Guest List
Find out who's on where every week (note: taken every Friday or Sunday from
respective shows' web sites, TV Guide online, or The
Late Night TV Page; accuracy not guaranteed):
Week of 08.20.07 (as of 08.17.07):
Monday
John Travolta
Tony Dungy
the Neville Brothers
Lindsay Lohan
Larry the Cable Guy
Stephen Marley
Jeff Goldblum
Hayden Panettiere
New Pornographers
Tuesday
Victoria Beckham
James Blake
A Fine Frenzy
Tom Selleck
John Stamos
Dan Mintz
Samuel L. Jackson
Christiane Amanpour
Tom Russell
Wednesday
Sandra Bullock
Chris Matthews
Suzanne Vega
Luke Wilson
Oscar Nunez
Blonde Redhead
Richard Gere
Tom Dreesen
Velvet Revolver
Thursday
Matt Damon
George Foreman
Stephen Stills
Mike Myers
Seth Rogen
The Academy Is
Tina Fey
Venus Williams
Friday
Jessica Biel
Bill Engvall
T-Pain and Yung Joc
Dane Cook
Apolo Anton Ohno
Mando Diao
Tom Arnold
Kristen Gore
Jim McDonald
NotableQuotables.com has partnered with
The Late Night TV
Page to provide you the most updated guest list information available.
Guest lists from the following shows (among others) are available: THE TONIGHT SHOW with JAY LENO, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Show with Letterman, Late Late Show with Craig
Kilborn, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The View.
NotableQuotables.com hopes you enjoy this new partnership, as NotableQuotables.com is committed to finding new and improved ways to make your diversion into late night more enjoyable!
From the Los Angeles Times, 3.07.03:
Leno Continues Late-Night Streak "Jimmy Kimmel Live," which premiered January 26 and follows
"Nightline," averaged 1.9 million viewers during the recently
concluded February sweeps. The show, however, had little impact on "The Tonight Show With Jay
Leno" or "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"; the two hold
commanding leads over their competition. Leno's show averaged 6.2 million
viewers; Letterman averaged 4.6 million.
From the Los Angeles Times, 8.09.02:
Leno's Over Springsteen The combination of David Letterman and Bruce Springsteen couldn't beat "The Tonight Show With Jay
Leno." Leno's show maintained its lead by averaging 5.5 million
viewers a night for the week, its largest audience since May and its widest
margin of victory over Letterman in three weeks. Letterman averaged
3.8 million for the week, "Nightline" had 3.7 million.
From the Los Angeles Times, 4.08.02:
Leno's Late-Night Streak Continues
By BRIAN LOWRY, LOS ANGELES TIMES STAFF WRITER
David Letterman and "Nightline" commanded the lion's share of headlines during March, but the first three months of 2002 again belonged to "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno": NBC's late-night host dominated the ratings in finishing first for the 26th consecutive quarter.
Leno's show, which will mark its 10th anniversary with a prime-time special April 30, averaged 6 million viewers per average minute, mirroring its performance versus the same three-month period last year.
CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," meanwhile, was up slightly compared with first-quarter 2002, averaging 4.2 million viewers. "Nightline" fell 7%, to 4.2 million viewers, while the ABC show that rounds out the hour, "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher," slipped 11%, to 2.5 million viewers. "Politically Incorrect" has lost some affiliate coverage since comments by Maher generated controversy during the fall. Moreover, ABC's ratings in prime time are down by more than 20%, which hasn't helped other parts of the network's schedule.
Leno also maintains a solid advantage among adults ages 18 to 49, the most important demographic to advertisers.
These latest ratings underscoring "The Tonight Show's" unwavering leadership coincide with Leno's first detailed remarks addressing the recent tumult surrounding late night, including reports that Letterman's flirtation with jumping to ABC was driven by his fervent desire to narrow the gap with Leno.
Industry sources say the fact that Letterman trails Leno gnaws at the host, whose new CBS contract stipulates that he will receive more promotion from the network's parent company, Viacom, in an effort to make his show more competitive.
"You'd think after all this time it would be, 'Oh, well, he's successful, I'm successful, everybody is rich beyond their wildest dreams.' I don't know why there has to be such animosity. It just seems odd to me," Leno told TV Guide.
