Conan O’Brien recently appeared on 60 Minutes to discuss his departure from NBC’s “Tonight Show.” The interview gives us a brief glimpse at O’Brien’s psyche, and if you’re like me, even a brief glimpse is probably more than you really want.
One thing you notice in the clip is that O’Brien is distinctly unfunny. Then again, you could say that same thing about most of his comedy routines. I’ve often thought that O’Brien’s fan base was largely comprised of Walter Mittyish comedian wannabes who saw in O’Brien the triumph of mediocrity. Watching his clumsy throwaways and garish ad-libs, these Rupert Pupkin clones could say, “Look at that! That guy’s as funny as a heart attack. If he can get his own TV show, why not me? I’m twice that funny just hanging out with my poker buddies in the basement.”
In the interview with CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft, the short-lived “Tonight Show” host placed the blame for his departure squarely on anyone but himself. As common knowledge by now, when NBC president Jeff Zucker and his cadre of programming flacks scrambled to implement damage control in the wake of Jay Leno’s disastrous move to 10.00 pm, their compromise was to move Jay to 11.00 pm and Conan to 12.00 midnight. Jimmy Fallon would be bumped to 1.00 am.
This was obviously a maneuver that none of the three hosts was pleased with. If nothing else, it pushed all three programs out of sync with the standard late night time frames. Instead of competing head-to-head with David Lettermand and Craig Fergusson, the shifted schedule would put them up against “Nightline,” and third place late night host Jimmy Kimmel on ABC.
Clearly, O’Brien puts the blame on Leno for this forced move. As he said in the interview, “He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know…I know me, I wouldn’t have done that. If I had surrendered ‘The Tonight Show’ and handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well…and then…six months later. But that’s me, you know. Everyone’s got their own, you know, way of doing things.”
This clearly ignores the fact that Leno was forced into taking the 10.00 slot in the first place. Why? Because O’Brien had threatened to leave NBC for Fox if the peacock network didn’t put him on a glide path that would see him become Leno’s replacement within a set time frame. Leno has said publicly that it was never his idea to leave the “Tonight Show,” and the fact that he returned to his old venue so willingly is simply further evidence that he had never wanted to give it up.
And while Leno’s public well-wishings for his successor might have been hypocritical, as O’Brien suggested, it was merely a case of Leno’s being a good soldier. When the attempt at a prime-time/late-night hybrid fell flat, NBC did what they usually do: they tried to keep too many balls in the air at one time. Remember the Leno/Letterman debacle when Johnny Carson retired?
Apparently, O’Brien thinks that if Leno were really a good soldier, he would’ve walked away from TV entirely, leaving the NBC late night slots in the hands of O’Brien and Fallon.
But as anyone who followed the Leno/Letterman fracas should recall, Leno is a tough in-fighter. While he’s generally willing to be a team player, one thing he isn’t known for is quitting. He takes the long view, and generally gets his way.
For better or worse, O’Brien isn’t of the same mettle. Sounding a bit like a jilted character in a daytime soap, O’Brien told Kroft, “I think this relationship is going be toxic and maybe we just need to go our separate ways. That’s really how it felt to me…and I started to feel that I’m not sure these people even really want me here….I can’t do it [anymore].”