Outside Reading #1

Outside Reading #1 is due Monday, January 31st.

I am reading The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy by Bill Carter.

It is the true-story about why NBC decided to guarantee Conan O'Brien The Tonight Show, and took a chance on moving Jay Leno to 9:00 in order to ensure that he wouldn't go to another network.

I am going to use the faces of K-State's Frank Martin to rate this book. This is how I am feeling about this book right now:

Frank is pretty happy!

I am really enjoying reading this book. I have always been interested in how the entertainment industry operates and makes decisions. It is fascinating to read about the mistakes that NBC, O'Brien and Leno all made that turned into a total mess. I am 3/4 of the way finished with this already, so it has gone through all of the background that led up to January 2010 when Conan was given the choice of moving his show back 30 minutes to make way for Jay Leno. That is where I am right now in the book.

One of the most fascinating parts of the book is how Carter interviewed some of the other late-night personalities, notably Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy performed an impersonation of Jay for an entire show, getting in plenty of digs about the fact that Jay was taking The Tonight Show back away from Conan.  As a result, Jay asked Jimmy to be a guest on his show for a "10-Questions" segment. I thought it was hilarious when Jay asked him, "'Is there anything you haven't hosted that you want to host?' 'Oh, this is a trick, right?' Kimmel asked. 'Where you get me to host The Tonight Show and then take it back from me?'" (Carter 336). Carter remarks that Jimmy is pummeling Jay with insults, and he just sits there and takes it!

You can watch the clip here:



I would love to ask the author how he got all of these interviews from the key players in the saga. You feel like you are a fly on the wall in some of the conversations that take place, and you can tell Mr. Carter did considerable research and interviewing for this book.