Like most of America that was still awake I took the time to watch Jay Leno’s almost-gone 10 o’clock show, like I’ve often done as a precursor to nodding off since its inception oh those many months ago.
After the monologue and before we got our daily dose of sometimes amusing headlines, Leno took a short moment to reflect on the late night talk show events from his perspective. No doubt it was intended to be an “I’m a good guy, trust me” moment that would counter much of the anti-Leno press (which, honestly, should have been anti-Zucker press had anyone reporting it had the balls to go against the NBU President/Tyrant).
The problem, aside from the obvious lack of eye contact with anything other than a teleprompter or cards – who knows which outside the audience – positioned well below the camera’s eye came deep in the explanation. As Leno ran down a laundry list of responses he’d made to NBC management’s prodding, starting four years ago with the force-out designed to ascend and keep from fleeing Conan O’Brien, what stood out came so far into the candid account that it quite possibly went overlooked by most.
When asked if he would retake The Tonight Show slot, Leno simply said his response was “Yes, of course.”
To us this response is flawed. No asking what was next for Conan, no concern over what the network might be doing to him, not even a reminder to management how long it took his show to get off the ground (most don’t remember that it took two full years for Leno to secure the viewership that would keep him on top). He even went so far as to suggest that Conan’s summer start meant he had all the positioning he needed to gain market share while all the competition was running reruns. Ironically, he didn’t mention there were several more highly competitive choices than during his start.
Surprisingly, any questions viewers might have had regarding Leno’s sincerity in all this were answered by him personally last night.
He’s a competitor, and he truly doesn’t care who he crushes despite already having had the greatest job in late night television. As for Conan, in this situation nice guys don’t finish last: in fact, they aren’t allowed an opportunity to finish at all.
Hopefully he can overlook his own respect for the history of The Tonight Show and develop something that’ll be regarded the same why The Tonight Show once was.