Jay Leno's days are numbered. Despite the Tonight Show host's ratings success and continued enthusiasm for late-night comedy, the top-rated funnyman will be shown the door in mid-2009. As part of a deal hammered out four years ago, the Tonight Show baton will be passed to Late Night host Conan O'Brien.
Anticipating a storm of late night-related questions at the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles on Monday, execs from General Electric-owned NBC allowed a thinly disguised--bald and bearded--Leno to pose as a reporter and grill NBC Entertainment Co-Chairmen Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff.
When is Leno's final show? May 29, 2009.
Will he be paid for the rest of the year? Of course.
And more: Do you think people like him better as a mechanic than a talk-show host? Will you give him a fifth hour on the Today show? What if Jay changes his mind?
The gag, explained Silverman, was designed to show the roomful of skeptical journalists that despite industry rumblings and a recent USA Today quote from Leno about being "definitely done" with NBC, the network and its top-rated late night host continue to have a good relationship.
But one of the skeptics in the room refused to let it end there: "That was all very much fun and nice," the real reporter said, "but what's going to happen later on ... when Leno goes on to ABC and kicks Conan's [butt]?"
Sticking to the party line that the discussions with Leno are ongoing, both executives say they're not resigned to losing him to Walt Disney-owned ABC, or any other network.
"We can't force him to do something," explains Graboff of Leno's next move. "We've presented him with a number of opportunities we think will be great, that hopefully he'll come to think are great."
Silverman concurs: "We're looking for a way to let him remain a part of the family," he says.
Following the panel, Silverman compared the highly criticized move to the Johnny Carson/Leno transition in 1992. Though many in both the public and press believed David Letterman was the more deserving and capable successor at the time, Leno received the coveted Tonight Show position. In hindsight, the network executive points out to the gaggle of reporters standing before him, Leno has proved the more successful choice.
With his usual confidence, Silverman urges his audience to give the decision time, too: "We've ridden these waters before," he says, "and I don’t think you can ever devalue what the Tonight Show is worth."
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