The following is information from a PR assignment my classmate, Lisa Bernstein, and I wrote and presented February 23.
TIMELINE OF WHAT HAPPENED
The late night wars issue blew up this past January; however, the shake-up slowly began in 2004, when NBC executives asked Jay Leno to give up his number one-rated show to make room for a new host - Conan O'Brien. NBC said the switchover would happen in five years.
Jay told his fans he was retiring, and in May 2009, he passed the torch to Conan as planned.
"I am thrilled to get this opportunity," O'Brien said in a statement at the time. "I am thankful to everyone at NBC . . . and I am particularly grateful to Jay for all the generous support and kindness he has always shown me."
Then in December 2008, in an unprecedented move, NBC decides to keep Jay on the network and creates The Jay Leno Show that would air in a coveted prime time slot (10:00 p.m), five nights a week.
In July 2009, there was much industry talk that Jay's show would be an epic fail. However, research from the firm NewMediaMetrics used predictive analysis to call Leno a probable "powerhouse" at 10:00 p.m.
June 1, 2009, Conan begins his new role as host of The Tonight Show, and Jay's show premieres September 14, 2009. Ratings for Conan's Tonight Show dropped off sharply from what they had been under Leno. Leno himself experienced a prominent failure when he moved to prime time that NBC's affiliated stations demanded change.
Both shows had strong starts, but ratings for both shows began to plummet and rumours were swirling that The Jay Leno Show would be canceled. January 7, 2010 is when we first heard from NBC. They released a statement to Access Hollywood:
"We have the best comedy team in the business. We remain committed to keeping Conan O'Brien on NBC. He is a valued part of our late-night line-up, as he has been for more than 16 years and is one of the most respected entertainers on television."
"Jay Leno is one of the most compelling entertainers in the world today. As we have said all along, Jay's show has performed exactly as we anticipated on the network. It has, however, presented some issues for our affiliates. Both Jay and the show are committed to working closely with them to find ways to improve the performance."
On January 11, there are rumblings that Conan isn't happy with the situation. On January 12, Conan releases a statement to his fans.
On January 13, Conan tells NBC he'd rather quit than mess with Tonight, and on January 14, rumours circulate that NBC will give Tonight back to Leno and Conan will leave NBC.
On January 16, reports circulate that NBC and O'Brien are in negotiations for his departure from The Tonight Show and NBC. Bargaining chips include a $30 to $40 million severance package for O'Brien and hefty packages for his staff, control of characters like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and when O'Brien can turn up in a new show on another network.
On January 18, the website and "religious movement", I'm with Coco, stages a series of fan rallies to support O'Brien and denounce NBC's decision. Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal, appears on Charlie Rose - where we finally hear what NBC has to say about the issue.
Below is a short clip of the Charlie Rose interview. To view the full interview, click here.
On January 21, Conan is officially removed from Tonight. He explains his decision to leave in a letter to his fans. On Friday, January 22, Conan hosts his final show and says goodbye.
"Walking away from The Tonight Show is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
On January 28, Jay makes a statement too, and where's the best place to do damage control? Oprah! Click here for a part of the interview with Jay on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
On March 1, the (re) premiere of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno received massive ratings. According to Neilsen, around 6.6 million people tuned in.
MEDIA ATTENTION
Based on preliminary metered-market estimates, because of the attention the late night wars received, O'Brien drew nearly double his usual average. The last week of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was the highest-rated week for adults aged 18 to 49, topping the show's premiere week of June 1 to 5, 2009 by a tenth of a rating point. In total viewers, the last week of The Tonight Show averaged 5.3 million, making this the show's second-biggest week, behind only its premiere week of June 1 to 5, 2009 (6.1 million).
This issue also took the media by storm, and was even covered across the Atlantic Ocean in newspapers such as the UK's Daily Mail.
CONAN'S RESPONSE
In his statement to his fans mentioned earlier, Conan states what he believes is important and this was a smart move. He used the facts to reinforce what should be important not only to him and the viewers, but also the company.
He puts the ball directly in NBC's court by explaining that he has no control over the fate of his show. This puts NBC on the defensive and forces them to react, instead of going on offense.
"The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't the Tonight Show" is the strongest line in the whole statement - this sentence boils the whole ordeal into ten words, one that conveys clear and literal meaning and speaks volumes.
JAY'S RESPONSE
The vast majority of viewers who have long watched The Tonight Show will not feel that Jay is "tarnished" or is the "bad guy". Leno will likely emerge just the way he's been positioning himself: as the loyal underdog who's now coming to rescue NBC's late-night ratings. And, damage control clearly went into high gear as Jay appeared on Oprah - TV's great anointer of forgiveness - Thursday, January 28.
THE ORGANIZATION'S STAKEHOLDERS AND MEDIA RESPONSES
Although the final decision was with NBC, public sentiment - at least on the Internet - was with O'Brien. The "I'm with Coco" campaign was started by L.A.-based designer Mike Mitchell and features a poster that Entertainment Tonight likened in its online ubiquity to Shepard Fairey's famous Barack Obama "Hope" portrait.
A corresponding O'Brien Facebook support group was at just over 900,000 fans as of mid-January.
"This is a group dedicated to supporting Conan O'Brien with the recent decision of saying no to NBC executives for moving his show back to 12:05 a.m and giving Jay Leno his old time slot back of 11:35 p.m. . . . He recently became a victim of the producers of NBC."
There was also a protest rally in front of NBC studios in Burbank, California.
NBC'S RESPONSE
Besides the two short statements to Access Hollywood January 7 and 8, NBC finally appeared on Charlie Rose January 18 and discussed their decisions. There was also an article published in The New York Times January 14 with the following:
"Jeff (Zucker) and I are big boys," Dick Ebersol, Chairman of NBC Universal Sports, said. "When we do something big in the public forum and it doesn't succeed, we know we'll be the butt of criticism."
NBC's choice to keep quiet at first wasn't the right thing to do. The organization took a page from Tiger's book by keeping quiet, which didn't help it at all. They should have spoken immediately on the matter instead of letting rumours circulate, and they should have also posted a statement immediately on their website. Today there is still no response on their website. Ultimately, NBC's responses were all too little too late.
NBC deservedly receives a wag of the finger for their lack of immediate response on this issue. When they finally made media appearances, their responses were very business-like instead of family-oriented; whereas Conan's responses were delivered with grace and were much more sentimental.
One might say, "Was NBC so dumb that, even if the show was making money for the network, they didn't think their affiliates would complain about The Jay Leno Show lead-in cutting their viewership of the local news by 25-50% (figure from Andy Richter when he co-hosted with Kelly Ripa on Live With Regis And Kelly this week)?" Well, whether they thought of that or not, don't forget that there's new owners - Comcast - coming in. You wonder what part that played in all of this. Still, it's hard to picture it if NBC's original plan was to ignore any affiliates' concerns, especially when some of them were threatening to replace The Jay Leno Show on their stations with syndicated programming, possibly meaning those stations would delay The Jay Leno Show until the overnight hours.
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