The 2010 Tonight Show conflict was a media and public relations conflict involving the American television network NBC and two of its late-night talk show hosts, Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno, over the timeslot and hosting duties of the long-running franchise The Tonight Show.
Leno was the host of The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2009, then from 2010 to 2014. He and O'Brien, host of Late Night from 1993 to 2009, were strong ratings leaders for NBC for much of the decade. In 2001, when O'Brien's contract neared its end and he was courted by other networks, NBC agreed to extend his contract and eventually make him the fifth host of The Tonight Show. NBC neglected to tell Leno about this arrangement until 2004, when they informed him that O'Brien would take over as host in five years. When that time arrived, in 2009, NBC tried to keep both of its late-night stars by offering Leno a nightly primetime show before the local news and O'Brien's Tonight Show.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and The Jay Leno Show did not immediately receive strong ratings, and NBC affiliates complained of declining viewership. NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, alongside NBC chairman Jeff Gaspin and executive Rick Ludwin, created a ‘remedy’: return Leno to his 11:35 p.m. ET start time and bump O'Brien a half-hour later, to 12:05 a.m. ET. O'Brien and his staff were disappointed and furious; when it became clear O'Brien would not agree to the proposed changes, the situation grew heated. Though not a breach of either host's contract, the change resulted in a public outcry and public demonstrations largely in support of O'Brien.
O'Brien's public statement that he would not participate in the "destruction" of The Tonight Show led to negotiations with NBC for a settlement. O'Brien and his staff received (equivalent to about $ million in ) to walk away from the network, with his final Tonight Show airing January 22, 2010; Leno was reinstated as host that March, while after a contractual seven-month ban against appearing on television, O'Brien moved to TBS to host Conan. Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show from 2010 until his retirement in 2014. The controversy surrounding the scheduling move and the reinstatement of Leno was described by media outlets as "embarrassing" and a "public relations disaster" for NBC.
Background
On May 25, 1991, Johnny Carson, host of NBC's The Tonight Show for nearly thirty years, announced his retirement and exited the program a year later. NBC signed Jay Leno, Carson's "exclusive guest host", to become the program's fourth host upon Carson's departure. Carson clearly held the view that the position should be given to David Letterman, host of his own program, Late Night, which had directly followed Carson's Tonight Show for ten years. NBC tried to appease both stars, but Letterman left NBC in a very public conflict that resulted in the creation of his own competing show, the Late Show with David Letterman, which debuted on CBS in 1993. Letterman's show regularly won in the Nielsen ratings against Leno for two years, proving that another late-night program could compete, both in ratings and advertising profits, with The Tonight Show.
Leno's Tonight Show started rocky; prior to Letterman's move, NBC considered matching CBS's offer to allow Letterman to take over from Leno. Letterman beat Leno for nearly two years until August 1995, when Leno welcomed Hugh Grant, who had recently been arrested for soliciting a sex worker, to a previously booked appearance on Tonight. From that point on, Leno beat Letterman in the ratings, and The Tonight Show remained number one for the next fourteen years (the remainder of Leno's entire first stint as host).
NBC chose to continue the Late Night franchise, and at the suggestion of Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, hired Conan O'Brien, a relatively unknown writer for SNL and The Simpsons, to take over the time slot beginning in late 1993. Late Night with Conan O'Brien was constantly at risk for cancellation in its early years; at one low point in 1994, NBC put O'Brien on a three-month contract. Executives were anxious to replace him with Greg Kinnear, who followed O'Brien with Later at 1:30 am, but Kinnear left to pursue a career in acting later on. Interns filled empty seats in O'Brien's audience while affiliates began to inquire about replacement hosts. Things improved for Late Night slowly (mostly revolving around O'Brien's performance) and by 1996, O'Brien's audience, largely young and male (a coveted demographic), grew steadily and the show began to beat competitors in the ratings, which it would continue to do for fifteen years.
A notable episode of O'Brien's tenure on Late Night came in early 1994 when Letterman asked to appear as a guest and say some kind words to him. O'Brien considered this the turning point of his entire career, which he mentioned while paying tribute to Letterman in an opening monologue of his own talk show on TBS, which aired the same night as Letterman's final show; O'Brien notably asked his viewers to turn him off and watch Letterman later on in the monologue.
