The War for Late Night_ When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy - Bill Carter [102]
For almost two hours Conan, Ross, Mike Sweeney, and some of the other writers sat around Ross’s office parsing the decision out, trying to discern what it really meant for them, until Conan’s assistant buzzed with some news: Jay Leno was on the line.
Jay did everything he could to be gracious, saying all the right things. “Are you all right with this, Conan?” he asked. “Is this good for you?”
Conan returned the graciousness; he knew it was the right thing to do. Jay ended the call by saying he was sure they’d be seeing each other down the road.
Even after he put down the phone, Conan could not get past the uneasiness he was feeling. But what were his options? Quit and go to ABC himself? Or Fox? On what basis? He had a contract, and NBC had not taken The Tonight Show away from him.
That realization calmed him a bit, and he told himself that something had changed for NBC, but nothing had substantially changed for him. Finally he asked Jeff Ross, “In this scenario, am I still hosting that show that Johnny Carson had that I watched with my father in my living room in Brookline, Massachusetts?”
“Yes, you are,” Ross said, looking for the right message.
“Then, I’m good,” Conan replied.
In the remaining weeks before he closed shop on his Late Night show, OʹBrien offered several explanations of his feelings about how it all went down with Jay and the whole ten o’clock plan. Mostly, he was at pains to say how much he preferred this outcome, with Jay not driven from the home he loved.
“I had always hoped that something could be worked out where Jay could stay, because it’s just a better scenario for all of us—just on a human level. On a human level I’m not comfortable with people being unhappy. It’s not in my makeup.” Conan never wanted to “walk into some restaurant and have to avoid anybody.”
He said that he liked Jay and that Jay was doing “a great job.” It was important, he said, that no matter what happened, he could always “feel like I didn’t say anything or do anything to get The Tonight Show that I couldn’t happily tell anybody about. And Jay knows that; I’ve always had great rapport with Jay.”
If the ten o’clock solution still left him with an uneasy feeling, he wasn’t expressing it publicly. “Of all the alternatives in the universe, this one does honestly work the best for me,” Conan said. “I’ve known Jay for a long time, and we’ve been friends. I was not going to be comfortable in some Hatfields-McCoys situation. I don’t think Jay would be comfortable in that situation. So life is short and I’m getting to host The Tonight Show, and the fact that Jay Leno and I can still be friends is the best resolution for me.”
O’Brien acknowledged the competitive environment would be different, but that was OK too. “I think a lot of it is up to me. If I do a good, funny, and fresh Tonight Show every night at 11:35, I think that’s going to be successful, and I think it’s going to be irrelevant what everybody else is doing.”
That was not a prediction, however. “Anyone who sits back and tells you exactly how this is going to play out is crazy.”
On February 20, Conan O’Brien said farewell to Late Night after sixteen years and 2,725 shows.
The emotion was all-consuming. Andy Richter returned to a warm embrace from the fans—and the host. Will Ferrell, who had been probably the signature guest on the show, the ideal match of emerging talent