‘The Tonight Show’ Lays Off 20 Staffers And Host Jay Leno Takes Pay Cut To Save Jobs
Related: Tonight Show Cuts Latest In Wave Of NBC Layoffs & Cost Trims Imposed By Comcast
SATURDAY UPDATE: Jay Leno’s spokesman has now issued this statement: ”Jay’s foremost concern is for the wonderful people who work for The Tonight Show. He did what was necessary to ensure their well-being.”
BREAKING… EXCLUSIVE… FRIDAY 8:30 PM: NBC insiders tell me The Tonight Show went through ”downsizing” today 
and that 20 staffers lost their jobs. Others tell me the number is more like 25, and producers were forced to take pay cuts or lose their jobs. I’ve also learned that Jay Leno took what is being described as a “tremendous” pay cut to “save as many people’s jobs as he could”. Leno’s Tonight Show is consistently the #1 late night talk show in both households and demographics, except for some anomalies when Leno does get beaten. And that’s despite the fact 
that the network’s primetime ratings have been dismal for many years or that Leno himself was harshly criticized by the media for that January 2010 standoff with Conan O’Brien. Even so, The Tonight Show has been and still is a cash cow for NBC. So what happened to merit the downsizing? “I don’t think ad sales are off. I just think the people who bought this company, Comcast, wants to go through everything at NBC and get their money back,” an NBC insider tells me. ”It’s hard to go through those kinds of cuts. It’s more a network issue than a late-night issue. And I would say that Jay doesn’t get credit for digging out of a gigantic hole every single night. He’s a very valuable guy to NBC and someday everyone will understand that. He does a great job.”
Related: Gabby Douglas & Michelle Obama Give ‘Tonight Show’ A Bump
The downsizing also comes just 5 days after First Lady Michelle Obama appeared as a guest for the third time on The Tonight Show: high unemployment, job creation, and taxing the rich vs the poor all are issues in the 2012 president campaign. Leno has said publicly that he’s able to bank his entire Tonight Show salary and live on the hefty fees he makes from his hectic personal appearance schedule. Leno’s new salary is reportedly $27M-$30 million a year. He reportedly brings home another $15M-$20M a year from his other gigs.
Leno replaced Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show in 1992 after having been a regular substitute host since 1987. He “officially” ended hosting of The Tonight Show in 2009 when Conan O’Brien started on June 1st. Leno was going to be paid for all of 2009 by NBC even though he was only working six months of it. When his ratings dipped, O’Brien was asked to move The Tonight Show‘s time slot later to make room for Leno’s return at 11:30 PM. O’Brien refused. NBC gave Conan a $40M payoff (including salaries for his staff) to leave The Tonight Show hosting job which Leno resumed in 2010.
Related: Gabby Douglas & Michelle Obama Give ‘Tonight Show’ A Bump
Jay Leno Celebrates 20th Anniversary Hosting ‘The Tonight Show’
Jimmy Kimmel Bests Leno & Letterman
Comcast is definitely leaving their mark… doesn’t seem like that great of a sale now does it?
If they downsize any more, Leno will be doing the show from one of his cars.
There’s about 27 milion folks out there that like to able to take a pay cut like Leno’s.
Leno has been selling his cars too… the gravy train is coming to an end…
i used to love watching Jay, But now, it`s just another NBC Obama “lap dog” contest.Jay`s onliners about the Bush`s and Clintons were hillarious.I don`t know why he cant joke about Obama, but I quit watching about 2 years ago.
It would be considered racist. Besides, GE and NBC are lapdogs of 0bama. GE CEO Immelt is on 0bamas jobs council even though GE has been outsourcing jobs to China the past 6 years.
No No Bob say it ain’t so. I do believe we have been told that only Romney outsourced jobs overseas. You mean Obama lets his buddies do the same???
GE has been outsourcing jobs to India and China for way more than six years. I personally worked for GE Lunar Bone Density – Womens Healthcare. In 2001, they gutted the division moved manufactoring to India, outsourced the customer service to India fired about 50% of the work force in Madison, WI. With those moves management pushed net profit to 44%. Within a year that cut salaries to the sales staff by 25%. This is what they do and they do it well. If you don’t like it they fire you. If your in the bottom 20% of the sales force they fire you. Mgt found out that a salesman sometimes rode a motocycle to/from sales calls. They fired him. I saw one of the top salesman fall into the bottom 20% ranking..his wife was dying of cancer and he was her main caregiver and didn’t hit his quota. They fired him. The culture at GE is…..different!
Have you seen pictures of the GE plant in China? It’s massive! It’s just a hair smaller than the Boeing plant being built there. We drove past the two when visiting the FoxComm plant that builds parts for us. Our driver said the GM plant being built was even larger. We’re in Asia (Not China) and when we relocated three years ago we were one of twenty some American businesses… We are now one of hundred thirty American businesses and it’s just one small port city. And who outsources jobs? GM, Boeing, GE, IBM… Ask someone from Pittsburgh in the late 70′s early 80′s about steel and China. No one believed that the “Super Steel Mill” being built in China would EVER replace American steel mills. Now good luck finding one in Pittsburgh.
