http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/28/the-late-night-war-of-2010-gets-its-first-official-history
Late Night Wars, Exposed: New Book Reveals Why Conan Lost, How NBC Fawned Over Leno
Nate Jones
10-28-10
Now all it needs is a Ken Burns documentary!
Vanity Fair today just released an exclusive except from Bill Carter's upcoming book The War For Late Night. There are no landmark surprises — Jay Leno comes off as affably opportunistic, Conan O'Brien as a tragic self-dramatist with a little bit of a martyrdom complex — but it's a worthwhile look at the procedural negotiations that led to last winter's messy divorce. The five best revelations:
1. The man with the best contract won
An oversight by Conan's lawyers in their negotiations with NBC was the hidden germ of the scheduling conflict. As Keller tells it, when David Letterman was negotiating his move to CBS, he made the network give him a contractual guarantee that his show would air immediately after CBS' late local news. Jay Leno's Tonight Show deal had similar language. During a dinner with Conan O'Brien's producer and manager in December 2009, Letterman's producer Robert Morton happened to mention the clause:
“You guys got that for Conan, too, I'm sure,” Morty said.
Crucially, they had not, leading to NBC's infamous attempt to shift Conan's Tonight Show back to 12:05 to make room for Jay Leno at 11:35.
2. Leno for a second there thought he was fired
Leno knew his 10 p.m. show was underperforming and that NBC affiliates were threatening to revolt over the issue. When Jeff Gaspin, head of NBC's entertainment division, visited Leno's studio, it was clear there was a problem. Gaspin told Leno the network was aborting the failed Jay-Leno-in-prime-time experiment, news that Jay met with a glum "OK." Then Gaspin told him the good part: Jay would be going back to 11:35.
Jay's relief, Gaspin noticed, was instantaneous. His face lifted and brightened. “Yeah, let's do it!” he said, the pitch of his voice almost as high as his performance level.
Leno's people were initially suspicious of NBC, especially after the network explained its full scheduling plan. Jay doubted Conan would go along with it; Gaspin told him they were 75% sure Conan would. After being assured that nothing would change with the production of a half-as-long Jay Leno Show, that no one on the crew would get fired, Jay assented to NBC's plan.
(This section, incidentally, reflects quite well on Jay Leno. He's always painted himself as essentially passive in the whole story, and Carter's account appears to verify this. Jay is much more acted-upon than active.)
3. Conan first launched his zingers at NBC in private...
Conan spent much of December with premonitions of having The Tonight Show taken from him. When he was informed of the proposed schedule, he initially remained calm, even as he chafed as NBC executives explained how painful the decision had been for them, how it had been a "Sophie's choice." Finally, he laid his case for keeping his show in the same time slot to the executives. When they apologized, saying that they felt they were letting both Jay and Conan down, the redhead let it out:
"What does Jay have on you?” Conan asked, his voice still low, his tone still even. “What does this guy have on you people? What the hell is it about Jay?”
4. ...But the jokes in public were the ones that finally convinced NBC that Conan wouldn't go along
Even after Conan's "People of Earth" statement, NBC quietly hoped he would reconsider his options and decide to accept the network's plan. That changed during Conan's monologue on January 13, when the host joked, "I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it too."
The joke displeased Jay (who, still seeing the move as a favor to Conan, wondered why he would have to cut his show in half for someone who mocked him in public) and NBC executives. It was the beginning of the end:
Gaspin asked himself: How could these guys work back-to-back if Conan hates Jay? There was no longer any question about resolving this in a fashion that might keep Conan at NBC, as far as Gaspin was concerned. It had come down to how the matter would be settled, and Conan would go on his way.
5. Leno's people thought Conan handled the situation with regrettable naïveté
Leno and his team could not understand the self-righteousness that led Conan to walk away from The Tonight Show. To them, Conan was ignoring the fact that, by failing to bring in ratings, he had failed
When Jay was a kid he'd dreamed of hosting The Tonight Show, too. But when he was an adult it became his employment ... one that required bringing in winning ratings. On Jay's side of the late-night divide, pretending that ratings didn't matter so much qualified as a form of arrogance, of a kind to which he and [his people] could just not subscribe because, as they saw it, they were too busy doing shows.
It's a great account of the fiercest pop-culture war of our time, one that you really should take time out to delve into sometime today. Go to Vanity Fair to read the whole thing.
Showing posts with label David Letterman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Letterman. Show all posts
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
More From Casey Affleck on ‘I’m Still Here’
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/more-from-casey-affleck-on-im-still-here/
September 16, 2010
More From Casey Affleck on ‘I’m Still Here’
MICHAEL CIEPLY
Once Casey Affleck started explaining his real intent in filming “I’m Still Here,” the fake documentary that seems to follow Joaquin Phoenix on a descent into celebrity hell, he just kept going — and things got more interesting.
In a series of e-mails that followed a Thursday interview, Mr. Affleck, who is both intense and articulate, said, most important, that he admires Mr. Phoenix for having spent so much time working through a performance that seemed to undercut his public standing.
“His performance is compelling, always watchable, manages to be repulsive and charming, believable in all emotions, completely committed, incredibly brave,” Mr. Affleck wrote.
It must have been “tedious” for Mr. Phoenix, he said. “How difficult to resist the cheap joke, the wink, the nudge.” But, he added: “He has the tools for this. He has the goods in spades.”
In talking Thursday about his documentary, Mr. Affleck was clear that David Letterman was not in on the game — that Mr. Phoenix was in character for a fictional film — when he appeared on the show as a mumbling, stumbling mess back in 2009. But one reader maintains that the reality was slightly different. Marc Allan sent a link to an interview he did with the Letterman writer Bill Scheft last year. In it, Mr. Scheft said, “Dave knew about it and Dave loved it because he could play along.”
Mr. Scheft said he occasionally tried to tell people that Mr. Phoenix’s weird appearance was an act. But they would tell him he was wrong, that Mr. Phoenix “is a schizophrenic and he needs help.”
Asked what he reckoned to be the cinematic precedents for “I’m Still Here,” Mr. Affleck pointed to “Sans Soleil,” “Don’t Look Back,” and “Dig!,” along with “billions of hours” of reality video on television and the Internet.
He also mentioned “Darwin’s Nightmare,” a 2004 documentary about fishing the Nile, for it’s rough look, and “pointed and aggressive” stance.
Also, he said, Dante’s “Inferno” was in inspiration, in that the Joaquin Phoenix presented in “I’m Still Here” was headed to the bottom of hell, only to pop back into the light, “which in Hollywood means to lose weight and get a job.”
Mr. Affleck said he thought the frequently hostile critics were distracted by a debate as to whether the film was real, “and the question of real or not wasn’t something I thought would exist after the film was seen in its entirety, credits and all,” he said. “It seems obvious” that it is not.
As to whether he would do it all again, Mr. Affleck said: “Definitely, all of it. Change nothing. I feel good about everything through and through.” Well, not everything. He’s got a list of a “hundred little edits.” But, by and large, he is proud of the film.
“I hope Joaquin gets nominated for all kinds of awards,” Mr. Affleck wrote. “He deserves it.”
September 16, 2010
More From Casey Affleck on ‘I’m Still Here’
MICHAEL CIEPLY
Once Casey Affleck started explaining his real intent in filming “I’m Still Here,” the fake documentary that seems to follow Joaquin Phoenix on a descent into celebrity hell, he just kept going — and things got more interesting.
In a series of e-mails that followed a Thursday interview, Mr. Affleck, who is both intense and articulate, said, most important, that he admires Mr. Phoenix for having spent so much time working through a performance that seemed to undercut his public standing.
“His performance is compelling, always watchable, manages to be repulsive and charming, believable in all emotions, completely committed, incredibly brave,” Mr. Affleck wrote.
It must have been “tedious” for Mr. Phoenix, he said. “How difficult to resist the cheap joke, the wink, the nudge.” But, he added: “He has the tools for this. He has the goods in spades.”
In talking Thursday about his documentary, Mr. Affleck was clear that David Letterman was not in on the game — that Mr. Phoenix was in character for a fictional film — when he appeared on the show as a mumbling, stumbling mess back in 2009. But one reader maintains that the reality was slightly different. Marc Allan sent a link to an interview he did with the Letterman writer Bill Scheft last year. In it, Mr. Scheft said, “Dave knew about it and Dave loved it because he could play along.”