Over the years, the press has generally favored Letterman, critically anointing him as the heir to Johnny Carson. Leno, meanwhile, has taken a more populist approach, telling TV Guide that he takes "a certain perverse pleasure" in knowing he works more weeks a year than Letterman, makes less money and turns out a more profitable show. "I'll take ambition over genius any day of the week," he said.
Beyond Leno, NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" averaged 2.5 million viewers during the first quarter this year, a 4% gain from 2001 and 900,000 more than CBS' competing "Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn," which experienced a 5% decline. The new half-hour NBC show that follows O'Brien, "Last Call With Carson Daly," averaged 1.7 million viewers.
From the Los Angeles Times, 3.22.02:
For the week of March 11, 2002, NBC's "THE TONIGHT SHOW with JAY LENO"
averaged 5.5 million viewers, compared with 4.6 million for "The Late
Show with David Letterman." "Nightline" averaged 4.3
million and "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" finished with
2.5 million viewers.
102 of the last 103 weeks,
Leno has been first among adults ages 18 to 49, the key demographics to
advertisers.
From the Los Angeles Times, 9.20.01:
NBC's "THE TONIGHT SHOW with JAY LENO," and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" were both back on the air Tuesday, Sept. 18, a week after the terrorist attacks on America. Both took a low-key tone, forgoing their usual joke-laden monologues with serious reflection on the state of America and the toll the attacks have taken on its citizens. Leno and O'Brien came back to work in part to president Bush's and New York City Mayor Giuliani's wishes for people to continue with their lives.
Preliminary ratings Wednesday from Nielsen indicates that "THE TONIGHT SHOW with JAY LENO," was watched by 6.6% of homes in 51 major cities, roughly the same that tuned into Letterman on his first show back on Monday. Ratings were also slightly higher for "Late Night With Conan O'Brien."
Based on the article, "NBC Late-Night Shows Top Ratings,"
by Brian Lowry, Los Angeles Times
From the Los Angeles Times, 3.23.01:
The "Late Show with David Letterman" didn't get the ratings bump
it had hoped from Jerry Seinfeld's Wednesday, March 21, 2001
appearance. Seinfeld's appearance attracted less than 4% of homes,
improving Letterman's Wednesday night average, but was still well below the
5.4% of homes tuned to NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
From the Los Angeles Times, 2.09.01:
"NBC's 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' had its highest Wednesday night
rating in more than a year this week with guests Billy Joel and Elton
John...."
From the Los Angeles Times, 1.09.01:
"NBC's 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' scored its highest ratings in
two years during the Christmas week, with an average of 7.3 million
viewers."
From the Los Angeles Times, Saturday 12.23.00:
"Thanks in large part to the protracted presidential election, NBC's
'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' attracted an average of 6.8 million viewers
last week, the program's largest audience since Christmas week of
1999."
From the Los Angeles Times:
The "Late, Late Show with Craig Kilborn" had its best ratings ever
during the weekending December 22, average 2 million viewers.
Katie Couric of NBC's "Today" show and Jay Leno
will switch jobs for a day on May 12, making this the first time since 1992 that someone other than Leno has hosted the "Tonight
Show."
"Access Hollywood," quoting Leno, said the switch was Couric's idea. Leno
told "Access Hollywood," "People like her, she has an infectious personality, and she's so cute that if she bombs, she can get away with it because she's
cute. If I bomb, it's 'boo hiss."'
Forget mundane skirmishes over booking guests or conceiving the best comedy bits. The late-night battle between "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and "Late Show With David Letterman" this fall has boiled down to back-and-forth salvos of public-relations spin.
Of course, the beauty of ratings is that both networks can use them to support their respective points, prompting a weekly barrage of news releases that draw different conclusions from the same set of numbers.
So CBS, which signed Letterman to a much-publicized contract extension in March after he received overtures from ABC, is pressing the point that its host has momentum and is closing the gap with the front-running "Tonight Show," capitalizing on bigger audience lead-ins into local news thanks to its new 10 p.m. dramas -- particularly "CSI: Miami" on Mondays and "Without a Trace" on Thursdays.
NBC, by contrast, has hammered home that Leno has maintained "decisive margins," withstanding "Late Show's" gains on certain nights and in selected cities.