Here’s the thing though … and I am not in favor of businesses moving things overseas, but as long as we have ridiculous unions (pay and pensions, etc.) over-regulation, and such, it doesn’t make good business sense for companies NOT to go to cheaper markets. If we cut union power, reduce corporate taxes, reduce federal regulation, then we will see businesses cease to go elsewhere. It will also require America re-establishing itself as a global leader. Also, when places like China begin evolving along the capitalist timeline, their people will start demanding better pay and conditions, which will raise costs. That, and we need to work on our trade arrangements with China. My point is, it isn’t just “evil companies”, but also the environments they function in.
Amen brother, though CBS at the same time is 100X worse with the banal-gap-tooth clown formerly known as funny. Is it really that hard to realize that appx. 50% of the country sees things a bit differently than the dems in Hollywood. There’s only so much calling people that vote with their brains racist one can take before throwing your hands up in disgust at the state of our political maturity…And these are the people that I am supposed to entrust with my healthcare decisions? Riiiiight…! Interesting that this apparently is the only venue where making money is relegated to second fiddle behind proselytizing the “progressive/regressive” Obama agenda….and these are the brilliant anointed ones that are supposed to make important decisions for me so I don’t choose incorrectly. I’ll pass.,
I am sure it was Gabby Douglass that bump ratings as everyone fell in love with her. Michelle makes me turn the TV off!
I quit listening to Letterman 4-5 years aho and Leno within the last two years for the same reasons. Both are lapdogs to the Marxist Obama and I am just sick of their spins, lies, insults, and selective ;acl of coverage of anyone who disagrees with their propaganda to destroy capitalism and Christianity while promoting socialism, Islam, atheists, and homosexuality.
Leno is probably the least political person on television today. What are you talking about?
Leno’s show is not a politicians perch, it’s entertainment and if it goes under we’ll have shows far more stupid than I suspect we can even imagine.
I stopped watching too. And many others I know have complained how bad the sound is, meaning, the volume when Jay speaks is inconsistant. High, low, high; gotta keep TV on high all the time to hear the guy. What has NBC done to correct this? Nothing. Guess the old folks either turn up or tuned out too.
Call you cable company.. If you have satellite…there’s your reason…
We “old” folks use NBCs closed captions. That should be “close” captioning. Even with scripted shows the spelling is so bad it on many occasion will completely skew the story. Whats really great is when they cut to commercials(since captions lag) you have no idea what the ending statement is.
It’s called propaganda, people. Mainstream media outlets are simply the outlets used to reach the most people. Most people have gotten wise, and don’t watch them anymore. No viewers = no one paying to promote their made in China crap and GMO food = no money.
Jokes would be better if you did not have to listen to the laugh shill. I’d rather listen to the recorded laugh. Ricky should stick with music!!
I have watched the tonight show since I was a teenager. Wouldn’t go to bed until after I watched the monologue. I was just a religious about watching Leno’s monologue as Carson’s. I don’t hink he’s a lapdog, but Leno cannot help but make constant jokes about Romney and the “rich” Republicans (as if Leno isn’t rich. He does jokes about Obama, too, but like every other talk show host, its always lopsided for Democrats and against Republicns. I got tired of his constant jabs about Romney. After forty years, I just got tired of listening to the one-sidedness.
Me too! It gets old after a while. I hate that I feel that way because I’ve watched the TS forever as well.
DITTO!!!!!!!!!
Am I the only one that thinks that there is a not a drop of creativity, imagination, decency or talent on television these days?
Same shows…different name! Same shows…gotta have that sexy angle and boobs!
Same shows…how many killings and violence can we squeeze in?
Why don’t these fat money makers look back in television history and see what DID work? And what people really did enjoy watching!
I tuned out of the network late nighters years ago with their cheapshot “jokes” against the GOP, but to my surprise discovered a sharply funny talk show since—Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld on Fox News (midnight on the west coast).
Gutfeld, with sidekicks Andy Levy and even liberal Bill Schultz, plus guest panelists, are extremely gifted in wit and perspectives.
You hit the nail on the head.
The Tonight Show died when Johnny left
I concur! He’s so predicable! When he comes on, I turn him off….
Leno’s downsizing is amusing, but not very funny to those that have lost their jobs. I was laid off in June.
Leno is a REPUBLICAN you moron.
uh…Jay and his wife are NOT Republicans…they are liberal democrats. that is why when a Republican is on Jay GRILLS the hell out of them while heaping praise on any Democrat he has on his show.
Jay has always been a Liberal.
True. Why is it so hard for people to grasp that concept??
Jay used to be funny. What happened? All these pee pee, poo poo, and reproductive organ jokes , who are they aimed at? It makes people laugh because it makes them laugh from being embarrassed, not because they are funny. Too bad. His stand ups used to be hilarious . Good bye lot a real great era of humor . Selah.
I quit watching as well. I don’t like the pro Obama spin. Shame on Jay for making the tonight show political.
Me too! He needs to bring on some interesting guests instead of the stale ones, like in the picture on Drudge. People are sick of that bunch.
Viewers just aren’t watching variety shows in great numbers anymore as they did back in johnny Carson’s time. And even Johnny saw his ratings fall off during the last dozen years of his thirty year late night reign.
So Leno (and Letterman too) need to read the handwriting on the wall.