Mr. Scheft said he occasionally tried to tell people that Mr. Phoenix’s weird appearance was an act. But they would tell him he was wrong, that Mr. Phoenix “is a schizophrenic and he needs help.”
Asked what he reckoned to be the cinematic precedents for “I’m Still Here,” Mr. Affleck pointed to “Sans Soleil,” “Don’t Look Back,” and “Dig!,” along with “billions of hours” of reality video on television and the Internet.
He also mentioned “Darwin’s Nightmare,” a 2004 documentary about fishing the Nile, for it’s rough look, and “pointed and aggressive” stance.
Also, he said, Dante’s “Inferno” was in inspiration, in that the Joaquin Phoenix presented in “I’m Still Here” was headed to the bottom of hell, only to pop back into the light, “which in Hollywood means to lose weight and get a job.”
Mr. Affleck said he thought the frequently hostile critics were distracted by a debate as to whether the film was real, “and the question of real or not wasn’t something I thought would exist after the film was seen in its entirety, credits and all,” he said. “It seems obvious” that it is not.
As to whether he would do it all again, Mr. Affleck said: “Definitely, all of it. Change nothing. I feel good about everything through and through.” Well, not everything. He’s got a list of a “hundred little edits.” But, by and large, he is proud of the film.
“I hope Joaquin gets nominated for all kinds of awards,” Mr. Affleck wrote. “He deserves it.”
Monday, February 22, 2010
Letterman, Leno's Super Bowl Reunion
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/news/the-real-story-behind-letterman-and-lenos-super-bowl-reunion-201082
Letterman, Leno's Super Bowl Reunion: How It Happened
Monday – February 08, 2010
How hard was it to get longtime rivals Jay Leno and David Letterman to agree to shoot that Super Bowl commercial together?
Not hard at all, actually.
USA Today reports that Letterman, 62, concocted the idea for the 15-second spot, which featured him and Leno, 59, watching the game and Oprah Winfrey serving as the referee. (In the commercial, Letterman bemoans that it's "the worst Super Bowl party ever," and Winfrey, 56, in the middle, tells him to "be nice." Leno then whispers, "Aw, he's just sayin' that because I'm here!")
The spot was shot last Tuesday at Letterman's Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC. It was so hush-hush that Leno even flew to New York in disguise, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, dark sunglasses and a fake moustache.
Leno was "very professional, very cordial, friendly," says Late Show executive producer Rob Burnett. "They both got that this was funny and a good thing for everybody."
Adds Burnett, "There was a lot of conversation internally: 'Is it good for Jay, does it help him?' Dave had no interest in any of those conversations." To him, CBS' promo time was "this is 15 seconds in the Super Bowl; it has to be funny."
Letterman, Leno's Super Bowl Reunion: How It Happened
Monday – February 08, 2010
How hard was it to get longtime rivals Jay Leno and David Letterman to agree to shoot that Super Bowl commercial together?
Not hard at all, actually.
USA Today reports that Letterman, 62, concocted the idea for the 15-second spot, which featured him and Leno, 59, watching the game and Oprah Winfrey serving as the referee. (In the commercial, Letterman bemoans that it's "the worst Super Bowl party ever," and Winfrey, 56, in the middle, tells him to "be nice." Leno then whispers, "Aw, he's just sayin' that because I'm here!")
The spot was shot last Tuesday at Letterman's Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC. It was so hush-hush that Leno even flew to New York in disguise, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, dark sunglasses and a fake moustache.
Leno was "very professional, very cordial, friendly," says Late Show executive producer Rob Burnett. "They both got that this was funny and a good thing for everybody."
Adds Burnett, "There was a lot of conversation internally: 'Is it good for Jay, does it help him?' Dave had no interest in any of those conversations." To him, CBS' promo time was "this is 15 seconds in the Super Bowl; it has to be funny."
Letterman's 'Late Show' promo is spot on
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/07/AR2010020703677.html
Once again, Letterman's 'Late Show' promo is spot on
By Tom Shales
Monday, February 8, 2010
CBS may have stolen its own show last night with the telecast of Super Bowl XLIV, thanks to a network promo that stole thunder from all the costly commercials sprinkled liberally through the game.
It tended to upstage ads that boasted the usual snazzy pyrotechnics, lavish production, and even controversy -- as in the case of a spot for the group Focus on the Family that rather vaguely endorsed alternatives to abortion.
Even the ads that tried to titillate viewers with sexual imagery and near-naked performers probably stirred less buzz than the 15-second promo for David Letterman's "Late Show."
The spot, which aired in the second quarter, opened with Letterman sitting on a couch, eating chips and watching TV. The camera pulled back to reveal two companions watching with Dave: Oprah Winfrey, who appeared in a similar spot in 2007, and the totally unexpected Jay Leno, Letterman's rival since Leno snatched NBC's "Tonight Show" out from under him in 1992.
"This is the worst Super Bowl party ever," Letterman says. "You're just saying that because I'm here," Leno counters. Viewers had to be wondering if their eyes deceived them -- why would Leno and Letterman be appearing together? -- and if the whole thing was some diabolical computer-generated trick.
Letterman himself dreamed up the spot and wrote it, according to Rob Burnett, president of Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company. "Dave is ruled by one law," Burnett said from the Super Bowl. "Is it funny? And if it's funny, let's do it." The notion of having an NBC star on CBS air was cleared by CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves, executives at NBC, and Leno, who when contacted by Dave's people, agreed immediately, reportedly telling a Letterman staffer, "This is what show business should be."
The spot was taped Tuesday night in the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway, where Letterman's show is performed. Winfrey was smuggled in unnoticed and Leno arrived in a disguise that included dark glasses and a fake mustache. "We were desperate to keep this a secret," Burnett said. "All three of them were professional, friendly and cordial for the 28 minutes or so that it took to do the spot."
"Everybody wins in this," Burnett said -- partly because all three performers, especially Leno and Letterman, who've been sniping at each other in recent monologues on their shows -- come off looking like good sports.
Elsewhere during the Super Bowl, the splashy and extravagant commercials spilled out in punishing profusion, though some proved highly entertaining and clever. The anti-abortion spot, which CBS aired despite criticism for letting a controversial issue intrude on the fun and frolic of the game, got upstaged by -- of all things -- the Snickers commercial that immediately preceded it.
That ad had Betty White, the veteran TV comedienne, supposedly being tackled during a backyard football game. Then in the Focus on the Family spot, the mother of University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was also tackled on-camera, and knocked clear out of the frame.
Many sponsors attempted humor, of course. Bud Light showed scientists breaking into a wild orgy when it appeared an asteroid was about to smash into, and destroy, the earth; it turned out to be a mere fizzle that hit their telescope. Another ad for Bud Light, in which people's speaking voices were altered by the hip-hop staple Auto-Tune, was mostly annoying.
Coca-Cola's biggest spot featured many of the characters from television's longtime classic cartoon comedy "The Simpsons." The spot starred evil Springfield billionaire Montgomery Burns, who went broke as the spot began. Beyoncé was seen in another spot late in the game, but only for a second; she was scooped up by a mechanical hand as part of an overly busy ad for Vizio.
An oddly recurring theme had to do with men asserting their masculinity, or attempting to assert it, as well as the perpetual male fear of emasculation. In an ad for a very portable television called FloTV, a man was seen being dragged through a torturous shopping trip by his girlfriend while sportscaster Jim Nantz ridiculed him. (A later, more serious ad for FloTV, recapped the entire history of television in a minute or so, images both sublime and ridiculous flying by on the screen.)
Men in their underwear kept popping up -- in a Coke ad, a man sleepwalks in the wilderness, clad in boxer shorts and a T-shirt. His odyssey ends only after he finds a cold bottle of Coke.
An ad for Dockers was keyed to the mantra "I wear no pants!" and featured men in their underwear romping around aimlessly. A funny ad for Career Builder.com, depicting the notion of Casual Friday run amok, showed men and women, most of them anything but physically fit, spending a day at the office in their undies.
