spot. in an effort to stop the tonight show viewer dropoff, nbc asked leno if he d be willing to do a half hour show at 11:30, pushing conan s tonight show to midnight. jay agrees. conan declines. then it became these camps. the jay camp, the conan camp. the backseat, the front seat. it just was a disaster. when that curtain between reality and perception is torn, everybody feels uncomfortable. that s a real problem for a host. the uncomfortable situation resolves when nbc pays conan and his staff $45 million to step aside. jay resumes his role as host of the tonight show in march of 2010. when we came back, was he number one almost automatically? no, there was a hangover. and it damaged jay. what had happened ran
i mean, they re very stylistically they re very different. their personalities were different. jay was comfort food. he was macaroni and cheese. you knew exactly what you were going to get. leno had way more viewers. they d lost the number one spot. reporter: in an effort to stop the tonight show viewer drop-off nbc asked leno if he d be willing to do a half hour show at 11:30, pushing conan s tonight show to midnight. jay agrees. conan declines. then it became these camps. you know, the jay camp, the conan camp. just the back scenes had become front scenes. it just was a disaster. whb the curtain between reality and perception is torn, everybody feels uncomfortable. and that s a real problem for a host. reporter: the uncomfortable situation resolves when nbc pays conan and his staff $45 million to step aside. jay resumes his role as host of the tonight show in march of 2010. get back to where you once belonged
personalities are very different. jay was comfort food, you know what you were going to get. lured in way more viewers. so they had lost the number one spot. in an effort to stop the tonight show viewership dropoff, they wanted to push conan s show to midnight. jay agrees, conan declines. then it became these camps. the jay camp, the conan camp. it just was a disaster. when that curtain between reality and perception is torn, everybody feels uncomfortable. that s a real problem for a host. the uncomfortable situation resolves when nbc pays conan and his staff $45 million to step aside. jay resumes his role as host of the tonight show in march of 2010.
tonight show viewership dropoff, they wanted to push conan s show to midnight. jay agrees, conan declines. then it became these camps. the jay camp, the conan camp. it just was a disaster. when that curtain between reality and perception is torn, everybody feels uncomfortable. that s a real problem for a host. the uncomfortable situation resolves when nbc pays conan and his staff $45 million to step aside. jay resumes his role as host of the tonight show in march of 2010. when we came back, was he number one almost automatically? no, there was a hangover. and it damaged jay. what had happened ran counter to his brand which is i m not hardball player, but yes, you