Which is to say Leno wont actually be “doing his show from his cars”. But most likely he’ll be selling [used] cars for a living. If not, he’ll likely end up living in a car.
Yeah. Poor Jay.He’s only worth about 100 million. How could he possibly survive ?
I grew up watching Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Dave Letterman’s day time and later his night time show and Leno. All of them were good or great in their early to mid years. I recall Steve and later Dave sticking to a huge board as a human marshmallow and either Steve or Johnny in a large bowl with lettuce and a wrestler as part of a tossed salad skit. They went outside or sent others outside as part of skits: recall Lettermen and Sanjul and Mulljabar (sic)? Although I seldom watch Leno, I hear that he still goes out onto the street and interviews people. For the most part though, they are sit down comics and interviewers. I miss the old days and wish Johnny and Steve were still around. Dave takes so much time off, the probability of seeing a re-run is very high and annoys the heck out of me. Dave, I enjoy you the most but if you can’t work at least 3 wks a month, retire and give someone else a chance.
Used to love “Larry Bud Melman” on Letterman’s show!
THEN I’d watch the show! Good Idea!!
With hundreds of channels on cable, and dozens of entertainment channels and outlets (including the Internet), it’s just a different era from the days of Johnny Carson.
Just as people can now get their news from multiple sources, or have a more enjoyable experience watching a movie from home on a big screen TV, they don’t need the old, lame format of an actor sitting down for an “interview” to plug their latest film. They’ve already seen the actor say the same thing on six other shows/websites earlier in the day.
One of my favorite things to watch on my TV is my DVD’s of the best of Johnny Carson and the Tonite Show. Still great entertainment with actors and personalities I know and recognize promoting movies that were enjoyable. Most of the time these days I listen to the list of “guests” and say, “Who?”
If heaven is truly heavenly, I know Carson is still working there. Oh, yeah, and Elvis, too, right?
I don’t know anyone that watches Leno anymore. Nobody I know even watches TV much. 200 stations of abject boredom. If I didn’t have a recording device to cut through the ten minutes of commercials for three minutes of a golf tournament my TV set would just use netflix. It may be the end of TV as we know it when advertisers understand they are just throwing money down a rat hole.
Naw, he will do the show from his hog. A no brainer. Ha
I had to go through orientation at my new job and they were doing some silly demonstration about what makes a good company, and the instructor asked, “Can anybody give me an example?”
And I said Comcast and the entire room burst out laughing. Then it got quiet. Then everyone cracked up again. Even the instructor.
Comcast really is a terrible, awful corporation.
Oh, I mean “Xfinity”.
I think Comcast is an excellent company. Unfortunately they are excellent in every way that’s bad for consumers. As soon as they make an acquisition, they immediately jack the rates up to pay for it. They ruthlessly cut their own costs. I had a friend once who worked for two different places that Comcast bought. Both times ended in him losing his job.
Cable rates go up faster than inflation because Comcast has to pay for all these things.
Finally they’ve gotten big enough to gain some scrutiny, but not until after they rebuilt a distribution network with a substantial investment in the content being distributed, just the thing that forced the studios to sell off their theatre chains decades ago.
Could be worse.
You could have Bright House, where you pay a small fortune and STILL don’t have any “premium” channels.
Those will cost you your OTHER arm and leg!
Yep, Comcast sucks. They have a monopoly (Satellite doesn’t come close) and pricing power to match ($9.99 for a movie download in some cases, otherwise $6.99). A perfect example of a predatory corporation. Kept in power by political bagholders.
As far as NBC and Tonight is concerned, I couldn’t care less.
NBC are mindless.
The stock has been doing good, pays a decent dividend too.
it is all good , private enterprise doing what it takes to make a profit and act like a responsonal caretaker of there stock holders investment. Why they do not support the same type of a goverment that would act that way with there stockholders ( the American Taxpayer)
1. Government isn’t a business. People who say it should be run like one don’t understand its function, that of a business, or both.
2. The stockholders shouldn’t always come first. There are once-great companies that bent over backward to their stockholders, doing everything they could to inflate their share price while gutting the actual business that made them great companies in the first place. Doing nothing but focusing on the share price is like doing nothing but making sure your hair looks good when your house is burning down.
Looks like Leno is courting Michelle for some Bail Out money….
Leno has been kissing Michelle for some time now. He has always done that to Obama. He just drools when he talks to or about them. I used to listen at least to his monologue but that has deteriorated greatly. That stupid acting, drooling, gay guy was just too much for me to take also.
..and how many times was Mrs. Bush on? How soon we forget… And Michele has done more for kids in this country then the last 5 first moms…. Deal with it.
1.When he has guests like Michelle obama, he loses 3/4 ‘s of hie audience right there on the spot.
2.And when his self employed viewers are working 2 and 3 jobs to make ends meet, they really need to go to bed.
3. The country is in such financial and cultural straits, it’s a little difficult to list to someone poking fun about whatever.
4. I’d rather be on the internet reading the truth about what’s going on.
5.I do think leno is a good guy to have cut his salary for the sake of other’s jobs.
I could not agree more with you. Leno is a good guy but of late the common sense has gone by way of California…not too much there.
You’re an idiot, ratings actually go up when a member of the first family appears (same was true for both Bush and Obama). Go spout your right-wing garbage elsewhere.