Men and their traditional roles were also mocked, but somehow also celebrated, in ads introducing Dove for Men, a line of toiletries. A man raced through a recitation of the chores and good deeds he had obediently done to the tune of Rossini's "William Tell Overture," once the theme of "The Lone Ranger" on radio and TV.
An ad for Dodge Charger called the muscle car "Man's Last Stand" after depicting a supposedly put-upon male who listed all the nice things he did for his female mate. Were these ads for a post-feminist age? They seemed to have a retro appeal -- for better and worse. Probably worse.
Stars appearing included the aging rock group Kiss for Dr Pepper with "a kiss of cherry" (oh, goody), and Brett Favre as he might appear ten years from now -- still vacillating about retirement -- for Hyundai. For the record, Toyota ran a couple of simple ads, black type on a white background, implicitly apologizing for the company's current problems with defective cars and promising "to make things right" -- a hopeful theme, perhaps, for the whole mad parade.
Once again, Letterman's 'Late Show' promo is spot on
By Tom Shales
Monday, February 8, 2010
CBS may have stolen its own show last night with the telecast of Super Bowl XLIV, thanks to a network promo that stole thunder from all the costly commercials sprinkled liberally through the game.
It tended to upstage ads that boasted the usual snazzy pyrotechnics, lavish production, and even controversy -- as in the case of a spot for the group Focus on the Family that rather vaguely endorsed alternatives to abortion.
Even the ads that tried to titillate viewers with sexual imagery and near-naked performers probably stirred less buzz than the 15-second promo for David Letterman's "Late Show."
The spot, which aired in the second quarter, opened with Letterman sitting on a couch, eating chips and watching TV. The camera pulled back to reveal two companions watching with Dave: Oprah Winfrey, who appeared in a similar spot in 2007, and the totally unexpected Jay Leno, Letterman's rival since Leno snatched NBC's "Tonight Show" out from under him in 1992.
"This is the worst Super Bowl party ever," Letterman says. "You're just saying that because I'm here," Leno counters. Viewers had to be wondering if their eyes deceived them -- why would Leno and Letterman be appearing together? -- and if the whole thing was some diabolical computer-generated trick.
Letterman himself dreamed up the spot and wrote it, according to Rob Burnett, president of Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company. "Dave is ruled by one law," Burnett said from the Super Bowl. "Is it funny? And if it's funny, let's do it." The notion of having an NBC star on CBS air was cleared by CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves, executives at NBC, and Leno, who when contacted by Dave's people, agreed immediately, reportedly telling a Letterman staffer, "This is what show business should be."
The spot was taped Tuesday night in the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway, where Letterman's show is performed. Winfrey was smuggled in unnoticed and Leno arrived in a disguise that included dark glasses and a fake mustache. "We were desperate to keep this a secret," Burnett said. "All three of them were professional, friendly and cordial for the 28 minutes or so that it took to do the spot."
"Everybody wins in this," Burnett said -- partly because all three performers, especially Leno and Letterman, who've been sniping at each other in recent monologues on their shows -- come off looking like good sports.
Elsewhere during the Super Bowl, the splashy and extravagant commercials spilled out in punishing profusion, though some proved highly entertaining and clever. The anti-abortion spot, which CBS aired despite criticism for letting a controversial issue intrude on the fun and frolic of the game, got upstaged by -- of all things -- the Snickers commercial that immediately preceded it.
That ad had Betty White, the veteran TV comedienne, supposedly being tackled during a backyard football game. Then in the Focus on the Family spot, the mother of University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was also tackled on-camera, and knocked clear out of the frame.
Many sponsors attempted humor, of course. Bud Light showed scientists breaking into a wild orgy when it appeared an asteroid was about to smash into, and destroy, the earth; it turned out to be a mere fizzle that hit their telescope. Another ad for Bud Light, in which people's speaking voices were altered by the hip-hop staple Auto-Tune, was mostly annoying.
Coca-Cola's biggest spot featured many of the characters from television's longtime classic cartoon comedy "The Simpsons." The spot starred evil Springfield billionaire Montgomery Burns, who went broke as the spot began. Beyoncé was seen in another spot late in the game, but only for a second; she was scooped up by a mechanical hand as part of an overly busy ad for Vizio.
An oddly recurring theme had to do with men asserting their masculinity, or attempting to assert it, as well as the perpetual male fear of emasculation. In an ad for a very portable television called FloTV, a man was seen being dragged through a torturous shopping trip by his girlfriend while sportscaster Jim Nantz ridiculed him. (A later, more serious ad for FloTV, recapped the entire history of television in a minute or so, images both sublime and ridiculous flying by on the screen.)
Men in their underwear kept popping up -- in a Coke ad, a man sleepwalks in the wilderness, clad in boxer shorts and a T-shirt. His odyssey ends only after he finds a cold bottle of Coke.
An ad for Dockers was keyed to the mantra "I wear no pants!" and featured men in their underwear romping around aimlessly. A funny ad for Career Builder.com, depicting the notion of Casual Friday run amok, showed men and women, most of them anything but physically fit, spending a day at the office in their undies.
Men and their traditional roles were also mocked, but somehow also celebrated, in ads introducing Dove for Men, a line of toiletries. A man raced through a recitation of the chores and good deeds he had obediently done to the tune of Rossini's "William Tell Overture," once the theme of "The Lone Ranger" on radio and TV.
An ad for Dodge Charger called the muscle car "Man's Last Stand" after depicting a supposedly put-upon male who listed all the nice things he did for his female mate. Were these ads for a post-feminist age? They seemed to have a retro appeal -- for better and worse. Probably worse.
Stars appearing included the aging rock group Kiss for Dr Pepper with "a kiss of cherry" (oh, goody), and Brett Favre as he might appear ten years from now -- still vacillating about retirement -- for Hyundai. For the record, Toyota ran a couple of simple ads, black type on a white background, implicitly apologizing for the company's current problems with defective cars and promising "to make things right" -- a hopeful theme, perhaps, for the whole mad parade.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Jay Leno on 'Oprah'
http://watching-tv.ew.com/2010/01/28/jay-leno-oprah-winfrey
Jan 28, 2010
Jay Leno on 'Oprah': Admits to lying, ridicules Conan's 'Tonight Show': This is damage control?
by Ken Tucker
In a fascinating display of self-pity and hubris, Jay Leno went on Oprah today and really let loose: He said that the plan to return him to The Tonight Show was “a huge mess,” that he’d been “sucker-punched” by Jimmy Kimmel, that he’d lied when he told the public in 2004 he would retire when he left The Tonight Show in 2009, and that there’s “a lot of damage control that has to be done now.” Believe me: There’ll be even more to be done after this Oprah interview.
Jay Leno admitted to Oprah Winfrey that “I told a white lie on the air” when he said in 2004 he’d retire after he left the Tonight Show in 2009. “It was just maybe easier that way.” He said he “assumed” he’d just get a job at another network.
Oprah observed: “Conan said he thought it would be destructive to the franchise” for him to agree to the plan for The Tonight Show appear at 12:05, after an 11:35 Leno show. “Well, if you look at where [Conan's Tonight Show] ratings were” — and here he paused for comic-sarcastic effect — “it was already destructive to the franchise… This was the first time in the 60-year history of The Tonight Show that The Tonight Show would have lost money.” Leno also said, “I hope Conan gets a job somewhere.” Whatta competitor, that Jay!
There were some fascinating exchanges between Oprah and Jay, who sounded as though he thought Winfrey was going to be more sympathetic than she proved to be. Winfrey said, “David Letterman called you, I think, the ‘Big Jaw’ Leno… and you hit back by talking about his infidelity.” Leno said, “Well, I did a joke about that, yes.” ”Even the audience went, ‘Ooo!’” noted Winfrey. ”But it was a good joke,” squeaked Leno. “Did you laugh when you heard it?”
“No,” said Oprah firmly, “I did not. I did not laugh. You know what, I thought that was beneath you.” Leno tried to defend himself. “But how many jokes like that have I done? I did one joke in the middle of the week and I never did another one. I had a cheap shot thrown at me, I threw one cheap shot back and I moved on.” Oprah asked, “So you thought one cheap shot deserves another?” Leno said, “Yeah, it’s OK.” Then Oprah asked, “Do you feel you’re being unfairly portrayed by the media?” Leno said, “Yeah, I think so.”
