Letterman Baffled by Replacing of Leno

[Sylph]

September 3, 2008

Letterman Baffled by NBC’s Replacing of Leno

By BRIAN STELTER

David Letterman, the CBS host who has competed with Jay Leno every weeknight for 15 years, now feels empathy for his late-night challenger.

In an interview with Rolling Stone on newsstands this week, Mr. Letterman, the longtime “Late Show” host, expresses bewilderment about NBC’s decision, first announced four years ago, to replace Mr. Leno next year with Conan O’Brien, the current host of “Late Night.”

“Unless I’m misunderstanding something, I don’t know why, after the job Jay has done for them, why they would relinquish that,” Mr. Letterman said in the interview. “I guess they thought it was a less messy way to handle what happened to me at NBC. I don’t know.”

Mr. Letterman famously moved from NBC to CBS in 1993 after Mr. Leno replaced Johnny Carson on NBC’s “Tonight” show, establishing one of the foremost rivalries on television. Asked by the interviewer Jason Gay whether he empathizes with Mr. Leno’s situation, Mr. Letterman said: “I guess empathy is the right word. It’s hard to know what he felt about it. I have to believe he was not happy about it.”

In what the magazine called Mr. Letterman’s first in-depth print interview since 1996, he even offers Mr. Leno a spot on his couch, saying: “I think he’d be a great guest on the show. The first night that he is out of a job, I think that would be a great situation.”

Mr. Letterman, 61, who has been a late-night host for 26 years, said he would love to continue at CBS when his contract expires in two years.

“The way I feel now, I would like to go beyond 2010, not much beyond, but you know, enough to go beyond,” Mr. Letterman said, pointedly noting that “you always like to be able to excuse yourself on your own terms.” He added that if CBS wanted to “make a change in 2010, you know, I’m fine with that, too.”

In the interview Mr. Letterman spends more time talking about the succession plan at NBC than he does his own future. Mr. Leno’s last edition of “Tonight” is scheduled for May 29, 2009. Mr. O’Brien is expected to take over on June 1. Mr. Letterman apparently harbored doubts about whether his former network would go forward with the plan. “I’m not quite sure why they would do that, so much so that one wonders if that’s actually what’s going to happen,” he said, later adding that it “just seemed so preposterous to me.”

But NBC reaffirmed the plans in May with the hiring of Jimmy Fallon as the future host of Mr. O’Brien’s “Late Night.”

“It’s only until recently that I felt this thing had traction,” Mr. Letterman said.

Mr. Letterman has ranked No. 2 behind Mr. Leno, who is 58, for more than a decade. Mr. Letterman acknowledges in the article, “I wish that we — and when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘me’ — I wish I could have prevailed.” But he concludes by saying that the reason for the ratings lies not in the local-news lead-ins of the two networks or the promotions of their shows, but in the difference between the two men. “I think he has greater appeal for more people than I do,” he said simply.

So far this season Mr. Leno’s “Tonight” show has averaged an audience of 4.8 million, while Mr. Letterman’s “Late Show” has averaged 3.5 million.

“It seems unlikely that now, after years and years of trying under a wide variety of circumstances and advantages and disadvantages, that suddenly I’m going to prevail,” Mr. Letterman said. “You can’t go through life fooling yourself. You have to be honest with the situation. That’s fine.”

That said, next year’s transition on NBC may present a new opportunity for Mr. Letterman. He told Rolling Stone that he had not given much thought to the forthcoming competition with Mr. O’Brien because “I still find it hard to believe that Jay won’t be there.”

Hinting at the late-night turmoil at NBC, Mr. Letterman said he would be surprised if a similar situation played out at CBS. When asked who might replace him at CBS, Mr. Letterman said, “I don’t know this for a fact, but I have a feeling that all of that has been taken care of or discussed.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/arts/television/03lett.html?ref=television

[bandbfan]

I really don't understand this article. If Leno leaves, Letterman has a good chance at being #1.

[miajere]

No, he doesn't.....Conan is a hit...I love his show and watch him before I would ever consider Letterman...But Letterman used to be a jerk in alot of his interview- interrupting, and making passes in a weird way....Conan will definitely be #1

[bandbfan]

I guess. I mean, I really like Conan. But at least for the few year or two, IMO, Letterman would have his best shot at being #1 before Conan get's the momentum going. Conan is hilarious on his own, but I think he needs better writers and a bigger budget, which he no doubt would get in Leno's spot.