Where does the truth lie? Four weeks into the new TV season, "The Tonight Show" is averaging 5.8 million viewers versus 4.1 million for Letterman -- still a commanding advantage. Both shows are down compared with the same period a year ago -- when late-night viewing surged in the wake of Sept. 11 -- but Leno has fallen a bit more, so the spread between them has narrowed ever so slightly.
In short, on its face, not much has changed.
"Late Show" is exhibiting improvement on some fronts, with producers of the show citing increased tune-in Monday as proof that Letterman would equal or surpass "The Tonight Show" if the playing field were leveled. NBC still enjoys a sizable lead at 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, thanks to "ER" and two editions of "Law & Order."
"Lead-ins have been, are and always will be the biggest factor in late-night ratings," said "Late Show" executive producer Rob Burnett, who is president of Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants. To bolster his case, Burnett said that the two shows have been in a "virtual dead heat" on Mondays, where the "CSI" spinoff handily beats NBC's "Crossing Jordan."
If the debate seems academic, Letterman's second-class ratings status -- despite the show's greater critical acclaim and five consecutive Emmys as outstanding variety or comedy series -- was a major issue in the host's contract negotiations. Letterman has chafed at trailing Leno, and his camp has consistently blamed the late-night disparity on CBS' weaker prime-time performance.
Among the concessions extracted from CBS, in fact, was a commitment to run more "Late Show" promotions on Viacom-owned sister properties, including MTV, VH1 and Infinity radio stations.
Moreover, CBS and a few media outlets focused attention on Letterman before the season, projecting that higher ratings at 10 p.m. would spill over, benefiting late local newscasts and late night -- all areas sure to be closely watched as a key period for stations, the November rating sweeps, begins Thursday.
For their part, NBC officials contend that nearly a decade into the Leno-Letterman face-off, viewers have had ample time to make their choice, dismissing the notion that prime-time results are responsible for "The Tonight Show's" dominance.
Gary Considine, executive producer of "Tonight" for NBC Studios, conceded that "CSI: Miami" has had some effect, but said it requires that sort of extreme to move the late-night needle in either direction.
This fall's ratings, he said, "just keep proving the point that people know these two shows, they know these two hosts, and they know how to use a remote control."
Considine added that NBC officials were nervous about a shift given the extra support for Letterman, but said thus far those concerns have been unfounded. "The bottom line is there's no story, and that's the story," he said.
Los Angeles-area ratings support the correlation of prime time, news and late-night viewing, although even with KCBS-TV making inroads in all three areas, Leno still has a sizable lead.
According to Nielsen Media Research, KCBS is up more than 20% versus last year from 10:45 to 11 p.m. -- the window leading directly into local news -- and its news has risen by a similar margin. That has translated into a 15% ratings increase for "Late Show," to about 122,000 homes tuning in on average, or 2.3% of TV households in the viewing area.
KNBC-TV, by contrast, is down 15% across the board during the last quarter-hour of prime time, its 11 p.m. news and "The Tonight Show." The NBC-owned station retains a clear advantage on all three fronts, however, and Leno still nearly doubles Letterman's audience locally, averaging almost 235,000 homes nightly.
By all accounts, drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith has a cushy job.
As the rhythm backbone on a television orchestra known the world over as the Tonight Show Band, for about one hour each weekday afternoon he sits on a studio bandstand churning out musical vignettes and covers of rock songs in small spurts, and sending off the odd joke cracked by host Jay Leno.
So quick 'n' sweet is his day gig--a rim shot here, a drumroll there--that sometimes Smith gets itchy for the raw challenges of playing in a jazz club, which is what he did for 14 years in New York before he began his tenure at "The Tonight Show" in January 1995.
At such times, Smith gets out of the air-conditioned NBC studio in Burbank, packs a pared-down drum kit and high-tails it to some tiny venue around town. He did it last week for three nights, and as the musician bounced from TV Land to the intimate setup of a Hollywood jazz cafe, supplying droll beats and channeling subtle grooves were all within one day's work.