Amazing figure: A poll conducted on Oprah.com found that 96% of Winfrey’s audience was on Conan’s side in this “mess.”
Leno continues to make much of the idea that he didn’t turn down the 10 p.m. Jay Leno Show offer because he didn’t want to put his staff out of work: “You say to the 170 people who work here, ‘Listen, I don’t want to get my reputation ruined, I don’t want anyone talking bad about me. I’ve got enough money. You people can all fend for yourself.’ That’s… the selfish thing to do.” Yet when Winfrey brought up the number of people who were put out of work on the 10 p.m. scripted shows that were either cancelled or never put into production by NBC because the Leno Show took up a prime-time slot five nights a week, he said feebly, “I wasn’t thinking about that at the time.” Come on. This was a point being brought up in the media almost as soon as the Leno Show was announced.
One thing that didn’t ring true, or at least make sense, as we’ve all heard it: Leno said, “They only offered [The Tonight Show] to me after Conan had turned down [the 12:05 offer].” Really? Seems like O’Brien decided to leave NBC after he’d been told NBC planned to move Jay to 11:35, from most reports.
There was a darkly humorous moment when Oprah asked him if he thought NBC could have handled this better. “Anything they did would have been better than this… If they had come in and shot everybody, it would have been ‘Oh, people were murdered,’ but at least it would have been a two-day story. NBC could not have handled it worse. From 2004 onward, this whole thing was a huge mess.”
When Jimmy Kimmel came on the Leno Show Jan. 14 and used that “10 @ 10? segment to blast Leno, Jay told Winfrey he felt “sucker-punched.” He said he could have “edited it” out, but “when you get sucker-punched, you get right back up again. You don’t whine or complain.”
Still, Leno did his share of whining on Oprah. “It was really agonizing. I would spend a lot of time just thinking about it, going, ‘I think I’m a good guy. Am I a good guy?’”
Jan 28, 2010
Jay Leno on 'Oprah': Admits to lying, ridicules Conan's 'Tonight Show': This is damage control?
by Ken Tucker
In a fascinating display of self-pity and hubris, Jay Leno went on Oprah today and really let loose: He said that the plan to return him to The Tonight Show was “a huge mess,” that he’d been “sucker-punched” by Jimmy Kimmel, that he’d lied when he told the public in 2004 he would retire when he left The Tonight Show in 2009, and that there’s “a lot of damage control that has to be done now.” Believe me: There’ll be even more to be done after this Oprah interview.
Jay Leno admitted to Oprah Winfrey that “I told a white lie on the air” when he said in 2004 he’d retire after he left the Tonight Show in 2009. “It was just maybe easier that way.” He said he “assumed” he’d just get a job at another network.
Oprah observed: “Conan said he thought it would be destructive to the franchise” for him to agree to the plan for The Tonight Show appear at 12:05, after an 11:35 Leno show. “Well, if you look at where [Conan's Tonight Show] ratings were” — and here he paused for comic-sarcastic effect — “it was already destructive to the franchise… This was the first time in the 60-year history of The Tonight Show that The Tonight Show would have lost money.” Leno also said, “I hope Conan gets a job somewhere.” Whatta competitor, that Jay!
There were some fascinating exchanges between Oprah and Jay, who sounded as though he thought Winfrey was going to be more sympathetic than she proved to be. Winfrey said, “David Letterman called you, I think, the ‘Big Jaw’ Leno… and you hit back by talking about his infidelity.” Leno said, “Well, I did a joke about that, yes.” ”Even the audience went, ‘Ooo!’” noted Winfrey. ”But it was a good joke,” squeaked Leno. “Did you laugh when you heard it?”
“No,” said Oprah firmly, “I did not. I did not laugh. You know what, I thought that was beneath you.” Leno tried to defend himself. “But how many jokes like that have I done? I did one joke in the middle of the week and I never did another one. I had a cheap shot thrown at me, I threw one cheap shot back and I moved on.” Oprah asked, “So you thought one cheap shot deserves another?” Leno said, “Yeah, it’s OK.” Then Oprah asked, “Do you feel you’re being unfairly portrayed by the media?” Leno said, “Yeah, I think so.”
Amazing figure: A poll conducted on Oprah.com found that 96% of Winfrey’s audience was on Conan’s side in this “mess.”
Leno continues to make much of the idea that he didn’t turn down the 10 p.m. Jay Leno Show offer because he didn’t want to put his staff out of work: “You say to the 170 people who work here, ‘Listen, I don’t want to get my reputation ruined, I don’t want anyone talking bad about me. I’ve got enough money. You people can all fend for yourself.’ That’s… the selfish thing to do.” Yet when Winfrey brought up the number of people who were put out of work on the 10 p.m. scripted shows that were either cancelled or never put into production by NBC because the Leno Show took up a prime-time slot five nights a week, he said feebly, “I wasn’t thinking about that at the time.” Come on. This was a point being brought up in the media almost as soon as the Leno Show was announced.
One thing that didn’t ring true, or at least make sense, as we’ve all heard it: Leno said, “They only offered [The Tonight Show] to me after Conan had turned down [the 12:05 offer].” Really? Seems like O’Brien decided to leave NBC after he’d been told NBC planned to move Jay to 11:35, from most reports.
There was a darkly humorous moment when Oprah asked him if he thought NBC could have handled this better. “Anything they did would have been better than this… If they had come in and shot everybody, it would have been ‘Oh, people were murdered,’ but at least it would have been a two-day story. NBC could not have handled it worse. From 2004 onward, this whole thing was a huge mess.”
When Jimmy Kimmel came on the Leno Show Jan. 14 and used that “10 @ 10? segment to blast Leno, Jay told Winfrey he felt “sucker-punched.” He said he could have “edited it” out, but “when you get sucker-punched, you get right back up again. You don’t whine or complain.”
Still, Leno did his share of whining on Oprah. “It was really agonizing. I would spend a lot of time just thinking about it, going, ‘I think I’m a good guy. Am I a good guy?’”
Friday, January 29, 2010
Jay Leno triumphs over what's cool
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-leno-demographic23-2010jan23,0,158827.storyJay Leno triumphs over what's cool
NBC's logic-defying decision to replace him with Conan O'Brien was based on misguided demographics.
January 23, 2010
Neal Gabler
January 23, 2010
Every high school in America has its cool kids, the smart, snarky ones who sit in the prow of culture, and its dorks, the plodding if amiable ones who sit in the middle of the boat and try not to make waves. One needs to be reminded of this in assessing what was really at stake in the headline-making Leno-O'Brien war that ended Thursday with an agreement to pay $45 million to O'Brien and his staff.
Celebrities and critics are still taking sides -- the younger, hipper ones decrying how shabbily NBC had treated poor Conan; the older, statelier ones backing Leno -- giving us a clear demonstration of just how much this was a function not so much of money or ratings but of demographics. O'Brien and Leno stood across a cultural and generational divide: young vs. old, cool vs. uncool.
The origins of this battle actually go back to 2004 when NBC decided to boot Leno to the curb five years down the road and replace him with Conan O'Brien, 13 years Leno's junior, after Leno had been helming "The Tonight Show" for 17 years. Aside from Leno, no one seemed particularly startled by this succession, though it turned television logic on its head. Leno was drawing huge ratings, regularly beating the pants off of his CBS competition, David Letterman. By the time he left, he was attracting 5 million viewers a night, and "The Tonight Show" was one of NBC's most profitable franchises. And though Leno's ratings, like all ratings on broadcast television, had declined in his last year, he was still unassailable.
Which was precisely what NBC had expected when Leno took over "The Tonight Show" in 1992 after being tapped over Letterman. Everyone agreed then that Letterman was edgier than Leno, more iconoclastic, and, to a lot of people, funnier. Letterman wore the self-deprecating dork's mantle, but it was a ruse. He was the cool, droll kid who had reinvented late-night television, and NBC decided he might not be the best fit for the square "Tonight Show," where middle-American Johnny Carson had held forth for 30 years.
As it turned out, NBC was right. Leno had been an edgy -- and very funny -- comedian once, but he had gradually drifted to the center where the larger audience was. If that meant blunting his comedy, Leno was willing. By the time he took over "Tonight," Leno's basic commodity was not his humor, which had become toothless, but his likability. He was your grandmother's comedian -- the comedian of the Silent Majority.
