The War for Late Night_ When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy - Bill Carter [160]
By the time he arrived at his office at Universal early the next morning, Monday, January 4, Jeff Gaspin had already made up his mind about what was going to happen. Quietly, over the holidays, Gaspin had on his own sketched out his new ten p.m. schedule and was satisfied that the results would represent an immediate and significant improvement over Jay Leno’s faltering performance. Gaspin knew that Jeff Zucker had a plan to fly in to LA later that week with the two top dogs from Comcast, Brian Roberts and Steve Burke, intending to show them around the West Coast entertainment operation. The time to act was now. Gaspin put in a call to Zucker first thing that morning. “I don’t want to wait until the end of the week,” Gaspin told him. “I want to start the ball rolling. I want to go talk to Jay. Give Jay a week. Then I’ll go talk to Conan.”
In thinking through how he would present the change to the two stars, Gaspin had factored in his expectation of how each side would handle the news. It made sense for all sorts of reasons to tell Jay Leno and Debbie Vickers first, but especially because Gaspin believed he could trust them—they would not leak the plan. It would not be in their interest anyway, given that Jay’s ten p.m. show was being canceled. They also seemed to have levelheaded representation who would not want to squeal to the press the first chance they got about NBC’s unfairness or lack of commitment. That would not be the case with Conan’s team, Gaspin feared. He took for granted that any indication he gave them of his intentions would be planted somewhere online the same day. Beyond that, Gaspin presumed that had he made the seemingly sensible move to start up a back-channel connection with Ari Emanuel or Rick Rosen (whom Gaspin liked) or Gavin Polone (whom he didn’t know at all), they would have lost no time in shopping Conan to a competitor, looking to spring him from NBC.
Besides all that, Gaspin had to have evidence that Jay would go for this fallback position—a return to 11:35 in a half-hour format—before rocking Conan’s world with the news that he was being herded off to 12:05. If Jay said no way, the whole plan would implode. So Gaspin’s first thought was: Get Jay squared away early in the week; go talk to Conan on Friday; let him have the weekend to process it.
Then he had a second thought: The press tour sessions with NBC were set for Sunday. This would be Gaspin’s first time sitting in front of a room of journalists answering questions as the leader of NBC Entertainment. He wanted to make the best possible impression. If Conan learned his fate on Friday, somebody on his team—probably Polone—would spin it out in the press to try to gain leverage. Then the entire Sunday news conference would be about the ten p.m. and late-night plan instead of the wider NBC story.
Gaspin made up his mind to hold off on telling Conan until the following Monday. If all went well, everything with Jay would be settled by then, and Conan’s options would be clear—and stark.
Though on a much smaller scale than in royal France, Jeff Zucker had his own Cardinal Richelieu, a behind-the-scenes éminence grise, a confidant he trusted completely, even with a closely held secret like the news of the coming changes at ten and in late night. Those closest to Zucker knew well that Dick Ebersol had filled the role of minister without formal portfolio throughout Jeff’s career, but it was surprising that some inside NBC, including members of Conan OʹBrienʹs camp, were not fully aware of the significance of Ebersol’s unofficial but powerful position as the most influential adviser to the throne.
As 2010 rolled in that January, Dick Ebersol was deep into his preparations for the Vancouver Olympics, but he always had time to kick around other issues pressing NBC’s tottering empire. Jeff Zucker opened up to him after he had signed off on Gaspin’s plan of action—and Ebersol immediately tried to talk him