Late Show UK

The final CNBC reruns of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien will air tonight (8pm and 8.45pm) and tomorrow night (11pm).

According to several TV listing services – including Radio Times – The Tonight Show With Jay Leno will take its place from Tuesday night. Radio Times show it will air at the normal 11pm 30-minute timeslot Monday-Friday. It’s thought it will be shown on a one-show delay (i.e. each week Monday night’s NBC show will air Tuesday nights on CNBC).

The Tonight Show With Jay Leno will premiere tomorrow night on NBC in America and the official website is also expected to launch tomorrow.

Guest listings have been announced for the first two weeks of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. The first show airs on the 1st March. Click here for The Tonight Show guest listings.

The new logo for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno has been revealed. The Tonight Show returns on the 1st March. The new logo was announced on the official website for the now defunct Jay Leno Show.

Also, click here to watch the NBC commercial for the return of The Tonight Show

It’s being reported that Kevin Eubanks will be cutting his regular appearances on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno shortly after it returns in March.

The Los Angeles Times reports “NBC said Tuesday that Eubanks had expressed interest in personal touring and recording… he would be part of the show when it returns March 1, but his continued involvement was uncertain”.

The musician has been with Jay Leno since he started The Tonight Show in 1992 and was promoted to be band leader for The Tonight Show Band in 1995. Eubanks was also the band leader for The Primetime Band on The Jay Leno Show – Jay’s failed 10pm NBC show which was recently axed.

Kevin has responded on Twitter saying “I’ll still be around on the show, but less as of now. I’ll tweet when a definite plan is set. Thanks again guys”.

Los Angeles Times – “Kevin Eubanks’ ‘Tonight Show’ future in doubt”
Twitter – Kevin Eubanks

Jay Leno was interviewed on a special edition of Oprah Winfrey’s talk show last Thursday. Jay was questioned about whether taking The Tonight Show back is the right thing to do, and what he thought about the whole NBC mess with Conan O’Brien walking off the job after refusing to move to 12.05am to follow The Jay Leno Show which NBC planned to air at 11.35pm. You can read the interview transcript on Oprah’s official website.

Speaking about The Jay Leno Show, Oprah asked “was it against your better judgment to do the primetime show?” he said “well, I chose to do it, so I take full responsibility… I did it because it’s an interesting challenge”. The Jay Leno Show’s ratings were the main reason for its cancellation – Jay said “I felt bad for everybody on the show, and I felt bad for our affiliates”.

Talking about when NBC approached Leno about the move back to 11.35pm he said “it would still be The Jay Leno Show, and I would still do a monologue and a comedy piece, and I thought: “Okay, I’ll do a half hour at 11:30. Conan will do an hour.” And I remember saying to one of the executives, “Do you think Conan will go for that?” “Oh yeah, no problem. We are 75 percent sure Conan will take this deal.” I said okay, [and] shake hands. Again, I’m not a big contract guy. I shake hands. I’ll do a half hour, Conan will take an hour, we’ll see what happens”.

When asked about his thoughts on The Tonight Show and the effects on the ratings after Conan O’Brien took over, he said “if you look at where the ratings were, it was already destructive to the franchise”. Jay revealed he hasn’t yet spoken to Conan since the debacle – “maybe let things cool down and maybe we’ll talk”. But he said he watched Conan’s final Tonight Show saying it was a “great show, good performer and good comic. And a good guy. There’s no animosity there”.

Oprah asked him if NBC could have done anything differently to have made it good for everyone involved – Jay said “anything they did would have been better than this. Anything. Anything they did. If they had come in and shot everybody. I mean, it would have been, “Oh, people were murdered.” But at least it would have been a two-day story. … From 2004 onward, this whole thing was a huge, a huge mess”.

“I regret that it wasn’t handled better… I’m just not sure what I could have done differently… the key is not to be bitter”, he said.

The final episode of The Jay Leno Show airs on the 9th February and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno returns on the 1st March.

Oprah.com – “The Tonight Show Controversy”
Oprah.com – “Jay Leno on Conan O’Brien’s Last Show Video” (video clip)
Oprah.com – “Jay Leno 10 @ 10 Video” (video clip)
Oprah.com – “Oprah Talks About the Tonight Show Video” (video clip)

The final episode of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien aired on Friday night. Steve Carrell, Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell and Neil Young all appeared on the last show. Click here to watch highlights from the final few shows. In his final monologue Conan said “we have exactly one hour to steal every single item in this studio”.

