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He went on to endorse Conan for still beating Dave in the demo. “Personally, I think Conan is doing fine,” Jay said.

When the piece ran, no one really paid attention to anything but Leno’s assurance that, yes, he would take 11:35 back if offered. Jay and NBC’s PR department both later complained about the interview, insisting that Grossman had hounded Jay with the question over and over until he reluctantly answered it. While Grossman did acknowledge having asked it three or four times in different ways, he explained that Jay was always matter-of-fact in the interview, never pissed off by any of the questions, certainly in no way contentious. And, Grossman pointed out, no one at NBC disputed that Jay had said precisely those words.

Jay swore he meant to send no signal with the comment. But a signal was received all the same.

Conan OʹBrien read the interview—and the widespread coverage it received—and could only shake his head. The line didn’t worry or intimidate him but made him reflect on how different he was from Jay. In the same situation, Conan was convinced he would never have said anything like that. He didn’t hear from Leno about it and simply decided to go about his business.

A short while later, though, Jay’s remark came up again during an interview Andy Richter gave to the online magazine TV Squad. Andy generally had pleasant things to say about Jay in the interview until that business about taking 11:35 back came up. “That was a weird answer,” Richter said. “Because nobody actually asked him if it was offered, the question was just sort of like, ‘Would you like to be back on?’ And he was the one who went on to say, ‘If they asked me, would I take it?’ That’s certainly not the classy answer to that question. The classy answer is, ‘Oh, well, that’s a silly question to ask, because somebody already has that job.ʹ That’s what you say if you’re classy.”

Richter’s comment attracted none of the attention that Jay’s had—except from Jay himself. Displeased at being called “unclassy,” he called Rick Ludwin to complain. Ludwin took the issue up with Jeff Ross, to see if Andy would call Jay to work it out. Richter hardly relished a chat with Jay on this particular subject, but Jeff Ross asked so he complied. Richter called Jay, who, as always, made an effort to be lighthearted and pleasant. Andy explained that he had said what he did because the job was important to him, and that Jay’s remarks about going back to 11:35 made it seem his job was being threatened. Jay took it equably and told Andy it had been a good idea to call and work things like this out.

Andy agreed and then, turning Jay’s observation around, asked him if he had called Conan to clear up his intentions in the B&C interview. Jay indicated he had spoken to Conan to smooth things over.

Richter, of course, checked in with Conan almost the moment he got off the phone. Conan had still received not a single call from Jay since the start of the ten p.m. show. Jay’s attempt at deflection didn’t really surprise Conan; people on the spot often said things like that. But not to realize Andy would immediately run the conversation by him? How does that happen, Conan wondered.

When Debbie Vickers heard later that the Conan side had taken offense at Jay’s “I’d take it” comment, she had her first small moment of disappointment with the Tonight Show team. To blow that comment up into some kind of sign indicating that Jay was trying to push Conan out seemed to her to be the showbiz equivalent of rabbit ears in baseball: paranoid ears. She believed she knew Jay as thoroughly as any other human being could, and she did not detect a manipulative motive in what he he had said in the interview. If she had perceived he was engaging in any kind of Machiavellian maneuver, she would not have backed it for a second.

In the wake of the interview a cold front began to descend midway on the 134 freeway between Burbank and Universal City.

On Jeff Gaspin’s plate, 11:35 remained an untouched side dish. The ten p.m. problem