Then why was Monday night’s show with The First Lady Leno’s highest rated show since the super bowl? Go back to Tuesday’s post on this site.
In answer to Jason S….reason for “highest rated show”=Gabby !
Wrong, ratings went way up the night she was on genius!
EVERYONE MAKES TOO MUCH MONEY FOR THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT. ERGO, COMCAST SAYS TAKE A CUT OR HIT THE ROAD.
Except for Comcast’s “product,” apparently.
Couldn’t happen to more deserving guy and his liberal leaning staff. Let’s hope some of his commie writers got the ax too.
I have watched the Tonight Show since it Carson…but no more…all the jokes and downright lies that Leno spews is always directed to the right politically. I stopped watching his show years ago…he is such a complete hypocrite and ass-kisser.
I hope Leno and Letterman go under…
“Leno’s salary is $30 Million” and he took a pay cut? Good Lord, what was his salary before his pay cut?
IT never did seem like a good idea.
Big sacrifice, huh ? These late night guys have been stale for years, especiall Conan and Letterman.
If I EVER had the chance to make $30-million in one year, you would never see me again.
I think it is funny the Leno took a tremendous pay cut and still makes 27 30 million. His show is never fresh and to me is the fast food version of comedy.
I am sure he could have cut to 20 million a year and saved ALL the jobs.
If you don’t like it or you don’t like Leno, don’t watch it. This IS still America.
This is America, and I have the right to say I don’t like him.
Hey Tresad, in case you haven’t noticed THAT is the whole point…
We DON’T like him (nor the other lib-tainted clowns) and we AREN’T watching…
Hey loser, his salary was $27-30 million BEFORE the pay cut.
@Mike_D… He made 27 to 30 million BEFORE the pay cut. And so what if he makes 30 million. That’s for doing 250 shows per year! That’s only 120,000 per episode. Charlie Sheen made 1.8 million per show. And each of the Modern Family cast members makes over a million per epiosde. The entire cast of Friends made over a million per episode. Leno works for cheap.
—————–
“I think it is funny the Leno took a tremendous pay cut and still makes 27 30 million. His show is never fresh and to me is the fast food version of comedy. I am sure he could have cut to 20 million a year and saved ALL the jobs.”
NBC stands for Nothing But Crap.
The only thing I EVER watch on NBC is Jay Leno’s monologue and then it’s good nite!
Same for me and that I’d about to end. Why do they have the laugh shill making all that noise after a punch line? I wish Minor would just stick to his music. I think we know when to laugh, we don’t need Ricky Minor to help us!!
The secret I want to know is what the hell does Jay need all that money in the bank for? Is he ever going to stop working and go build schools in Africa? Or start a space program?
The bank is probably insolvent due to credit default swaps and he’s going to die on stage somewhere.
What I want to know is:
The government gave you all those bridges, highways, public schools and public libraries to use free of charge,
Why are you not as rich as Leno?
welcome to the wonderful world of comcast ..comcast owns the philadelphia flyers , the owner ed snider is an arrogant old creep whose team hasnt won spit since the 70′s ….he just tried to fleece a great player from another team for 100 million dollars and failed and now he’s a hawk in trying to screw the players out of hundreds of millions …and supports a lockout ..screw comcast
Sounds like not many people are looking at Jay or not much of anything but sports lately.
It all went to hell when Johnnie died!
This may make sense if Johnny Carson hadn’t died 10 years after he retired…
I stopped watching Leno 2 years ago after his comedy and interviewing became way too biased to stomach and I’m an independent. I thought I would miss watching him but I’m shocked how little I do. I highly recommend anyone out there who is sick of this bias in media to do the same. These celebs need to learn there is s price to pay for mixing blatant politicking and entertainment. Performers years ago knew that and rarely broke the rule but today’s celebs seem to have thrown that out the window but need a reminder.
Remember the Smothers Brothers when they were tops in Varity shows and they became political and shortly disappeared from view. Leno should take a lesson from that.
I agree about the media…Boo Hiss!!!
Jay Leno is just a liberal like all the rest of the night shows happy to say when he or the other jerk comes on I turn to T M Z may be stupid but screw him and his liberal crew
Its free enterprise!! Maybe if the comedians would change their “talk” away from political digs, it would bring back the audiences and improve ad sales?? Hmmmm what a concept.. I have sworn off these lib shows and now pic other forms of tv viewing on late nite tv.
The MSM is losing viewiers daily mainly due to the fact that NBC are living in the shadow of MSNBC. What goes around, comes around.
They reap what they sow, and aren’t smart enough to know. Keep digging your hole deeper, NBC.
Sorry some people are losing jobs and all but I have not watched (and will not watch) one single episode of that show since the whole Conan debacle. Time to retire, Chin–from The Tonight Show at least. You f’kd up.
Jay wasn’t the one that screwed up with the whole Conan debacle. It was TPTB at NBC. I knew it was a disaster waiting to happen when they announced that change would be coming.
Exactly! Jay Leno handled it quietly and with class. NBC bumbled that whole affair.
Conan is funny…in his weird sort of way. However, he is better for Late Night than the Tonight Show. His comedy is at its best when it is off color which is inappropriate and unattractive for a broad audience.