But before the jazzman can embark on a journey back to his club roots, he has business to attend to. A recent muggy afternoon finds Smith on the same Burbank sound stage he has been on for the past 7 1/2 years. "The show begins when the band starts to play," a "Tonight Show" emcee informs the studio crowd, already astir in their seats at the prospect of appearing on television. Smith assumes his position at a fancy-looking drum kit, behind a transparent plexiglass panel set against the show's instantly recognizable backdrop of the Los Angeles skyline at night. The shield is meant to muffle the snap-and-crackle of the drums; after all, this is a talk show, and guests and host need to hear each other. "If you got the drums just wide-open bleeding into every microphone, you're not gonna hear a thing" on television, he explains.
With the first commercial break underway, Smith & Co. launch into a soul groove, and the audience of 380--casually dressed and suspiciously better-looking than the average populace--leaps out of its seats to shake a heel.
No sooner do they quiet down than guest Dana Carvey marches on stage busting a collection of moves that range from his demented version of a Russian folk stomp to break dance. Smith drums up an appropriately eclectic beat to back up his routine.
"A lot of jazz musicians pretty much frown on doing a job like this, because they feel it's not creative and it's somewhat beneath the lofty aspirations of being a true artist," says Smith after the show. "We're looked upon as sellouts who just took the money and ran. On the flip side--it's steady work, there's good money in it, and it's easy to do. And you can make a good living, which of course," he says and chuckles, "is the other [thing] that every jazz musician aspires to."
The band then launches into a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together," as neon signs periodically flash the word "applause" to remind the audience to clap. Of covering rock songs, Smith says, "I still look at it as an opportunity to make music; I'm not compartmentalizing the stylistic idioms per se, thinking, 'Oh, I'm a jazz musician, I'm better than that.'
"It's all music, you still have to have a mind and creativity and some intellect to make a rock song sound good." He takes inspiration from his jazz hero Max Roach, who played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker but enthusiastically collaborated with musicians from other genres.
When the taping of the show wraps, Smith steps off stage cradling part of his drum set. "Oh, man, there's a crack in my cymbal," he says, frowning as he inspects it. Thankfully, he has spare drum kits at home--lots of them. "If you talk to my wife she will probably want to sell you some," he says with a smile. With that he's off to prepare for the set he is playing later in the club, already, as he put it, "vibing on the music."
It's hours past dusk when Smith sets up his drum set at Rocco's, a cavernous cafe with bare brick walls nestled on a gritty patch of Hollywood's Santa Monica Boulevard, for a "late hit" with pianist-composer Billy Childs and bassist Reggie Hamilton. The venue has a cozy, lived-in feel that couldn't be further from the dizzying hoopla of the "Tonight Show" studio. Several animal-print couches and rows of chairs lined up like pews in a church bask in dim, honeyed light. Peach curtains frame a tiny stage where plays are performed before jazz musicians take over to jam late into the night.
The set begins with a song called "Rubberman." A rapt audience of 13 sits quietly through the jazz improvisations spiced with classical stylings, which envelop the venue in a cozy cocoon of sound. Smith--eyes closed behind his glasses--punctuates the fat grooves of the stand-up bass with precise beats, as the piano leads the performance. This is more of a legitimate challenge to his skills.
When he moved from New York to Los Angeles to be on the "Tonight Show," Smith says that playing for only one hour each day delivered a big shock to his system.
"I was just used to playing hard, and for hours at a time," he says. "And then I get here, and I have to wonder, 'Gee, am I gonna lose my technique?' That's why I keep practicing, and I'm always praying for people to call me to play a club gig."
More people trickle in; the musicians on stage fidget with excitement. Childs pauses to introduce the next song and sips red wine, poured by the owner of the establishment. "This is ... " the pianist begins to characterize the piece.
" ... really hard," Smith finishes the sentence. His drumsticks dance, creating a delicate pattern, like the sound of rain rapping gently on a roof.
"You have to be more sensitive in a club," says Smith. Even when he takes flight in a solo, he does so without drowning out the others. While there are no "applause" signs to serve as reminder, the crowd, which has swollen to a couple dozen, erupts periodically in claps and cheers. "It's always nice when you can feel that you're making a connection with the audience," says Smith.
The hour is late but the spirits high. The impromptu gathering of musicians is now improvising on the margins of a ballad. From a distance, Smith's drumsticks appear like butterflies in flight; he drops them and picks up a set of brushes to caress the drum.
