The War for Late Night_ When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy - Bill Carter [190]
In the negotiating sessions early that week, Ron Meyer gently pressed both sides to find a way to split the difference in their financial demands, with little movement so far.
NBCʹs executives continued to lay the intransigence at the feet of Gavin Polone, whom they privately labeled a terrorist—even though the terrorist never stopped assuring NBC that if they would only change their minds, Conan was still ready to be their signature late-night star—bygones be bygones.
Jeff Gaspin, who had so long tried to fight for his plan and find a way for Conan to stay, could hardly believe that even Polone could have that much chutzpah. After orchestrating a battering of NBC and Jeff Zucker in the press, he was expecting the network to fall back in love with his client?
Perhaps sensing the need to soften some of the outside rhetoric in order to get something accomplished, several of the participants on the Conan side urged Polone to back off on the press assault. He didn’t think he should stop, he told them, but given the internal difference of opinion, early that week he lifted a few toes off the gas pedal.
Throughout the commotion Jay Leno maintained some personal distance from Conan and his travails. He made some jokes about the situation, mostly about NBC. He took note of all the incoming jokes about him, but he maintained, at least outwardly, his mantra that, in the comic world, anything was OK “as long as it’s funny.”
Kimmel’s show-long impression got special notice, of course—Jay could hardly have missed it. He had not once called Kimmel since their little romantic dance when ABC was wooing Jay. But the morning after the parody, when Kimmel settled into his writers’ meeting, the first comment was: “Hey, how long until Jay calls?”
At that precise moment, his assistant told him Jay was on the phone.
“Oh, fuck,” Kimmel said.
“Oh, yeah, saw the show last night,” Jay told Jimmy when he got on the line. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s funny. Hey, it’s in the news.ʹ ”
“I’m glad you thought it was funny,” Jimmy said. “I was hoping you’d think it was funny.”
They talked a bit about Conan. Jay said he didn’t understand why he wouldn’t go on at 12:05. He didn’t express any real emotion about it—just surprise. Jay also repeated his own position that he had agreed to take the half-hour gig to protect his staff.
Kimmel didn’t find that explanation especially credible. Like many others, he had concluded Jay wanted to keep working on television, no matter what, simple as that. But he did believe Jay was probably being honest about his surprise at Conan’s refusal to accept the later start time. Kimmel didn’t really disagree with Jay on that point, figuring that Conan should have taken the 12:05 spot and ridden the folk-hero status for all he could.
“Yeah, he should have done it, because how much longer are you going to do it anyway, Jay?” Kimmel asked.
“I don’t know,” Jay said. “Maybe I’ll do it another three or four years. But I don’t see myself doing it after that.”
Jay also suggested that Jimmy come over to NBC and appear on the show, a suggestion Kimmel did not take seriously until some time after they hung up and Jay’s booking department called. They wanted him to do a “10 at 10” spot with Jay. Leno would be in his studio; Jimmy could stay in his own.
Kimmel realized at once he had to do it. He believed in television moments, and this would surely be a television moment. If nothing else, it would be fun to poke Jay a bit over this.
Jay was not doing much poking of his own—at least not directly at Conan. He did a mild joke the night after the letter, noting that Conan was, understandably, very upset. “He had a statement in the paper. Conan said NBC had only given him seven months to make his show work. When I heard that I said, ‘Seven months? How’d he get that deal? We only got four!’ Who’s his agent? Get that guy!”
But amid all the punch lines flying across the networks in late night that