Free Newsletter Subscription
        BNC All Access

Leno’s Last Night on Tonight Show May 29

Conan O’Brien to take over NBC late-night show June 1.

By B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/21/2008 12:53:00 PM

NBC announced that Jay Leno’s last night as host of The Tonight Show will be May 29, 2009, and Conan O’Brien will step into the big chair the following Monday, June 1.

And despite the conventional wisdom that Jay Leno will leave the network and possibly take his late-night career to ABC or elsewhere, NBC co-chief Marc Graboff said the company is still pursuing some way to keep Leno in the fold.

“We’re not going to concede that at this point,” Graboff said of Leno leaving.

He added that when Leno was quoted as saying he was “done with NBC” by USA Today, “I think he will tell you he was taken out of context a little bit.”

Graboff said O’Brien’s last show in his current 12:35 a.m. role will be sometime in the first quarter of next year, but the exact date has not been set.

But O'Brien will not be completely out of sight during the six-month transition between his Late Night sign-off and his presumptive Tonight Show debut when O'Brien and his staff make the transition from New York to Los Angeles. NBC will spend considerably to promote him.

"We may do something like Conan criss-crossing America," NBC entertainment co-chair Ben Silverman said. "So there will be other ways that Conan will be very present and in the consciousness of the public."

When asked if it might be counterproductive to run reruns of the Jay Leno-hosted Tonight Show between May and September, Silverman said the network was looking at a number of options, including running reruns of O'Brien's Late Night at 11:30 p.m.

"We're looking at everything and evaluating everything," he added.

And while the Tonight Show succession plan was completed before he got to NBC Universal, Silverman said the network has lived through what looked like questionable decisions in the past.

"They lived through Johnny [Carson] stepping down and letting [David] Letterman go," he added. "They lived through [losing] Katie Couric. Every time everyone thought they were making the wrong choice -- I would just say analyze it all in full circle. We've ridden these waters before."

Parodying Jimmy Kimmel's appearance at the ABC executive session here last week, NBC convinced Leno to show up and pepper his own executives with late-night questions. He was in disguise with his famous mane of hair covered with a bald prosthetic and a press-on handlebar mustache, asking, "When is Leno's final show? Will he be paid for the rest of the year? What about Brett Favre's retirement/unretirement? What if Jay changes his mind?"

"Everyone's entitled to change their mind, but I imagine that puts management in an impossible situation," Silverman said with a smile.

Graboff indentified March or April as the probable starting time for Jimmy Fallon’s late-night replacement for O’Brien. Fallon will launch his new project online with nightly segments prior to starting on the network.

Talkback
Related Content

No related content found.

Also by BCST Staff

Most Popular Pages
    No Top Articles
Newbay Business Information Resource Center

Featured Company


Most Recent Resources

Advertisement
More Content
  • Blogs
  • Photos
  • Podcasts

Marisa Guthrie

BC Beat

Marisa Guthrie
December 18, 2009
Westin: “Way Too Early to Speculate” on Koppel and ‘This Week’
Now that George Stephanopoulos is ensconced on the Good Morning America couch,...
More

Alex Weprin

BC Beat

Alex Weprin
December 18, 2009
A Classic ‘Seinfeld’ Episode Comes To Life
One of the all time great episodes of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld was “The...
More

Free Streaming panel_Grossman_Graboff_Rosenblum_Tellem_Wells_vertical

Free Streaming: Killing or Saving the Television Business

Photos from the B&C/Multichannel News panel discussion and networking breakfast held Nov. 17, 2009, at the Academy Television Arts & Sciences. (Photos by credit: Craig T. Mathew/Mathew Imaging)
Bell Blue

The Schmooze: B&C Hall of Fame Class of 2009

Members of the 2009 B&C Hall of Fame class receive their honors at the Waldorf-Astoria, Oct. 20, 2009.
ZuckerComcast

The Schmooze: 2009 B&C Hall of Fame

Photos from the 19th annual Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame gala at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, Oct. 20, 2009.



Advertisement
About Us   |   Advertising Info   |   Submissions   |   Site Map   |   Contact Us   |   Affiliate Links   |   RSS
© 2011 NewBay Media, LLC. 28 East 28th Street, 12th floor, New York, NY 10016 T (212) 378-0400 F (212) 378-0470
Use of this website is subject to its Terms of Use | Privacy Policy