Five years ago, Jay Leno promised Conan O'Brien he'd step aside in 2009, vowing to hand over The Tonight Show without repeating the bitter fallout of the first late night war. This past week he broke that promise.
Tonight, SNL opened with a Larry King Live parody that addressed the mess at NBC over its late night lineup. It sucked. What didn't suck, however, was Seth Meyers' anti-NBC rant during the Weekend Update segment. Video of both, inside.
It's no easy task to digest the goings on of the NBC late night war that was brought to a head this week. After the jump you'll find all the night by night highlights of the bitter goings-on.
As a dedicated fan of the dumb art that is tag-related humor, this is particularly enjoyable: some cute Hulu users decided to mark up Jay Leno clips. Funny! Because lots of people use Hulu, and will see things like this:
Back in 1984, Jay Leno made an appearance on David Letterman's talk show. Despite their rivalry, things seemed tame enough— until Leno had the audacity to make jokes about his shady deals with NBC behind Dave's back.
NBC has drawn the long knives and dispatched NBC Sports titan and former late-night guru Dick Ebersol—who produced Saturday Night Live during the Joe Piscipo years—to strike back at Conan O'Brien in a New York Times interview.
Jay invited Jimmy Kimmel to the show to take part in his 10 @10 segment. Kimmel did not hold back his distaste for both NBC and Leno, going so far to say "For God's sakes, leave our shows alone!"
Because she's the type that will find this funny. If you've got 4 minutes to waste and like rap parodies, watch this. And if you don't watch it now we guarantee you'll get it from your Great Aunt Ethel.
This evening's late night lineup definitely delivered the drama. For the first time, Jay Leno went after Conan O'Brien, before being DESTROYED on his own show by Jimmy Kimmel. O'Brien continued to go rogue, Letterman didn't let up, and more.
Well, now that NBC has traveled a few months back in time and given Leno the "Tonight Show" back, they've wasted no time in filling his crucial 10 pm spot: Look forward to Jerry Seinfeld, "Law & Order," and "Parenthood."
NBC will not, as has been speculated, keep Conan O'Brien off the air until 2013, says The Daily Beast's Kim Masters, who reports "Conan's Exit Confirmed." (Albeit by an anonymous source.) O'Brien will take a payout, Masters says, and the network will strike his non-compete clause, which means he'll be able to rant about them indefinitely on other networks. However, "should Fox go forward with a late-night show with O'Brien now, it will take months before he would be ready to go on the air." [TDB]
• Is NBC close to resolving the mammoth mess it has on its hands? TMZ reports the network has reached a deal with Conan O'Brien (in which he'll leave NBC with some amount of money, and Leno, in turn, will take over The Tonight Show). Others, however, say the negotiations continue and NBC chief Jeff Zucker's been playing hardball with O'Brien. So who knows. Fortunately, Conan has lots of exciting options to consider when he finally walks out the door.
• Related: NBC announced its new, post-Leno primetime lineup today. [NYT]
• George Clooney will host a live telethon on Jan. 22 to benefit earthquake victims in Haiti. ABC, NBC, MTV, HBO and CNN will all broadcast it. [EW]
• Why isn't Fox News covering the tragedy in Haiti? Because rehashing faux controversies involving President Obama always comes first, duh. [MM]
• Avatar could top Titanic and become the top-grossing movie in history this weekend. In related news, it seems the Avatar backlash is in full swing.
• Robert Pattinson won't be Tobey Maguire's replacement in Spider-Man. [E!]
• American Idol creator Simon Fuller is starting up a new company. [LAT]
• Editor & Publisher is back in business under new ownership. [E&P]
• Is the ratings dry spell at MTV almost over? MTV execs hope so! [LAT]
• The cleanest and dirtiest cafeterias in the media industry. [DF]
Stern was as juicy this morning as all the late night shows were last night. He spouts a good deal of vitriol towards Leno. So much in fact that he's debating making his first Tonight Show appearance in years.
• Remember the dust-up a couple of weeks ago when it was reported that Beyoncé had performed for the son of Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafi in St. Bart's on New Year's Eve? Photos of the concert have now surfaced, although the worst thing about them may be how Beyoncé looks like she's the headliner at a tacky club in New Jersey. [DM]
• Is Bethenny Frankel trying to pull a Star Jones? It seems Frankel has been approaching vendors and asking them to "sponsor" her wedding: She'd get their services gratis and, in exchange, they'd get a mention on her upcoming reality show, Bethenny's Getting Married. The only problem with Bethenny's grand scheme? She hasn't had much luck finding companies interested in taking part. [NYDN]
• Here's a great idea: David Letterman has reportedly invited Conan O'Brien to appear as a guest on his show. Cross your fingers! [PopEater]
• Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel have not broken up, in case you were concerned. According to friends, he'd committed to working on a film in Wyoming, which is is why he didn't climb Mt. Kilimanjaro alongside Biel. It's not because he didn't want to, say, spend a week living with the love of his life in a tent. He would have totally done it if he could have. Really. [P6]
• Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie donated $1 million yesterday to Doctors Without Borders to fund emergency medical operations in Haiti. As for whether Tiger Woods really paid to send a plane full of medical supplies to the devastated nation, that's a (pretty unlikely) story that Russell Simmons has been circulating, though Tiger's reps have yet to confirm it. But it wouldn't be the worst way to begin rebuilding his image, come to think of it. [Us, TMZ]