Highlights of the final show included another “World’s Most Expensive Sketch” to use up the remaining portion of the budget for The Tonight Show, Conan asking what will happen to the almost-new Tonight Show studio he’s leaving behind (“leave the studio cold and empty and rename it the world’s largest metaphor for NBC programming”), Steve Carrell conducting Conan’s NBC “exit interview”, Tom Hanks coming out to greet Conan wearing sunglasses and plying him with alcohol and Will Ferrell’s song to to close the show (with Conan on guitar and Max on the drums).

Conan has been using some expensive music throughout the final week of The Tonight Show and will be sending the bill to NBC to pay for the rights for that – including Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones and Lovely Rita by The Beatles.

Conan’s final speech on The Tonight Show was emotional. He said “every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show and for seven months I got to… I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second. I’ve had more good fortune than anyone I know and if our next gig is doing a show in a 7-Eleven parking lot we’ll find a way to make it fun… I don’t want to do it in a 7-Eleven parking lot”. There wasn’t one mention of Jay Leno throughout the entire show.

NBC officially confirmed The Tonight Show will return on 1st March with former host Jay Leno. Conan will be able to start a new talk show from September if he wants to – Fox are rumoured to be very interested.

Conan’s final Tonight Show will air on CNBC at 11pm tomorrow night – the usual CNBC 30-minute cutdown version. Reruns of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien will air on NBC next week.

NBC – “NBC Announces That Jay Leno Will Return To Host ‘The Tonight Show’”
NBC – “Statement From NBC and Conan O’Brien”
BusinessWeek – “O’Brien thanks fans, NBC on final ‘Tonight’ show”
NY Daily News – “Questlove: Use of Beatles’ ‘Lovely Rita’ on Conan O’Brien’s last ‘Tonight Show’ cost NBC $500k”

Conan O’Brien will be able to join another US TV network from 1st September. His exit deal with NBC states he’s not allowed to sign up for any other US network until that date. Conan is examining his options – he could go to Fox, Comedy Central or Fox-owned channel FX.

Another detail of the NBC deal has been revealed – he won’t be able to bring his old characters like Triumph The Comic Dog and the Masturbating Bear with him to another network as NBC have claimed them as intellectual property. This reminds me of when Letterman left NBC and they wouldn’t let him take his segments like Viewer Mail – Letterman always joked that the word “intellectual” isn’t usually something you’d associate with NBC.

Leno – who is expected to return to The Tonight Show from the 1st March – said “I don’t believe the iceberg is that big, the biggest ship, this ship will never sink” with a reference to the Titanic. On The Tonight Show, Conan took more swipes at NBC saying one of the things he’s not allowed to do is “make fun of NBC programming… I have to let the programming speak for itself”. Conan’s final Tonight Show will air tonight in the US – you can see it on CNBC at 11pm on Monday.

Reuters – “Conan O’Brien exploring options after NBC split”
NBC Bay Area – “Jay Leno: “I Have Chosen to Stay on the Titanic”"

The final edition of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien will air this Friday – after the 22nd January show Conan will no longer be hosting The Tonight Show.

A deal has now been reached between NBC, Conan and his staffers. TMZ.com report NBC “have reached a $45 million settlement… Conan will get a severance of $32.5 million, regardless of whether he gets another hosting gig”. They also say “NBC will pay $7.5 million to Conan’s “Tonight Show” staff — and our sources believe the network added several thousand more to the pot at the last minute”. In addition to this “NBC will pay a whopping $4.5 million to the executive producer”.

The guests for Conan’s final Tonight Show this Friday will be Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell (who appeared on the first ever edition of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien last year) and Neil Young.

When The Tonight Show returns after the Winter Olympics break, it’s likely Jay Leno will take The Tonight Show back in the normal 11.35pm timeslot. It’s not known when Jay’s final 10pm show will air but it could be as early as the 26th January.

TMZ.com – “Conan O’Brien, NBC Reach $45Mil Settlement”