Meanwhile, Conan O'Brien was handed Letterman's vacated spot after Leno. O'Brien had never been before the camera. He was a writer. But he was a great idea for a late-night show host: Harvard-educated, then trained at the writers' tables on "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons." It didn't get any cooler than that. Even if he was as jittery as a nervous Chihuahua and milked his handful of jokes for everything they were worth by shameless mugging, he was young and different -- a hipster.
More important, he was the beneficiary of a sea change in television. Over the 16 years from O'Brien's first appearance on late night to his taking over "The Tonight Show," Leno didn't change his nice guy persona and O'Brien didn't get any more comfortable on stage. They remained pretty much the same. It was the culture that changed around them. And that's where demographics came in.
Few people alive today remember that television was once measured, reasonably, by how many people actually watched a particular program. You either had the most viewers or you didn't, and advertisers paid accordingly. The problem with this system was that year in and year out, actually 20 out of 21 years from 1955 through 1976, CBS got the highest ratings. ABC and NBC couldn't make a dent. So ABC, typically mired in third place, devised another strategy. It got the brilliant idea of finding a slice of the audience in which it could compete with CBS -- never mind that the choice was arbitrary. That's how ratings suddenly got divided into demographic segments -- which was like a football team saying that while it lost the game, it outscored its opponent in the third quarter and that ought to count for something. ABC boasted that it got younger viewers than CBS.
All of this is relevant to Leno and O'Brien because of the way ABC and NBC justified this magical and nonsensical confabulation. Younger viewers, they said, were better viewers. They were more susceptible to advertising blandishments. They were more likely to decide on a product and maintain loyalty to it for life. And they were harder to reach and therefore more desirable. Whatever the excuse, the result was that older viewers -- and old meant over 50 -- were suddenly worthless in television terms. Losing Conan O'Brien, should O'Brien have gotten restless and decided to leave NBC when his contract was up, wouldn't have been much of a loss on its face. Even if he had gone to Fox or syndication, there was no way he could have competed against Letterman, much less Leno. He would have been the Irish Arsenio.
But Conan was young and hip; and, astonishingly, he had over the years gotten increasingly favorable reviews and growing cachet, especially as Leno was denigrated by the press for having gone mainstream. O'Brien became a critical darling. Reversing the logic that had prompted it to reject Letterman, NBC apparently concluded that O'Brien was the pompadour of the future. If it lost him, it would lose his cool.
Leno, for all his ratings prowess, was just too square for NBC in the age of the almighty 18-to-34 demographic that everyone now lusted after. In a way, NBC, like an aging suitor, was addled by youth.
There was just one complication. Leno, unlike O'Brien, actually could take his Silent Majority elsewhere, uncool or not. When NBC at the eleventh hour offered Leno the 10 o'clock slot, it wasn't because it expected him to reap great ratings against dramatic shows or even because it wanted cheaper programming. It was a defensive maneuver to keep him from defecting to another network and demolishing O'Brien on "The Tonight Show," its cash cow. NBC didn't really want him, but it didn't want to have to compete against him either.
What NBC didn't seem to have reckoned was just how much its desire to play with the cool kids would cost them -- not in terms of ratings at 10 where it knew Leno would be swamped, but in the weak lead-ins to the local news that sparked an affiliate revolt and in sagging ratings for "The Tonight Show" itself. O'Brien's supporters may think he is the neatest kid in class and that he is therefore entitled to occupy the host's chair, but he is pulling half the ratings Leno got and recently is even down from Leno in the coveted demo. And O'Brien isn't doing any better than Letterman.
In his defense, O'Brien claimed he needed time to build his audience, though detractors could parry that he had 17 years to build an audience. Put less charitably, O'Brien may have been modish, but he wasn't funny.
But this was never about funny -- if it was, neither O'Brien nor Leno would have inherited "The Tonight Show." This was about image. In the great high school of life, NBC opted to follow the siren call of cool. And now, for what may be the first time since 18 to 49 became the American grail, the system has blown up, so much so that NBC was willing to pay O'Brien tens of millions of dollars just to get rid of him and restore Leno to "Tonight."
And that is the real significance of the Leno/O'Brien smackdown. Say what you will about Leno, his return is a cultural milestone.
As O'Brien faded into the evening last night with bundles of cash and newfound martyrdom, the baby boomers have finally gotten some small measure of revenge, however old and dorky and undesirable they may be.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Conan O'Brien ends final NBC's 'Tonight Show'
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/01/24/2010-01-24_conan_obrien_ends_final_tonight_show_with_7_million_viewers_for_nbc__now_he_can_.htmlConan O'Brien ends final NBC's 'Tonight Show' with over 7 million viewers - now he can be edgy again
Richard Huff
Sunday, January 24th 2010
In the last two weeks we've seen Conan O'Brien become himself again.
We saw him stand up to his bosses and win - sort of.
We also saw the guy be funny in ways he wasn't for most of the seven months he hosted "The Tonight Show."
Now that he's free from NBC, he's got to use that same intestinal fortitude - and comic genius - to create his next opportunity.
Armed with a load of cash, and the benefit of time, O'Brien needs to get back to what made him desirable in the first place - edgy comedy targeted at a younger audience.
Not the kind of stuff he did for most of his seven-month run on "Tonight," but what he did for nearly 17 years on NBC's "Late Night."
O'Brien was different at 11:35 p.m. than he was an hour later, and that's a downside to broadcast TV.
"That's the problem you always face," says analyst Bill Carroll of the Katz Media Group. "We want you for who you are and now we make you who we want you to be."
Reaching a mass audience means softening the edges, a bit, which O'Brien did.
"Every comedian dreams of hosting the 'Tonight Show' and, for seven months, I got to," O'Brien said near the end of his last show Friday night. "I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second."
Viewers, however, may argue that what they saw was somehow different, at least up until the end, when all bets were off - and O'Brien's ratings soared.
And his final show didn't disappoint. It attracted more than 7 million viewers, according to preliminary numbers released by Nielsen, clobbering David Letterman's 2.8 million viewers and Jimmy Kimmel's 1.4 million.
Part of O'Brien's exit talks with NBC centered on who gets the "intellectual property" rights to stuff he and his team created in his run there. One most often mentioned was the Masturbating Bear, a guy in a bear costume who, well, enough said.
The bear was a huge hit with O'Brien's "Late Night" crowd, yet, wasn't used on "Tonight" for the first time until Wednesday, when, frankly, it was too late.
The point is that while he's losing the bear in the $45 million divorce with NBC, O'Brien has a chance to get something bigger back - his sense of humor.
"The networks never really counter-program in late-night," Brad Adgate, a senior vice president at Horizon Media said of O'Brien's options now that he left NBC. "I would offer his 'Late Show' [the next time]. To do something that's exactly what Leno and Letterman are offering, I don't know if that's what viewers want."
Fox officials have said they're interested in O'Brien. And Fox, no doubt, can provide marketing muscle and reach. Anyone doubting that should look at the way Fox promotes "American Idol" to the point that you half-expect Simon Cowell to anchor the news alongside Ernie Anastos.
Going the broadcast route might provide the most money, and audience reach, but that could be a mistake.
O'Brien would be better off going to a cable network where he could push the boundaries of content and further unleash his creative spirit in ways broadcast networks could never provide.
O'Brien appropriately ended his last "Tonight Show" with an all-star rendition of "Freebird," a song that includes the line, "Cause I'm as free as a bird now, and this bird you cannot change."
He had changed on "Tonight." And, in many ways, though he was leaving, in the end it was good to see an old friend emerge in O'Brien - the same one we'd like to see back in the fall.
rhuff@nydailynews.com
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Jay Leno time shuffle worst programming blunder
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/01/09/2010-01-09_the_making_of_nbc_tonight_horror_show.htmlNBC's Jay Leno time shuffle will be worst programming blunder in TV history
David Hinckley
Saturday, January 9th 2010
If NBC moves Jay Leno's 10 p.m. show to 11:35, it could be the network's biggest mistake in TV programming history.
If NBC's Jay Leno Shuffle isn't the worst programming blunder in TV history, it might be the most embarrassing.