Early history Contract renewals (2001–2004) Near the turn of the millennium, NBC's late-night lineup—Leno at 11:35, O'Brien at 12:35, and SNL on the weekend—remained a leader in the ratings. By 2001, O'Brien's contract at NBC had less than a year left to run, and despite O'Brien arguably "coming into his own" in the preceding years, the network was reluctant to pay him on the same scale as other late-night hosts. That year, competing network Fox mounted an "extended, comprehensive campaign" to lure O'Brien away from NBC, citing his appeal from a younger late night demographic. News Corporation chairman and CEO Peter Chernin pursued O'Brien personally, taking him and executive producer Jeff Ross to dinner on several occasions. Fox's plan involved making O'Brien the network's signature star: his program would begin thirty minutes before Leno's and Letterman's (the network's local news broadcasts aired earlier than other networks, allowing the head start) and he would receive cross-promotion via its animated programming block and on Sunday NFL games. Chernin also offered the host seven times his current pay (a jump from US$3 million to US$21 million). Ross, friends with NBC president and CEO Jeff Zucker, informed him that Fox was aggressively pursuing O'Brien; NBC returned with a more realistic offer, bumping up O'Brien's salary to US$8 million and renewing him through 2005.
While many of O'Brien's professional advisors and managers pushed for the Fox deal, O'Brien's desire to possibly take over The Tonight Show after Leno made it a difficult decision (O'Brien, like many comedians, had grown up idolizing Carson's incarnation). Numerous NBC executives, including president Bob Wright, were optimistic that O'Brien would stay despite other networks being interested in signing him. Chernin warned O'Brien that waiting around for Leno to leave would be destructive to his late-night television career. Nevertheless, O'Brien signed a new deal with NBC in March 2002; the contract extended him through 2005 and most significantly contained a clause that solidified the official line of succession: If anything were to happen to Leno, O'Brien would step in. O'Brien's successful hosting job at the 2002 54th Primetime Emmy Awards "sent out the most resounding message yet about his growing strength as a performer", and a year later, NBC broadcast O'Brien's tenth anniversary special in primetime. By the time Leno's contract again came up for renewal, a discussion would be needed regarding the future of The Tonight Show. Facing the prospect of attempting to keep both Leno and O'Brien, Zucker made the final call on Leno's deal, deciding that this contract extension would be Leno's final. The plan would extend Leno four additional years, after which he would give The Tonight Show to O'Brien.
In February 2004, NBC executive Marc Graboff informed Ross of the conversations, and he in turn ran the idea of waiting four more years to O'Brien, who was immediately receptive. Zucker, along with top late-night executive Rick Ludwin, met with Leno in March at his Burbank studio to discuss the contract extension, and explained NBC's stance on handing over the show to O'Brien. While Leno quietly felt both disappointed and befuddled, he noted he did not want to see himself and O'Brien go through the same dilemma he and Letterman faced twelve years earlier and agreed to the plans. His only request was that NBC wait to announce O'Brien as host until well after the extension was signed, to which the executives agreed. While Leno handled the news professionally to the relief of Zucker, he soon headed to Tonight Show producer Debbie Vickers' office to let her know he felt as if he had just been fired. NBC's announcement of the renewal inevitably led to press speculation on O'Brien's fate; to that end, O'Brien and his team went with the charade, peppering interviews with unclear, vague statements on his future.
On September 27, 2004, O'Brien officially signed on to become the next host of The Tonight Show; NBC allowed the first comment aside from the press release to come from Leno on that night's show. Leno compared The Tonight Show to a dynasty, stating, "You hold it, and then you hand it off to the next person. And I don't want to see all the fighting and all the 'Who's better?' and nasty things back and forth in the press. So right now, here it is—Conan, it's yours! See you in five years, buddy!"
Losing Leno (2005–2008)
In private conversations, Leno likened his removal from The Tonight Show to the end of a relationship, noting that he was loyal and still ended up "heartbroken". From his perspective, NBC's decision made no sense, as his show had remained number one in ratings and consistently brought in money. He began frequently lamenting his confusion to producer Vickers, explaining that he was "sick of lying" when people inquired on his retirement. Eventually, Leno began mulling over his options after Tonight, telling his staff that after the transition, they could move to another network like ABC (whose Disney lot was not far from their then-current Burbank studio). His frustration with the situation came across in his nightly monologues, as more jokes regarding NBC's fourth-place position in the ratings, as well as jokes regarding the future transition, began to appear. While NBC executives tended not to worry in the immediate years following the decision, by 2007 Zucker began to ponder what losing Leno might mean for the network. Around this time, Fox and ABC began conveying interest and holding discreet conversations with Leno.