The War for Late Night_ When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy - Bill Carter [141]
In place of Silverman’s flash and sizzle, Zucker opted for competence and solidity. Rather than picking anyone new, he simply added to the duties he had already piled on to one of his longest-serving lieutenants, Jeff Gaspin. No other executive at NBC possessed a more successful portfolio than Gaspin, who was in charge of NBC’s entertainment cable channels, like USA, Bravo, Syfy, and Oxygen, which generated by far the largest share of NBC’s earnings.
No one at NBC would ever mistake Gaspin for Ben Silverman; he did not, for example, throw parties accompanied by models in bikinis and white tigers in cages. Even though he had once worked at MTV Networks, running programming for the VH1 channel (where he introduced signature concepts like Behind the Music and Pop-Up Videos), Gaspin personally exuded conventionality more than dynamism.
But his results were invariably impressive—so much so that Gaspin believed he had deserved the job running NBC Entertainment on both previous occasions when Zucker had hired someone else (first Kevin Reilly, then Silverman). Gaspin’s low-key demeanor and somewhat awkward manner held him back at times. He did not always make a strong first impression. But his apparent diffidence masked consuming ambition and drive, a match for anyone else’s at NBC, or the rest of the TV business, for that matter.
Gaspin looked far younger than forty-eight; of medium height, he was thin but fit, with boyish features and shortish, carefully composed dark hair. His face and hairline had seemed unchanged for so long that some colleagues joked that he must have a nasty self-portrait hanging somewhere.
For the most part, Gaspin got high marks from those under him for his leadership skills. It was true that some noted a shifty quality to his narrow eyes and tight smile, and even some of his body language, which they thought suggested he was always calculating his next move or next word. But in interviews he fired straight and without apparent guile or pretense.
He did seem to have a bit of a jones for the glamour side of the television business, though. One NBC colleague said, “Gaspin coveted the NBC job because it’s a high-profile job and it seemed like he wanted to have the town recognize him as a macher. He seemed to always resent that cable was considered a nice little business but never got the same press attention or attention in Hollywood. It always made him crazy.”
Gaspin arrived at NBC Entertainment on July 27, 2009. By then the fall schedule was in place, of course, and he didn’t hesitate to cite the highest priority for the network: “All attention is going to be on Jay.” All through the months since Zucker had set in motion his ten p.m. plan for Leno, Gaspin had been busy with his cable responsibilities and had paid little attention to the new show, other than to be impressed that Zucker had found a way to keep both his late-night stars again. Now that the Jay-at-ten issue was on his own plate, Gaspin had the general conviction that it represented a perfectly reasonable attempt to try something new.
As for what might happen if it didn’t work, Gaspin simply avoided discussing the subject. In his mind he knew what moves he might make if Jay’s show simply cratered, but he kept them to himself. When he analyzed the possibilities for Jay, Gaspin focused on the upside. The financial part could work with a really minimal rating; it certainly seemed like a more creative solution than trying to slam five more dramas on the air when the rest of NBCʹs schedule was bloodied and bowed.
At the same time, Gaspin did not spend much time worrying about the condition of Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show. As July came to a close, the pattern seemed to be holding, with Letterman winning almost every night in terms of total viewers and Conan