Assuming NBC does indeed end Leno's 10 p.m. show and return him to 11:35, that's a jumbo-size, extra-cream pie square in the face of a network that over the last few years hasn't gotten much of anything right.
Moreover, while NBC has had some bad luck in that stretch, this pie is 100% self-delivered.
For months last year, NBC confidently declared that moving Leno to 10, and wiping out all scripted drama in that prime-time hour, was not foolhardy but visionary.
It would give NBC cheaper, proven alternative prime-time programming, network executives said. Bumping Conan O'Brien into Leno's old 11:35 p.m. "Tonight" slot would bring a new generation of hip, young folks to NBC.
It was sold as a win-win, and NBC did everything short of asserting that rival network execs who laughed at this plan were just jealous they hadn't thought of it first.
To be fair, on paper it didn't necessarily look like the worst idea ever. It's just that on paper, NBC wasn't counting on Leno averaging 29% fewer viewers than last season, which was pretty anemic itself.
NBC wasn't counting on its affiliates getting rebellious over having a much smaller pool of viewers delivered to the late-night local newscasts.
Finally, NBC wasn't counting on Conan losing 2 million of Leno's viewers, wiping out the lead Leno held for years over CBS' David Letterman.
Yet as late as this week, NBC valiantly insisted the center was holding.
The network had only promised advertisers a little over 5 million viewers a night, and Leno was delivering that.
So even though an Ad Age survey showed that spots on Leno's show were going for $54,000 - about half what the network charged last year for the dreadful, quickly canceled drama "My Own Worst Enemy" - NBC made money because Leno's show was so much cheaper to produce.
Now even NBC seems to be admitting that wasn't enough.
Leno, interestingly, is the least damaged party here. His audience is intact and he'll land somewhere comfortable. It will be a harder landing for Conan because he's now tarnished goods, a cult hero who tanked when he got closer to prime time.
NBC, meanwhile, has to glue Humpty Dumpty back together, hoping Leno can rehook his old late-night viewers while it figures out what to do with five vacant hours of prime time.
A number of dominoes led to The Leno Shuffle, starting way back with NBC's fear that Conan would follow Letterman and leave if he didn't get a more prominent spot.
The last clinching domino, however, was NBC looking at its 10 p.m. schedule last year and saying, "Hey, why not put Leno there? How could things get worse?" Now we know.
dhinckley@nydailynews.com
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Helped by a Big Name, Letterman Bounces Back
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/business/media/17late.htmlHelped by a Big Name, Letterman Bounces Back
By BILL CARTER
July 16, 2009
Is David Letterman back?
If not all the way, he certainly seems to be getting there. Mr. Letterman, CBS’s late-night star, scored an impressive win last week as his audience topped that of NBC’s “Tonight Show” and its new host, Conan O’Brien, during that show’s least-viewed week since total viewers have been measured.
And Mr. Letterman trumped his win with a show that became a television event Wednesday night as Paul McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater 45 years after the Beatles’ American TV debut and performed a concert on the marquee in front of a crowd of about 4,000.
On Wednesday, Mr. Letterman had 4.4 million viewers, to 2.5 million for Mr. O’Brien. ABC’s late-night entry, “Nightline,” also experiencing a resurgence, drew four million.
Mr. O’Brien continues to have the strongest of the shows among younger viewers that many advertisers prefer, though his margins in that area have shrunk in recent weeks. He has dropped to third place more regularly in total viewers, not a place where “Tonight” has often landed.
Last week, Mr. O’Brien attracted 2.8 million viewers, below the previous low for “Tonight,” 3.3 million, which Mr. O’Brien set in his third week. Mr. Letterman had 3.7 million. “Nightline,” helped by coverage of the Michael Jackson memorial, was the winner with 3.8 million. (“Nightline” benefits by being measured for half an hour versus an hour for the other shows.)
The “Tonight” numbers represented a steep drop from those scored by Jay Leno a year ago in the same week. Mr. Leno’s “Tonight” show had 4.6 million viewers, meaning Mr. O’Brien’s show has fallen by 38 percent.
The story among younger viewers, especially those 18 to 34, continues to be much better for Mr. O’Brien. He was up 26 percent in that group from Mr. Leno last year, though down 7 percent among viewers 18 to 49.
Mr. Letterman has been closing the gap a bit among younger viewers and last week managed a virtual tie with Mr. O’Brien among viewers 25 to 54, the first time he has done that since Mr. O’Brien’s arrival.
Guests have played a hand; Mr. O’Brien could hardly match Mr. McCartney (his guest was Dana Carvey) and ratings for NBC’s 10 p.m. time period, which can help or hurt late-night shows, were especially weak Wednesday night.
But one NBC late-night executive, who asked not to be identified when analyzing the network’s competitive situation, said of Mr. Letterman, “Dave is definitely on his game; Conan has to respond.”
In the Emmy nominations announced Wednesday, Mr. Letterman’s show secured five nominations. Mr. O’Brien’s show had one. (Mr. Leno’s had none.)
Wednesday’s show with Mr. McCartney was exciting even for the host. Mr. Letterman said in an e-mail comment: “Given the history of the Beatles at the Ed Sullivan Theater, it’s humbling just to have him on the show. And for him to play in front of thousands in front of our theater was beyond generous and very special for us.”
Mr. McCartney made the suggestion to perform outdoors, an executive from the Letterman show said.
Mr. Letterman had leaned toward having Mr. McCartney sing on the same stage where the Beatles first appeared in America in 1964. But the singer said he would perform only if he could make it an event.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 17, 2009, on page B7 of the New York edition.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Message on Alex Rodriguez's answering machine
From David Letterman:
Message left on Alex Rodriguez's answering machine: "Could you find a steroid that keeps you from choking in the playoffs?"
Message left on Alex Rodriguez's answering machine: "Could you find a steroid that keeps you from choking in the playoffs?"
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Stephen Colbert is a swinger for Marvel
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/09/stephen-colbert.htmlStephen Colbert is a swinger for Marvel
Sep 29 2008
Geoff Boucher
Plenty of television comedy stars have hung with Spider-Man, but Stephen Colbert may be the first to swing with him.
Colbert, the master parodist of Comedy Central, shares an eight-page adventure with the world-famous web-slinger in issue No. 573 of "The Amazing Spider-Man," on sale Oct. 15. The folks at Marvel sent over a page from the story and while I can't quite tell what's going on, it's pretty clear that Colbert actually takes to the rooftops of Manhattan with the arachnid hero.
Colbert and his name have been popping up a lot in Marvel pages lately (perhaps too much, actually), following the January announcement by the company's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada that Colbert's faux campaign for president in our world would be mirrored by a genuine bid for the White House within the Marvel universe. The references have been scattered in different issues (a cameo here, a campaign poster there, some T-shirts, etc.) but nothing quite as dramatic as this.
Marvel has always been open to daffy gimmicks like this -- hey this is the company built by Stan Lee, after all.For instance, 30 years ago, "Saturday Night Live" was all the rage so, in the October 1978 issue of "Marvel Team-Up," Spider-Man met up with John Belushi and six other Not Ready for Prime-Time Players (Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner) for a deliriously cheesy adventure. On the cover, Belushi is in samurai mode, but he looks vaguely like Anne Ramsey from "Throw Momma from the Train."
The "plot" has Peter Parker attending an "SNL" broadcast on the same night the evil Silver Samurai comes looking for a ring of great value that has accidentally ended up in the possession of Belushi (yes, that's right, he's basically Ringo Starr in "Help!").
The best moments in the story: Morris dressed up as Thor and the late Radner wondering to herself at one point, "Hm, what's that noise from Belushi's dressing room?" And I'm guessing that on most Saturday nights on the real set, that was a loaded question...
In 1984, it was David Letterman's turn to rub elbows with heroes in the pages of "The Avengers," and the results were even cheesier, with Al Milgrom's art rendering Letterman as an Alfred E. Neuman look-alike beneath a Gary Hart hair helmet. (I've never been a fan of Milgrom, sorry.) Paul Shaffer wore a Captain America T-shirt and Dave help beat the bad guys with the use of a giant door knob.Has Letterman ever had a lamer career moment? I doubt it.
Oh wait, I forgot "Cabin Boy." Sorry.