He switches them for mallets, as the bass player drapes over his instrument and the pianist dazzles with a solo. The band closes with a song inspired, explains Childs, by George Orwell's novel "1984."
With midnight inching ever closer, Smith is not showing any signs of tiredness. "No, no, no," he protests. "Music is a life force. I'm up for any opportunity to get up on the bandstand and create--I'm down with that."
Show's
Over for Incorrect
Politically Incorrect is off the air. Here's ABC's comment (from its
website):
Politically Incorrect has ended its run. If you'd like to be added to Bill Maher's mailing list, please write to us at comments@incorrect.com. Send us your email or snail mail address and we'll keep you informed of Bill's tour dates, tv appearances and other related information.
Bookstore shelves are lined with self-help volumes about women who love the wrong kind of men, finding themselves drawn to bad boys who mistreat, neglect or simply ignore them.
When it comes to late-night television, the press appears to have developed a similar condition.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of Johnny Carson's final appearance on "The Tonight Show," the date when the late-night king bade America a "very heartfelt goodnight" before triumphantly riding into the sunset--literally, in this case, since his home is in Malibu.
Commemoration of this event, however, has provided many in the media an occasion not just to laud Carson's three-decade reign but also to heap ridicule on successor Jay Leno as a pretender to the throne while exalting David Letterman, ratings notwithstanding, as late night's true heir apparent.
Now, it's perfectly understandable that someone would prefer Letterman to Leno, or Carson to Leno, or Cartoon Network's Space Ghost to Leno as a matter of personal taste. What's puzzling is why Leno provokes such hostility--enduring barbs from various critics, among them a surprisingly tart appraisal from an Associated Press columnist not generally known for wielding a poison pen, who recently called "Tonight" "a wretched one-note nightly waste of time" and found it "galling" that anybody tunes in.
The din has been enough to make you wonder if the motivation goes deeper than the prevailing wisdom in critical circles that his show is less inventive than Letterman's and his interviews feel copiously scripted.
What reason could there be beyond Leno's prominent jaw? For one thing, Letterman, like Carson, is notoriously press-shy, having shunned interviews for the last several years. Yet the less Letterman talks, the more critics love him, whereas Leno is vilified not just because he provides a more vanilla-flavored show--Carson actually did as well in his own way--but because he's not above campaigning for the audience's affection.
Carson's own legend, meanwhile, has clearly grown because he had the audacity to walk away from the limelight without looking back--a phenomenon I mentioned in March, admitting that I have unsuccessfully requested an interview with Carson every year since the fifth anniversary of his departure. Shortly thereafter, he dropped me a very polite note, promising that his answer would again be "No" when I made the obligatory call next year. Oddly enough, I took it as completely charming, even after he broke his silence, albeit to a limited degree, in an Esquire magazine piece about him.
Chalk that reaction up in part to human nature. Critics and reporters spend their day being poked, prodded and courted. No wonder those who can do without our patronage often fascinate us most.
That said, the critical brickbats directed at Leno from some quarters have always seemed disproportionate to whatever his perceived misdemeanors against comedy may be.
There is an assumption, for example, that by modulating his act to suit the broadest audience, Leno panders to a lower (some would say lowest) common denominator. Notably, network executives have no quarrel with this, so long as it is reflected among families that choose to let Nielsen Media Research intrude into their homes--a jury that continues to find in Leno's favor.
Indeed, a review of preliminary results for the May ratings sweeps, which officially conclude tonight, indicates Letterman's show has made no appreciable inroads into Leno's sizable ratings advantage despite CBS' pledge to throw additional promotional weight behind Letterman as part of his recent contract renewal. Late-night ratings for all three networks (including ABC's "Nightline" and "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher") are virtually unchanged versus May 2001, reflecting how glacial movement is on that front.
A less obvious point is that while Leno gets painted as a sellout, little is said about others who pander in different ways. No one, for example, speaks much about Howard Stern shamelessly shilling for products on his radio show, working commercials for Heineken, corrective surgery or Showtime series he wouldn't be caught dead watching into banter with his regular cast of idiots. Sponsors pay a huge premium for that privilege, yet Stern--the same guy, by the way, who provides weekly plugs for a CBS sister property, "Survivor"--is allowed to position himself as a cutting-edge renegade.