Leno has a broader appeal…especially to middle America. There is a reason why Leno has been #1 for TWO DECADES. The reasons are exactly why Liberal Hollywood elites don’t like him.
Letterman is just an angry and bitter old cynic. Letterman reminds me of Bill Maher, but with just a little more public tolerance than the Maher.
One thing that I will say: Leno needs to take a few nights off every now and then (to stay fresh). Carson did this for years…and is the reason that Leno became so well known (by substituting for Carson). He needs to groom younger comedians.
Who knows? He may eventually groom a successor.
Apparently, you’ve never seen the movie “All About Eve.”
you are not too wise huh? he got his job back and is doing great every night and he messed up? i pity the haters out there..just don’t leave useless drivel for us to have to read. and by the way, i am still a letterman fan, but i think jay is better up til the guests come out now…dave needs to get out of the studio and do some fun schtick.
Why would Dave need or want to leave the studio more? David Letterman had his own intern molestation room built right in?
Where was the liberal outrage on that one.
Conan sucked. He had many years to get it right as a late night B grade show, he never did. He failed just as baddly when he reached the major leagues. Surprise, surprise.
Hopefully
Of course the irony is he turned around and did the same thing to Lopez. Biggest hypocrite in the biz.
Lopez himself persuaded Conan to do it (Conan, of course, didn’t want to do to Lopez what had been done, or proposed, to him). Also, I think I’ve previously read that Lopez looked at it as a last-ditch effort to save his show, which was already on the ropes.
Well that is certainly the spin from Conan’s camp trying to hide his hypocrisy. Fact is no way Lopez wanted to give up that slot. He was clearly told to play the good soldier or face cancellation.
True.
However, Conan was seen as the good cop and Jay Leno as the bad cop. George Lopez was just the man caught in the middle and he had no choice but to move to midnight. This all started because NBC wanted to move an institution, in this case, “The Tonight Show,” to 12:05 AM in order to keep Jay Leno. Meanwhile TBS wanted their own late night show/block and George Lopez was moved because he could be propped up by Conan’s ratings. All this happened because Jay Leno wanted a job with NBC and it got to the point that Conan had to make the hardest decision of his life to avoid seeing NBC basically f**k up another move. Most people went to bed with Carson, Jack Parr, Conan, and Leno for decades.
except lopez show was a failure and lopez is not funny and has never been funny ever period
Lopez has a certain demographics he appeals to and he puts himslf in that box by pandering to only “his demographics” he is not very good at expanding his base
No, the irony is that George Lopez, a year or two before he started his own talk show, publicly berated Leno for sucking as a talk show host. Then Lopez launched his failure of a talk show and showed the world who really sucked as a talk show host.
Yeah. He lost the “hopeless weirdo typing from his mom’s basement” demographic. Time for Jay to pack up, and move into one of his air hangar sized car museums.
Such a shame he couldn’t charm you back to the show.
You should clean the pizza boxes out from under your bed, and celebrate.
So being number one is screwing up, eh?
Jay lost me and millions when he took his opinions and show too far to the left. From his bubble it may look like that is where the country is… it’s not.
You confusing one bore with another bore (Letterman).
I actually did not watch much of Conan. Way too weird for me. David Letterman is being too childish also. It is hard for someone to gain a must see reputation like Johnny Carson but Leno does have some class. Today when reruns of Johnny Carson are shown I can say I remember seeing that. I feel that Jay has been an overall good choice and has demonstrated a long lasting reputation.
conan….it that you ?
Wholeheartedly agree will not watch him
I can’t stand Conan. He’s just not funny. But I don’t watch any late night comics anymore anyway. I like Jimmy Kimmel, b/c he is funny and he makes fun of all politicians, not just Republicans…
The Jay Leno v. Conan O’Brien debacle was a PR stunt to cover NBC brass making a HUGE mistake in scheduling. Conan lost to David Letterman, not Leno. With Leno appearing earlier, people could watch both Leno on NBC, and Letterman afterward on CBS. O’Brien failed to hold viewers. NBC local affiliates complained they lost viewers this way, hurting their late night ratings. Stop blaming Leno!
The Jay Leno vs Conan O’Brien debacle was not a PR stunt. NBC wanted Conan to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 AM. Also, it was Jay Leno who lost viewers at 10 PM and not Conan. CBS and ABC offered quality drama at 10 PM and viewers flocked to that stuff instead of NBC. This hurt NBC’s local affiliates and Conan while helping David Letterman and CBS’s local affiliates.
Never did like Conan or Letterman – Leno is a story teller and funny. Letterman laughs at his own stuff and spends too much time mugging into the camera. O’brien is just not funny with his silly running, spinning etc!
Hope Leno outlives me!
Maybe you missed the memo, but under Conan the ratings tanked – and tanked huge. Amazingly, Leno came back and the ratings went back up.
Now Conan has his show on TBS – and guess what, the ratings suck and they are tanking again. Nobody watches that dude – he’s not entertaining.
Conan’s ratings tanked because they were affected by NBC scheduling Jay Leno at 10 PM instead of dramas. This hurt the affiliates and hurt Conan. As for Conan’s TBS show, the ratings are fine.
