The War for Late Night_ When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy - Bill Carter [174]
Ross’s first call was from Lloyd Braun. “I can’t believe it!” Braun all but shouted. “They did it to you guys! Exactly what you were afraid of out at Riviera. I was sure they could never do this!”
All Ross could say in reply was that he wished to hell he’d been wrong—but he wasn’t.
Conan came in a short time later and sat with Ross. The two men didn’t speak much, but after a while looked at each other and both said a version of the same thing: “Looks like we gotta get outta here. It’s over.” They discussed again the absence of any kind of carrot being offered to make this pill go down any easier.
Ross left a short time later for a lunch with Jeff Gaspin at the Grill, the de rigueur meeting spot for business lunches on the Universal lot, for what amounted to a horse-out-of-the-barn back-channel effort. Gaspin arrived with apologies for how rushed the meeting had been the day before. He conceded that spending fifteen minutes trying to lay out this plan had been inadequate, but explained that the best intentions to present the idea in a formal and complete way had gone awry when the story leaked. He acknowledged that he knew this was a very big deal and needed serious consideration on the Conan side.
Ross tried to convey the impact a move like this had on a talent like Conan—NBC was in effect publicly demoting him—Gaspin attempted to relate it to his own experience, decribing how he had been passed over twice for the top entertainment job at NBC but had hung in there, kept doing his job, waiting for another opportunity.
“I cannot believe you would make that analogy,” Ross said. “That’s not a valid analogy. You didn’t get demoted.” He didn’t add the obvious: You aren’t a television star, either.
And when Gaspin repeated that he didn’t want to make a Sophie’s choice between Jay and Conan, Ross got a bit exasperated. “Stop with the Sophie’s choice,” he said. “You did make a choice.”
But it was always in Ross’s nature to remain levelheaded and reasonable, and Gaspin believed in the same approach. They talked more calmly about whether Conan might come around and accept the idea. Ross said he wasn’t sure; he had never seen him so upset.
As he left, Gaspin saw no reason to panic about where Conan was in this process. He was unhappy, but that didn’t mean he would not ultimately agree to the proposal. Besides, Zucker was already reporting that Conan’s top agent would work to bring him around.
Conan was not surprised that he had not had any word from Leno. That Friday he said to Ross and his head writer, Mike Sweeney, “I’m not gonna hear from that guy. I’ll probably never hear from him again.”
Conan had, however, spoken with Jimmy Fallon. Conan called him in the midst of the madness on Thursday just to urge him, “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you should be calm.” Jimmy mentioned that Jay had called earlier to take his temperature, which only hardened Conan’s conviction that Leno would not phone him. Jay could commiserate with Jimmy, because Jimmy was new, and it was all “Whatever, gang; peace and love toward everybody.”
Friday was at least a better day in one respect. The show got a handle on how to be funny about all this. “We’ve got a great show for you tonight—I have no idea when it will air, but it’s gonna be a great show,” Conan pronounced at the top. He went on, “NBC has finally come up with an exciting idea—they want me to follow Jay Leno.” And: “When I got in today there was a 1923 Duesenberg parked in my spot.” Getting laughs on the subject that was obsessing him left Conan feeling he had his sea legs under him again.
While he focused on the show, his team—which, besides his agents and manager, now included his transactional lawyer, Leigh Brecheen—invaded the Tonight conference room to work on their options. Gavin Polone took to calling it the war room. From the first