A Defense Of Jay Leno

I will admit to the sin of sometimes being contrary just for the fun of being difficult. I've never had a problem going against popular opinion. In fact, I tend to really enjoy being the odd person out.

Which might be part of the reason that back in October, I wrote what might be the only defense of "The Jay Leno Show." I certainly wasn't 100% kind about the program, but I did feel that it was being criticized as much for Leno's history with TV critics as it was for the content.

I did believe what I wrote, but I will admit that it was amusing to see other critics' reactions to the piece. It was almost as if I were arguing that "Hank" was the finest comedy of the last decade. I didn't just get grief about the piece. I received emails declaring that I had to be the dumbest critic in America.

But I think that looking back over the run of "The Jay Leno Show," what I wrote then still stands. The show had a lot of creative problems, most often tied to Leno's lack of desire to push past his comfort levels. But when he did step out of the box, the results were often hilarious.

Now that show has been canceled and Leno is returning back to "The Tonight Show." And given the response from critics and fans of Conan O'Brien, you would think that his first show back in late nights will open with Leno drinking the blood of O'Brien while simultaneously receiving a backrub from Jeff Zucker.

So I find myself once again stepping in to offer a defense of Jay Leno. Yes, partly because I'm a contrarian. But primarily because I honestly think the guy deserves to read at least one somewhat positive piece from a TV critic.

Part of Leno's PR problem is that lots of people can't forgive him for getting the "Tonight Show" job in the first place. They think he somehow tricked NBC in giving him the job, and despise him for talking a job they believe Johnny Carson wanted to go to his rival David Letterman.

The truth is that Letterman and Carson were very much alike. And while I'm sure that Carson would have preferred Letterman, I don't buy Letterman's recent assertions that Leno forced Johnny out. Carson had been slowly retiring for a decade, and his eventual exit had as much to do with personal issues (including the death of his son) than anything Leno or his then-manager were saying to NBC.

I understand the argument from fans of Letterman who say he's a funnier guy. But just like the best athlete doesn't always win the championship, the funniest talk show host doesn't always get the "Tonight Show." Leno had a lot of other qualities that were prized by NBC (and by other networks that courted him from time to time). He's a relentless worker and doesn't have any star ego issues. He'll go to the affiliate meetings, he'll do the schmoozing with advertisers. His goal is to be number one and that drive is the primary reason that "The Tonight Show" thrived in the ratings under his watch.

When it comes to the current situation with Conan O'Brien, I can't let Leno completely off the hook. While he might not have called up Jeff Zucker and said, "Hey, why not put me back in late nights," he did very shrewdly give a lone interview during the fall. In which he said that he'd love to go back to late nights if he could. That comment opened the way for the eventual exit of O'Brien. And even if he didn't pull the trigger, he did point out that a loaded gun was sitting conveniently in the plain sight of NBC executives.

While Leno ended up with "The Tonight Show," it wasn't Jay who did in Conan O'Brien. It was a combination of factors that contributed to the demise of his show. His fans want to believe that this talented genius was screwed over by Jay Leno. But the truth is that he was done in by some astoundingly inept NBC programming decisions. And the need for GE to sell NBCU for as much money as possible.

Conan's weak ratings were certainly an issue. You can argue that Leno's weak lead-in contributed to the problem, but Letterman did okay at CBS even when that network's primetime schedule was shaky. There were some core creative and branding issues with Conan's show. And at the end of the day, both NBC executives and the network affiliates remained unconvinced that he could turn things around. They believed that Conan's show was as strong in the ratings as it was likely to ever be. And with increased competition from cable, and the prospect of an eventual Letterman retirement, there were some serious doubts about the show's long-term prospects.

While the network suits might have been wrong, that doesn't change the fact that it wasn't Leno feeding these fears. It was the same awkward creative sense that made "Knight Rider" seem like a good prospect for a remake. NBC executives made some of the same core mistakes with O'Brien's "Tonight Show" that they made with the rest of the network's lineup. And when it wasn't working out, they made the move they're most comfortable executing...the frantic change to something familiar.

Many people have made the arguement that Leno should have said "no" when NBC offered him a spot back on the network's late night schedule. That doing that would have been the "right" thing to do. Leno makes a point when he has argued that it all just comes down to business. Honestly, this is Hollywood. Who turns down a job they really want because taking it just "doesn't feel right?" Show business sucks sometimes. It's immoral and petty and often unfair. But the smart survivors get over it.

At one point in their careers David Letterman and Robin Williams despised each other. When "Mork And Mindy" was on the air, Williams used a couple of punchlines of Letterman's on the show. And when Dave angrily confronted him about backstage at the Comedy Store, Williams offered to make it right by getting Letterman a guest shot on the hit sitcom. A few decades pass and the two act as if they've been buddies forever. Show business sucks. In a fair world, Williams might have paid some price for his habit of "forgetting" whose material he was using on "Mork And Mindy." But the comics he stole from got over it, with a bit of career help from Williams.

This current situation at "The Tonight Show" fits into the same mold. I don't believe Leno pushed O'Brien off "The Tonight Show." I suspect he truly feels bad about the way things turned out. But Jay Leno has always been a pragmatist. He might not agree with the decisions of NBC executives, but at the end of the day, he's going to look out for himself. He wants to work in late night. And if he had turned down the chance, NBC would have figured some other way to screw over Conan O'Brien. So why not take advantage of the opportunity?

I don't know if the ratings for Leno's "Tonight Show" will suffer initially. But most of Leno's audience will return eventually, as will most of the stars that have proclaimed in recent days that they wouldn't appear on the show. As they often say in Hollywood, show business is more about the business than the show.

And no one knows the business of late night television better than Jay Leno.