Similarly, Letterman is hailed for his creative genius, yet few have questioned the host for being so thin-skinned about Leno beating him in the ratings as well as his reluctance, as expressed through various surrogates, to take any responsibility for that situation, instead blaming the network.
Last time I looked, Woody Allen (another tortured comic genius) doesn't publicly lament that his films make less money than "Spider-Man" or blame the studio for a lack of advertising. Rather, Allen acknowledges that his act appeals to a relatively small swath of the public, a place one would think--or hope--that Letterman could reach. After all, why not simply accept that Leno is more popular and enjoy his own success, from a $30-million-plus annual salary to all the critical plaudits showered on him, as reward enough?
To his credit, Leno at least pays lip service to this philosophy. Asked in 1999 how he felt about being left off Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 funniest people (Letterman came in at No. 18), he said regarding the media skew toward Letterman, "It's like your wife's family. It'd be nice if they like you, but it's not the end of the world."
As for Letterman and his media admirers, as someone who has played hide-and-seek with Carson these last few years, I can understand coveting what is just beyond your grasp. And while shedding that impulse would probably make us all more contented, that remains a trick even the most talented of stupid humans can't seem to master.
Jimmy Kimmel, another affable, beer-drinking comedian with a Peter Pan complex, was introduced Tuesday as ABC's new late-night talk-show host, making official ABC's dismissal of "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher," which has been dying on the vine for some months.
The announcement came at an annual gathering of media buyers in New York, where the broadcast networks are unveiling their new fall prime-time lineups.
As Kimmel was being trotted out before media buyers, Maher said in an interview with The Times, "I don't mind being canceled. It's actually time to move on. My hair was embarrassing when I started; now it's just gray."
Indications are that "P.I." will likely exit before the July 4 holiday, while Kimmel's talk show isn't slated to make its debut until Jan. 27, the Monday after ABC broadcasts the Super Bowl. In the interim, ABC announced that a half-hour extension of "Nightline," called "Nightline Close-Up," will air weeknights at 12:05 a.m. beginning sometime this summer.
"P.I." came to ABC in 1997 from Comedy Central, where for four years it had built momentum as a hybrid form of talk show, using a combination of celebrities, writers and pundits to take on hot-button issues. Fresh as that format was, it always hindered the show's ability to get A-list celebrity guests--stars who were more than willing to discuss their new movie but less so their feelings about, say, abortion.
In the end, it was a comment by Maher that seemed to doom the show. During a charged on-air discussion six days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Maher argued with the suggestion that the hijackers were cowards, adding, "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away."
"They have been pretending since Sept. 17 that I don't exist," Maher said of ABC.
The comments eventually caused a public-relations firestorm: Major sponsors, including Sears Roebuck & Co. and FedEx Corp., pulled their ads, and some affiliates yanked "P.I." off the air.
Some of those stations, including the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C., never returned, though "P.I.'s" ratings have generally been holding steady, with the show averaging roughly 2.5 million viewers per night.
"No one will ever convince me that there's not a connection between saying things that are controversial and losing your place at the podium," said Maher, who had run afoul of sponsors in the past. "Don't they have advertiser problems on all of their shows now? We didn't go off because the ratings went down.... Ours certainly didn't go down, and last week they were way up.... So if it's not that, then obviously the answer lies in the world of Faye Resnick."
Lloyd Braun, co-chairman of the ABC Entertainment Television Group (who formerly worked for Maher's managers at Brillstein-Grey Entertainment), separated Maher's Sept. 17 comments from ABC's decision to cancel the show.
"That's been a terrific show for us," Braun said. "Bill Maher has been tireless in his efforts."
According to sources, ABC has insisted to producers that the network was losing money on the show and wanted to land a personality who would give the network a bigger entertainment presence in late night.
In March, ABC made a widely publicized play for CBS' David Letterman, a move that would have supplanted both "P.I." and "Nightline." Now "Nightline's" new companion show will be anchored by Kimmel, best-known as co-host of Comedy Central's "The Man Show," which debuted in 1999 as a boldfaced attempt to draw in 18-to-34-year-old males.
"Please do not breathe a word of this to Ted Koppel," Kimmel told advertisers Tuesday, referring to the "Nightline" host.