Wake up, Jessy. Conan was on for three months of bad ratings before 10pm Leno even debuted. And he butted heads with execs. Read Bill Carter’s book.
Zucker is to blame for the mess with Leno and Conan. He wanted it both ways and was afraid to let one of them go.
Oh no! Now the show will be 20% less funnier.
Twenty per cent of zero is still zero.
And the bloggers will be 20% less intelligent… Oh, wait… thats right – zero!!
There is nothing funny on the Tonight Show. It not worth losing sleep over.
Leno is the best thing on NBC. Give everyone a raise.
Talk about damning with faint praise!
Just calling ‘em like I see ‘em!
Nicely done Todd.
If only they had a president to make jokes about. Those Bush jokes are getting a bit stale. Too bad there is a law prohibiting criticism of Obama. Or is that just an NBCrule?
That’s like being the best-looking victim in the burn ward.
What do you mean…a raise?? He makes $20 – $30 million a year on that show, not to mension his speaking engagments. He doesn’t need a raise.
MSNBC and NBC are again just one company with two different names. Even blue screen Microsoft was embarrassed to be associated with them anymore.
Both CNN and MSNBC/NBC have a reputation of hunting out the money making shows on their networks and killing them.
That is what you get when you have Liberal losers controlling the networks, the executives all hate winners, Conan excepted of course. They tried to keep him around, but Conan was a loser who thought he was a winner, kind of like the male, basement dweller demographic that liked his kind of humor.
Don’t see how Leno f’kd up. The dirty little secret that keeps getting overlooked was that Conan was terrible on the “Tonight” show. It wasn’t until he was canned that he unleashed the real Conan. Too bad he didn’t bring it from the beginning.
He was only on for 5 minutes !!
And that was 3 minutes to long. Lopez well he was 4 minutes to long.
It took Leno about three years to build a core audience after Carson’s departure. NBC gave Conan 7 months.
Besides, Conan did what he should’ve done: made the Tonight Show his own, and worked on building a younger audience for the years to come. Once Leno retires (if he does), the next host will have the same average ratings as Conan did.
Say what you want about Conan’s ratings — Leno is not funny. He relies on the stupidity of people (“Jaywalking”), the work of others (he very often steals jokes from other comedians) and the ancient sense of humour of his 78 years-old viewers, and in the process, took the greatest franchise in television’s history and dumbed it down.
The Tonight Show ended its run on January 22, 2010. Ever since that day, The Jay Leno Show took its time slot.
Conan irreparably damaged The Tonight Show. No one has seen him since. He defiantly appeals to a niche audience and unlike Dave when he got to CBS, made no effort to appeal wider.
Jay had a core audience before Carson even retired. He was a hugely popular guest host. His format took two years to gel but he dominated from the beginning and after Dave was no longer a new show on CBS, Jay dominated again for over a decade.
This is pointless to keep discussing. Everyone got what they deserved. Jay got his time slot back like any show that is moved from its original slot, falters and then returns home. Conan got oblivion.
Indeed. Conan got so flipped out over being judged for what he was actually worth, when he got another show, he actually hired back Andy Richter. Another guy who couldn’t deliver the goods when the spotlight was on him exclusively.
Conan is not funny, but he at least can talk. Andy Richter is worthless. How did that idiot ever get hired to be on TV? Richter is a putz. You average school custodian would be a better TV presence than Andy Richter. What a disaster!
Conan needs to get rid of Andy Richter. He’s destroying his act. He was much funnier without him.
Hey Lars…no one has seen Conan since the Tonight Show? Do you get out much? Have cable maybe? He has a show at 11pm 5 nights a week on TBS. Hardly oblivion. What’s your time slot?
Here is the flaw in your statement: “It took Leno about three years to build a core audience after Carson’s departure. NBC gave Conan 7 months.”
No, Conan had 16 YEARS to get ready. His New York late night show was supposed to be his practice run. He built his staff and his systems for 16 YEARS. Jay went form being an occasional guest host to getting the full time job. He had to build from scratch.
I don’t like either shows, but I am tired of hearing that Conan got a raw deal.
And Jay did something classy today. Give credit when due.
Conan didn’t have 16 years to build a Tonight Show audience. He had the 12:30 spot, which has low ratings no matter who’s there and you can’t count on even that small number to carry the Tonight Show. You also have to consider that we live in a time where its harder to get a new, young audience to watch broadcast tv at a specific time instead of watching Youtube videos and looking at funny pictures all evening.
Conan dreamed of being the host of Tonight and it was promised to him, even by Jay…on air. That’s why Jay got hammered for accepting NBCs offer to put him back despite supposedly being this great guy. He should have walked away into the sunset because that’s what he said he would do.
What Jay did is cool but its not like he can’t afford it. The man makes 30 million a year.
The Tonight Show wasn’t promised to Conan until 2004 at the earliest. At that time, NBC wanted to create a built-in successor to Jay Leno so they “talked” Jay into retiring from the show and give it to Conan O’Brien. The problem was that Jay didn’t want to retire from the show so they gave him a show at 10 PM. When that didn’t work, Jay was offered the 11:35 PM time slot and Conan given The Tonight Show at 12:05 AM. You might as well call it The Midnight Show for what it is worth and Conan decided to leave instead of giving into NBC.