It was much more subtle back in the Summer of Love, 1967, when Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon popped in a true classic, "The Amazing Spider-Man" issue No. 50.That book had J. Jonah Jameson on the couch of "The Tonight Show" discussing the apparent disappearance of Spider-Man. It was a fleeting cameo with a totally different purpose; instead of trying to pull celebrities into a comics adventure, it felt like it was pulling the Marvel characters into a real world that added energy to the story arc.
So, of course, classy old Carson doesn't tussle with any villains (that issue, by the way, happened to have the first appearance of the Kingpin), he doesn't swing through the sky with Spidey or even try on the clothes of a Norse god for yucks.
And then there's that gorgeous John Romita Sr. cover, which must have jumped off the newsstand next to so many of the staid DC Comics issues of the day.
I'm just guessing that, no matter what Colbert pulls off next month with the modern web-head, Carson and the 1960s Spidey will still be the ones who age best.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Hits Newsstands
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330424,00.htmlAnnual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Hits Newsstands
Tuesday , February 12, 2008
Bathing suit season has begun. The 2008 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue hit newsstands Tuesday with model Marisa Miller adorning the cover of the annual showcase of the hottest beach bodies.
This year's sexyfest features race car driver Danica Patrick, four athlete's wives, 12 NFL cheerleaders and Will Ferrell and Heidi Klum in a special Semi Pro photo shoot. Also, body painting is back for the 10th year.
Featuring 19 models, the photo shoots took place in Israel and Russia for the first time. Other exotic locations for the steamy spread included the Cayman Islands, St. John, the Virgin Islands and Maui.
On Monday night, a three-story billboard featuring Miller's cover was unveiled to viewers of David Letterman's "Late Show."
It is Miller's seventh appearance in the swimsuit issue.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Leno Writes His Monologue
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aE2JxFhq9SwA&refer=us
Leno, Ignoring Union's Protest, Writes His Monologue
By Andy Fixmer
Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Jay Leno, host of NBC's ``The Tonight Show,'' ignored protests from the Writers Guild of America, to which he belongs, and for a second night performed a monologue on the program that he wrote himself.
The guild said it met with Leno yesterday following his Jan. 2 show reiterating rules issued before the two-month-old strike that forbid members to perform writing duties, even for themselves. NBC said Leno is abiding by union regulations.
The union and Hollywood studios are split over writers' demands to be paid for use of their work on the Web and mobile devices. Since the collective bargaining agreement with the studios and broadcasters expired Oct. 31, the guild can legally issue more restrictive policies, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney at Troy Gould in Los Angeles.
``Can the guild discipline Leno and fine him?,'' Handel said. ``If their interpretation of the rules is correct, then yes, they can. They probably have the right, if they want, to a more severe punishment'' than what is outlined in the bargaining agreement, he said.
WGA spokesman Neal Sacharow said the guild is confident that its meeting with Leno will clear up any misunderstanding about what is and isn't a violation of the strike rules.
``Leno has always been employed as a writer on the show,'' Sacharow said in an interview yesterday. ``He can't perform his own material.''
WGA spokesman Gregg Mitchell declined to comment on whether the union would take any further action with the comedian.
No Outside Help
The guild may have a tough time when it comes to disciplining Leno, who supports the strike. He walked picket lines and paid non-writing staff with his own money when NBC laid off employees after the strike shut down production.
Guild officials ``have to be seen doing something and talking with him is about the most they can do,'' Handel said.
Leno told his Jan. 2 audience that it's OK to write his own material and that he didn't use outside writers to help write any of his jokes. He performed another self-written monologue on last night's program.
``The WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue for `The Tonight Show,''' NBC spokeswoman Tracy St. Pierre said in an e-mail yesterday. ``The WGA is not permitted to implement rules that conflict with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the studios and the WGA.''
Negotiations between the guild and the studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, broke down a second time Dec. 7 and haven't resumed.
`Late Show'
David Letterman, Leno's late-night rival on CBS, reached agreement with the union last week that allows comedy writers to work on his ``Late Show'' and Craig Ferguson's ``Late Late Show,'' which he also owns.
Even without writers, Leno extended his streak of ratings victories over Letterman on Jan. 2. ``The Tonight Show'' averaged 7.2 million viewers, compared with 5.5 million for Letterman's ``Late Show,'' CBS said yesterday, citing data from Nielsen Media Research.
General Electric Co., the parent of NBC, fell 37 cents to $36.43 at 9:54 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. CBS Corp., owner of the most-watched television network, fell 40 cents to $25.49.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net
Leno, Ignoring Union's Protest, Writes His Monologue
By Andy Fixmer
Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Jay Leno, host of NBC's ``The Tonight Show,'' ignored protests from the Writers Guild of America, to which he belongs, and for a second night performed a monologue on the program that he wrote himself.
The guild said it met with Leno yesterday following his Jan. 2 show reiterating rules issued before the two-month-old strike that forbid members to perform writing duties, even for themselves. NBC said Leno is abiding by union regulations.
The union and Hollywood studios are split over writers' demands to be paid for use of their work on the Web and mobile devices. Since the collective bargaining agreement with the studios and broadcasters expired Oct. 31, the guild can legally issue more restrictive policies, said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney at Troy Gould in Los Angeles.
``Can the guild discipline Leno and fine him?,'' Handel said. ``If their interpretation of the rules is correct, then yes, they can. They probably have the right, if they want, to a more severe punishment'' than what is outlined in the bargaining agreement, he said.
WGA spokesman Neal Sacharow said the guild is confident that its meeting with Leno will clear up any misunderstanding about what is and isn't a violation of the strike rules.
``Leno has always been employed as a writer on the show,'' Sacharow said in an interview yesterday. ``He can't perform his own material.''
WGA spokesman Gregg Mitchell declined to comment on whether the union would take any further action with the comedian.
No Outside Help
The guild may have a tough time when it comes to disciplining Leno, who supports the strike. He walked picket lines and paid non-writing staff with his own money when NBC laid off employees after the strike shut down production.
Guild officials ``have to be seen doing something and talking with him is about the most they can do,'' Handel said.
Leno told his Jan. 2 audience that it's OK to write his own material and that he didn't use outside writers to help write any of his jokes. He performed another self-written monologue on last night's program.
``The WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue for `The Tonight Show,''' NBC spokeswoman Tracy St. Pierre said in an e-mail yesterday. ``The WGA is not permitted to implement rules that conflict with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the studios and the WGA.''
Negotiations between the guild and the studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, broke down a second time Dec. 7 and haven't resumed.
`Late Show'
David Letterman, Leno's late-night rival on CBS, reached agreement with the union last week that allows comedy writers to work on his ``Late Show'' and Craig Ferguson's ``Late Late Show,'' which he also owns.
Even without writers, Leno extended his streak of ratings victories over Letterman on Jan. 2. ``The Tonight Show'' averaged 7.2 million viewers, compared with 5.5 million for Letterman's ``Late Show,'' CBS said yesterday, citing data from Nielsen Media Research.
General Electric Co., the parent of NBC, fell 37 cents to $36.43 at 9:54 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. CBS Corp., owner of the most-watched television network, fell 40 cents to $25.49.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net
Monday, December 31, 2007
Letterman And Writers Strike Deal
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802625.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Letterman And Writers Strike Deal, Giving CBS The Edge
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 29, 2007; C01
David Letterman will have some help being funny when his talk show returns to the air next week.
Letterman's production company yesterday became the first to cut a deal with the striking Writers Guild of America, enabling "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" to resume production with their writing staffs.
Letterman's Worldwide Pants, which owns both shows, worked out the agreement just days before late-night talk shows will resume after an eight-week hiatus. The disruption was caused by the writers' strike that has stopped production of dramas, sitcoms and talk shows. Almost all of the talk shows have said they will return Wednesday, but without writers. "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central will return the following Monday, Jan. 7.
The agreement gives huge leverage to Letterman and CBS, which will now have the only late-night shows with material written by professional writers. That will include topical monologues and other bits, such as Letterman's signature top 10 list. Other talk shows are still scrambling to patch together material without writers. Under union strike rules, the shows' staffs can't write anything that the writers would have written.