"The Man Show" features girls on trampolines and sketches spoofing various regular-guy pursuits. Braun stressed during a conference call with reporters that the network wasn't acquiring the show's format, as it had with "Politically Incorrect," calling Kimmel "a very unique talent."
A Comedy Central spokesperson said the future of "The Man Show" is uncertain. Kimmel and co-host Adam Carolla will tape 20 more episodes to air later this year, and the pair are also behind the Comedy Central series "Crank Yankers," in which puppets reenact prank phone calls, which premieres in June.
One person who might be watching Kimmel's new show is Maher. "I'm glad it went to someone we used a lot as a guest on our show," he said. "There's a guy I can truly be happy for. I watch 'The Man Show.' I've probably seen every 'Man Show' they've ever made."
Maher said he is in talks about hosting a new television show, though he declined to offer specifics. "I don't mind at all losing my job," he said. "If it came down to a choice between losing my job and losing my soul, I'm glad I lost my job."
"Late
Night" Reruns on Comedy Central (March 21, 2002) Comedy Central officially welcomes repeats of "Late Night with
Conan O'Brien" starting in September. Comedy Central will air the
previous night's show, at a to-be-determined time.
The deal is for one year
plus an option on a second, and continues the trend of broadcast networks
attempt at reducing costs by repeating shows on cable.
Maher's
Days Are Numbered (March
19, 2002) Bill Maher says since September, 2001, he's known that
"Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" has become
expendable. Since Letterman decided to stay with CBS, ABC has given
support to "Nightline," but has said nothing about
"Politically Incorrect."
In an interview with the
"Seattle Times," Maher commented that Ted Koppel has always been
unwilling to help promote "Politically Incorrect."
At 6:15 on Feb. 27, a frigid evening in Manhattan, Robert A. Iger, the president of the Walt Disney Company and Lloyd Braun, the chairman of ABC Entertainment, stood in the street outside David Letterman's offices in the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway.
In the bracing wind, Mr. Iger was still wearing the windbreaker he had thrown on when he hurriedly left Los Angeles hours earlier, and without gloves, his hands were freezing. The two men had no appointment; they had just showed up at Mr. Letterman's door hoping for an impromptu meeting, one last touch that might make a favorable impression on the "Late Show" star.
They had reason to be optimistic.
ABC had everything in place to steal David Letterman away from CBS — except a signature. Mr. Letterman had in his office a contract, agreed-upon in all details by his production company and ABC.
If Mr. Letterman had picked up a pen and signed his name on that contract, CBS would have been looking for a new late- night star.
Ten days later, Mr. Letterman re-signed with CBS. His decision ended an aggressive wooing by ABC that came close to success, close enough for CBS executives to believe on several occasions that they were in danger of blowing the deal, and close enough that top ABC executives were convinced, to the end, that they would prevail.
The showdown to win Mr. Letterman is a tale that includes among its important events a legal misreading by CBS that it held the right to match a competing offer to Mr. Letterman; a careful and eventually untenable balancing act by ABC of its desire to win Mr. Letterman and its desire not to alienate the man he would have replaced, Ted Koppel of "Nightline"; a late but critical series of negotiating maneuvers by Leslie Moonves, the CBS Television president; and inquiries by CBS to determine whether Conan O'Brien, the NBC late-night star, might be available to replace Mr. Letterman at CBS.
The full-court-press intensity of ABC's campaign to win Mr. Letterman was perhaps most evident on that Wednesday, Feb. 27. With the ABC contract finished and in Mr. Letterman's hands, while no completed contract from CBS had yet been delivered, the issue was at a critical stage. Or so Mr. Braun, the chief architect of ABC's strategy, had concluded that morning in his office in Burbank, Calif.
Mr. Braun had already done all he could think of to win Mr. Letterman, including promising to refurbish any of three theaters in Manhattan for Mr. Letterman to work in; or if the star preferred, to update an ABC studio on West 66th Street to a highly sophisticated level of technology. Mr. Braun had personally led members of Mr. Letterman's production staff on a tour of the studio.
Still, unsettled about never having even met Mr. Letterman, Mr. Braun that morning asked Mr. Iger to drop everything and fly with him to New York to try to see Mr. Letterman. Mr. Iger readily agreed.