Of course, Conan had a 16-year practice run at 12:35. Letterman didn’t even need 16 years to do well at 11:30. Dave’s reviews for the 11:35 show were great from the beginning. He raised his game. Conan has always been a (ahem) acquired taste.
What the Leno apologists always ignore is the way that Leno hung around in the hallway after Conan took over, always saying, “You know, I’d take the show back if they gave it to me.”
*That’s* what people are ticked off about. Leno undermined Conan completely, and acted like a d-bag.
That said, he was a pretty good guy today.
Say what you want about Leno but Conan is not funny. In fact it’s painfully unfunny. The show is written like everyone was stoned. Outside of his loyal blind audience, who will like anything he shovels out, his wider appeal is nil.
Yeah, Leno dumbed down the Tonight show. Masturbating bear anyone!
Ad sales are down, comcast is gutting the crew to make the show profitiable. All they really have to do is exploit the target rich comedic environment that is the Obama Administration and people on the right will start watching. Late night TV has completely alienated itself with the most influential demographic out there. If they’d stop carrying the water for the left viewership would increase 10 fold and comcast would have a hit. When you look back at Johnny Carson he leveled everybody, nobody got a pass, and in the process his show didn’t alienate anyone, and in the process the show enjoyed much success.
Here is the way it goes….
Liberal belief:
ok for Leno to make 20 – 30 a year — Good for him, he deserves it. He works hard and his show provides a hundred more or less jobs
Comcast CEO making the same amount a year — Greedy filthy rich, robbing the poor and doesn’t deserve getting paid that much. Should have to pay 75% taxes. Never mind that comast employs 100,00 employess nationwide with only about 10% union workers
That’s bad though….
I liked Conan but he did have a certain niche appeal. Same with Letterman who’s ratings are steadily declining as he becomes little more than a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. Leno is at least a moderate with liberal writers.
“the ancient sense of humour of his 78 years-old viewers”?? Maybe I’m just not old enough (only 62), but Jay is no longer funny because he has forgotten his older viewers! In trying to be so hip and cool and trendy, he now does nothing but sex jokes, “jackass” humor, MTV style bits, and left-leaning political humor, which he apparently feels will bring in that key demographic that is supposed to spend all the money these days. Wake up, Jay! Those people are all out of work and have nothing to spend with your sponsors! Try getting back to the things that got you this job in the first place! Today, Johnny would be ashamed of you.
I disagree with you, 78 year olds don’t watch Leno, most go to bed at 9 and wake up at 5!!
What a load of crap! Leno, although boring and unfunny IMO, was #1 from almost the beginning. And in his entire run, he’s been #1 almost the ENTIRE time. He bores me, but let’s keep it real.
“It took Leno about three years to build a core audience after Carson’s departure. NBC gave Conan 7 months.”
He couldn’t “bring it from the beginning” Zucker and all the other higher ups (which by the way were the first to go when Comcast took over) wouldn’t let him. They told him he needed to be more broad and attract a different audience but when you already have a reputation and a following that just doesn’t work. He can’t change who he is and still make it amazing. I for one, loved Conan’s Tonight show but if I had a choice of the “Broad” Conan on TTS and the real Conan on ‘CONAN’ I would obviously choose the latter.
Despite what happened with Conan… Anyone who takes a huge pay cut so as many of his staff as possible can keep their jobs is a good man.
Great guy, but not funny. At all.
Not funny to you; don’t assume to speak for the rest of the world.
Not funny? You just don’t appreciate his dry humor.
Jay’s a great guy. I don’t think he’s funny at all but people watch him because they LIKE him.
Comcast is doing the chop chop at NBC right now. Soon, it’ll be MSNBC.
In my opinion, Leno would be funnier if he fired his entire writing staff. Without fail, the funniest things on his show are things little moments of stupidity that come from real life: Jay Walking (real people being dumb), Headlines (real headlines that are unintentionally funny), and the times when he goes into real people’s houses and gets them to do funny stuff.
And, without fail, ALL of the staff-written and staff-produced skits are awful, uneven, and lame.
Advise to Leno: Fire most of the staff, and take one day a week that you normally spend on the road doing stand-up gigs, and use that to produce more “real people” stuff. That’s what you’re good at, and that’s the funniest thing on your show.
Who do you think writes the leading Jay-Walking questions?
WHAT?? He’s still making 27-30 million!! That’s a lot of jobs if he had taken a real pay cut and were making, say 10 -012 million instead.
He had no choice but to keep as many people on the payroll as possible. Of course he agreed to a pay cut. The man does NOT write a thing. His writers do all the work, write all the jokes, write for all the guests who go on the streets, write all his material when he goes JayWalking, etc. His ratings would tank instantly. He knows that. Leno reads from a teleprompter. Duh
Jay wrote his own material when the writers joined in the strike. He IS his own person.
If you don’t know jack about how a talk show is made, don’t comment like you do.
He makes 27-30 million still a year for a 1 hr show. What kind of a cut did he take, 100$?
He took a roughly $12-16 million dollar pay CUT from his $27-40M pay range – his pay ranges on ratings and ad dollars, so he gave up almost half of his salary to save staff jobs.
He should have told them I will pay their salaries and nobody should have been laid off. He’d still be a multi millionaire set for life. Not a good man, not funny and he never REPLACED Carson. The show is lame always been.