In addition, Letterman and Ferguson will be the only shows that can regularly attract big-name celebrities without fear of a picket line. Out of solidarity with striking writers, TV and movie actors have been reluctant to appear on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Last Call With Carson Daly," the two talk shows that have gone back on the air. The writers' guild has objected to both. Neither Letterman nor Ferguson have announced guest lineups for their first shows next week.
By creating a separate agreement with Letterman, the writers' union hopes to put pressure on all of the networks to come to a comprehensive settlement. Without writers or famous guests, the other shows will probably lose viewers to Letterman.
"I am grateful to the WGA for granting us this agreement," Letterman said in a statement issued by his company. "We're happy to be going back to work, and particularly pleased to be doing it with our writers. This is not a solution to the strike, which unfortunately continues to disrupt the lives of thousands. But I hope it will be seen as a step in the right direction."
A deal between the union and Letterman, who is a 30-year member of the writers' union, was possible because his company owns the two talk shows. The other talk shows are owned by the networks and the studio conglomerates against which the writers are striking.
A key issue in the dispute is how writers should be compensated when the networks and movie studios distribute films and TV shows over new media, such as the Internet. The WGA called its deal with Worldwide Pants "a comprehensive agreement that addresses the issues important to writers, particularly new media. . . . Today's agreement dramatically illustrates that the Writers Guild wants to put people back to work, and that when a company comes to the table prepared to negotiate seriously, a fair and reasonable deal can be reached quickly."
While CBS continues to hold the digital rights to Letterman's shows, a union representative, Neal Sacharow, said Worldwide Pants will "take full responsibility" for paying writers when CBS makes money from the shows in new-media formats.
The union said that Worldwide Pants "had accepted the very same proposals that the Guild was prepared to present to the media conglomerates when they walked out of negotiations on Dec. 7," adding, "It's time for NBC Universal to step up to the plate and negotiate a company-wide deal that will put Jay Leno, who has supported our cause from the beginning, back on the air with his writers."
Letterman And Writers Strike Deal, Giving CBS The Edge
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 29, 2007; C01
David Letterman will have some help being funny when his talk show returns to the air next week.
Letterman's production company yesterday became the first to cut a deal with the striking Writers Guild of America, enabling "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" to resume production with their writing staffs.
Letterman's Worldwide Pants, which owns both shows, worked out the agreement just days before late-night talk shows will resume after an eight-week hiatus. The disruption was caused by the writers' strike that has stopped production of dramas, sitcoms and talk shows. Almost all of the talk shows have said they will return Wednesday, but without writers. "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central will return the following Monday, Jan. 7.
The agreement gives huge leverage to Letterman and CBS, which will now have the only late-night shows with material written by professional writers. That will include topical monologues and other bits, such as Letterman's signature top 10 list. Other talk shows are still scrambling to patch together material without writers. Under union strike rules, the shows' staffs can't write anything that the writers would have written.
In addition, Letterman and Ferguson will be the only shows that can regularly attract big-name celebrities without fear of a picket line. Out of solidarity with striking writers, TV and movie actors have been reluctant to appear on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Last Call With Carson Daly," the two talk shows that have gone back on the air. The writers' guild has objected to both. Neither Letterman nor Ferguson have announced guest lineups for their first shows next week.
By creating a separate agreement with Letterman, the writers' union hopes to put pressure on all of the networks to come to a comprehensive settlement. Without writers or famous guests, the other shows will probably lose viewers to Letterman.
"I am grateful to the WGA for granting us this agreement," Letterman said in a statement issued by his company. "We're happy to be going back to work, and particularly pleased to be doing it with our writers. This is not a solution to the strike, which unfortunately continues to disrupt the lives of thousands. But I hope it will be seen as a step in the right direction."
A deal between the union and Letterman, who is a 30-year member of the writers' union, was possible because his company owns the two talk shows. The other talk shows are owned by the networks and the studio conglomerates against which the writers are striking.
A key issue in the dispute is how writers should be compensated when the networks and movie studios distribute films and TV shows over new media, such as the Internet. The WGA called its deal with Worldwide Pants "a comprehensive agreement that addresses the issues important to writers, particularly new media. . . . Today's agreement dramatically illustrates that the Writers Guild wants to put people back to work, and that when a company comes to the table prepared to negotiate seriously, a fair and reasonable deal can be reached quickly."
While CBS continues to hold the digital rights to Letterman's shows, a union representative, Neal Sacharow, said Worldwide Pants will "take full responsibility" for paying writers when CBS makes money from the shows in new-media formats.
The union said that Worldwide Pants "had accepted the very same proposals that the Guild was prepared to present to the media conglomerates when they walked out of negotiations on Dec. 7," adding, "It's time for NBC Universal to step up to the plate and negotiate a company-wide deal that will put Jay Leno, who has supported our cause from the beginning, back on the air with his writers."
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Carson Daly About to Defy Writers Strike
Carson Daly, Entertainment Douchebag of the Month
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8T6F7HO0&show_article=1
Carson Daly About to Defy Writers Strike
Nov 28, 2007
By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - NBC's "Last Call with Carson Daly" is about to become the first late- night talk show to defy the writers strike and resume production.
Daly, who is not a member of the Writers Guild, will begin taping new episodes of his Burbank-based show this week for airing next week, an NBC spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
The half-hour "Last Call" airs at 1:35 a.m. EST weeknights, but whether Daly's first new episode would air next Monday or Tuesday was initially unclear. No guests were disclosed.
"The Writers Guild of America, East joins our colleagues of the Writers Guild of America, West in expressing our profound disappointment with Carson Daly's decision to return to work," the guild said in a statement that also commended other late-night talk show hosts for showing solidarity with their writers. "We thank them and hope that Mr. Daly will reconsider his decision, including the soliciting of scab writers to provide material for his program."
Daly is not the first talk-show host to go back into production. Ellen DeGeneres, who is a member of the union, has continued taping her daytime syndicated talk show after shutting down the first day of the strike. But "Last Call" becomes the first to break ranks among the late-night shows, which all had chosen to air repeats rather than tape new shows without their striking writers.
It was unclear what effect, if any, the return of "Last Call" would have on other late-night talk shows, which include NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Comedy Central's late-night news-and- commentary spoofs, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" with Stephen Colbert, have also been in reruns.
There was no immediate word on when any of those shows might follow suit and return with new episodes.
On Monday, contract talks with the studios resumed for the first time since movie and TV writers went on strike Nov. 5. The Writers Guild is seeking more money for material distributed over the Internet and cell phones.
___
NBC is owned by General Electric Co.
___
On the Net:
http://www.nbc.com/
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8T6F7HO0&show_article=1
Carson Daly About to Defy Writers Strike
Nov 28, 2007
By FRAZIER MOORE
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - NBC's "Last Call with Carson Daly" is about to become the first late- night talk show to defy the writers strike and resume production.
Daly, who is not a member of the Writers Guild, will begin taping new episodes of his Burbank-based show this week for airing next week, an NBC spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
The half-hour "Last Call" airs at 1:35 a.m. EST weeknights, but whether Daly's first new episode would air next Monday or Tuesday was initially unclear. No guests were disclosed.
"The Writers Guild of America, East joins our colleagues of the Writers Guild of America, West in expressing our profound disappointment with Carson Daly's decision to return to work," the guild said in a statement that also commended other late-night talk show hosts for showing solidarity with their writers. "We thank them and hope that Mr. Daly will reconsider his decision, including the soliciting of scab writers to provide material for his program."
Daly is not the first talk-show host to go back into production. Ellen DeGeneres, who is a member of the union, has continued taping her daytime syndicated talk show after shutting down the first day of the strike. But "Last Call" becomes the first to break ranks among the late-night shows, which all had chosen to air repeats rather than tape new shows without their striking writers.
It was unclear what effect, if any, the return of "Last Call" would have on other late-night talk shows, which include NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Comedy Central's late-night news-and- commentary spoofs, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" with Stephen Colbert, have also been in reruns.
There was no immediate word on when any of those shows might follow suit and return with new episodes.
On Monday, contract talks with the studios resumed for the first time since movie and TV writers went on strike Nov. 5. The Writers Guild is seeking more money for material distributed over the Internet and cell phones.
___
NBC is owned by General Electric Co.
___
On the Net:
http://www.nbc.com/
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