He has absolutely no obligation to pay their salaries, yet he voluntarily chose to take a $10 mil pay cut. So do the math. 25 people laid off and $10 million of extra money now on the table. That would be 400,000 for each of the 25 employees. Do you think any of them make even close to that? No! So basically, Leno has voluntarily agreed to pay all 25 employees… when he had no obligation to do so. Be mad at NBC, not Leno. He’s a bad comedian (my opinion only), but a very nice guy.
“He should have told them I will pay their salaries and nobody should have been laid off. He’d still be a multi millionaire set for life. Not a good man, not funny and he never REPLACED Carson. The show is lame always been.”
I don’t think he’s funny, but that doesn’t matter, still a stand up guy to take the pay cut for his crew.
The best thing on NBC? You say that like it’s a compliment.
Touche
Couldn’t have happened to a bigger douche.
You think he’s hurting financially? It’s the poor 25 people that have had this happen to them.
Maybe the next time the Obamas guest, they can explain how prosperous these last few years have been and how things have turned around.
And someone has to drag their political biases into a discussion that had nothing at all to do with them. Classy.
I NEVER missed the Tonight Show for probably 25 years, until 2008-9 whan Jay lost me with his relentless, worn-out and unfunny assault on GWB, even after he left office. His constant ridicule of anyone not kissing Obama’s ring, while virtually NEVER making fun of Obama himself just completely turned me off.
I was REALLY excited about moving to Vegas in 2007, because I’d finally get to go see Jay Leno at the Mirage, but I’ve still never bought the ticket, and still have no plans to, and still just can’t watch the show anymore. How many millions more like me have made the same decision about Jay Leno? And yet NBC wonders where their audience went?
YOU said it all right there!
It could happen to you…
Comcast will sell NBC in 2 years.
Or totally strip it of its entertainment value/assets a la Bain.
Yes because it’s a loser and now that they own it and the books they can see it.
A funnier show follows Leno. Leno seems poor in comparison.NBC is giving their vision of the coastal culture. Liberal and gay activists are not unlimited sources of comedic fodder.There is an America that GE/NBC has left behind.Their commitment to their liberal politics is so strong that in a fading position, they still will not offer humor that appeals to the more traditional market. Possibly from the coasts, they cannot see, hear or understand the rest of the country.
Leno is getting stale and his heart doesn’t seem to be in it anymore. It’s time to replace him. Nevertheless, cutting the staff 20% and forcing Jay to take a pay cut sounds ridiculous. It might be time for Jay to leave. If they want to ruin a good thing with their ridiculous greed, so be it.
still the best ratings in late night.
Must be doing something right.
LOL…You’re kidding, right?
Leno gets the highest ratings in the older demographics because he’s safe, white-bread, wholesome, throw-away humor.
And every year, he and his staff get rightfully beat by the far superior writers for The Daily Show, and Colbert Report.
That’s “beaten,” as your superior writers would tell you.
And Emmy wins brings exactly what…?
Daily Show took over the 18-49 demo last year and hasn’t looked back since. The only measurement that Leno is still number one is overall audience and that’s because of all the grey-hairs that still watch him. If advertisers are looking to reach the 55+ crowd, Leno is the man. For anyone looking to reach younger viewers, and by younger I mean under 50, then Stewart, Colbert, even Conan, are the hosts to get behind.
Since when did they get “BEAT”? It wasn’t by ratings or ad revenue that they got “BEAT”.
beat… that’s funny right there…
That is what he’s doing right – safe, white-bread, wholesome, throw-away humor. There’s an audience for that, he gets ratings. It may not be what you or I like, or what wins Emmys, but that’s not Comcast’s goal is.
I dont know where people get this idea that every show must be for them. When do you go to the mall, do you want to shop in every store and eat at every fast food restaurant? Or any of them? Businesses have target markets, and we dont all fit into every single one,
You aren’t very bright are you? Check the Arbitron ratings before you make a bigger fool of yourself. Colbert and Stewart are bit players in cable TV. Local NFL broadcasts get bigger audiences than both of them combined.
Arbitron?!? Last I heard, television networks sold off Nielsen ratings, Bad Man.
Leno and Letterman have the oldest median ages of all the late night talk shows. For years, Stewart and Colbert have delivered far more 18-24 and 18-34 and soon Colbert will join Stewart atop the 18-49 rankings as well – all this with CC available in 15 million fewer households than the broadcast stations. And none of this even takes into account the way they both dominate online, whether on their own show sites or Hulu Plus where are they are always among the “Most Popular” shows. Leno and Letterman are no longer relevant to anyone under 55 years old. Incredible runs, yes, but they are done.
Not quite, Woody…
“[Stewart and Colbert] are the only late-night talk shows to post ratings growth among adults 18-49 for the current television season: +10% for The Daily Show and +11% from The Colbert Report. The Daily Show delivers more adults 18-49 (1.4 million) than any late-night talk show in all of television.”
http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/jon-stewart-and-stephen-colbert-extend-contracts-with-comedy-central/
What the heck do you think was Carson’s audience’s median age?
This matters only to sales folks. It has nothing to do with how well someone accomplishes their job.
Leno was born stale.