Now having flown across the country, the two men found themselves waiting in the cold. They were told Mr. Letterman was on stage taping his show, and it would be at least 15 to 20 minutes before he was available. So they crossed Broadway to kill some time in a coffee shop.
After a wait of more than two hours, during which they closed down the coffee shop, bought an Xbox video game in an electronics store, running gloves to cover Mr. Iger's freezing fingers in a Foot Locker store and a cheesecake for Mr. Letterman in a pastry shop, the two executives finally got their meeting. It lasted an hour.
Mr. Letterman was gracious, thanking ABC for its efforts. Mr. Braun and Mr. Iger left believing they had achieved much, and perhaps were on the brink of taking the prize they had avidly pursued throughout February: a star who would represent a huge increase in their late-night profits.
Nor, apparently, were they wrong. "The meeting had a big impact," said Rob Burnett, the president of Mr. Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants. "It really enhanced ABC's position. It put a face on the deal."
Mr. Letterman, telling his associates he needed time to think, left two days later for a vacation in St. Bart's, his future destination still up for grabs.
That the negotiation even reached that point was, in the words of one of Mr. Letterman's representatives, "totally shocking to us," because it meant that CBS had squandered a huge advantage and could no longer prevent Mr. Letterman from leaving — and leaving a big hole in their schedule every weeknight at 11:35.
CBS and the Letterman side had begun a 45-day exclusive negotiating period on Dec. 5. If at the conclusion of the negotiating period the Letterman side submitted its last and best proposal to CBS and the network did not assent, the show would be free to solicit offers elsewhere.
Things went sour from the beginning, executives involved in the talks said. CBS's first proposal struck Mr. Letterman's representatives as a slap in the face — amounting to a substantial percentage cut in the fees for Mr. Letterman and the show.
"It was insane," one of Mr. Letterman's representatives said. "It was positioning, but still we were offended."
Meanwhile, CBS took umbrage at the first Letterman proposal because it demanded control of the future of the the time period even after Mr. Letterman retired.
ABC was already monitoring the situation. Mr. Braun, aware of the friction between Mr. Letterman and CBS, predicted to his ABC colleagues that CBS would not conclude a deal in the exclusive period.
The 45 days stretched out with little movement. The Letterman side said CBS's apparent strategy baffled them.
"We were convinced their lack of response meant they had a plan based on three conclusions," a Letterman representative said. "Dave would never pull up stakes and leave; nobody else would be interested; or CBS retained a matching right in the contract. They were wrong on all three counts."
The matching-right issue turned out to be a major setback for CBS. The exclusive negotiating period — lengthened by holidays — ended Jan. 29, the day the Letterman side made its last, best proposal. CBS declined.
"They said we were too far apart," a Letterman representative said. "They said we had 30 days to solicit other offers, and `We have a right to match.' We said, `No, you don't.' "
The deal CBS struck with Mr. Letterman to woo him originally in 1993 had left out that clause, a point CBS ultimately conceded. "We were in jeopardy there," Mr. Moonves said. "There was great agitation."
ABC and the Letterman side were soon in contact, though neither side will say who called first. The talks went on a fast track.
Early the next week, Mr. Moonves put in a call to check on the status of Mr. O'Brien. "I spoke to a few people," he said. "I was still optimistic that we'd keep Dave, but it's dumb not to be prepared."
Mr. O'Brien was close to finishing a new deal with NBC and decided not to jump into the CBS situation, at least partly, associates said, because he did not want to be used as leverage against Mr. Letterman.
Mr. Letterman, meanwhile, was sensitive about being seen as pushing out "Nightline." His representatives asked ABC to clarify its position on the future of the show.
For ABC, the question was extremely delicate. Neither David Westin, the president of ABC News, nor Mr. Koppel knew ABC was chasing Mr. Letterman. Mr. Iger called both men "trusted colleagues," but he knew there was a risk of ruining ABC's chances if the negotiations became public.
"The corporation has been enormously encouraging and supportive of the news division," Mr. Iger said, citing numerous decisions Disney had made to back ABC News with money for programming and the hiring of new people.
But he knew secrets are seldom safe in a television news division. "I've been around," he said.
ABC did give the Letterman side assurances that Mr. Letterman would not be cast as the cause of change in "Nightline's" status. Mr. Braun said he made the point that the future of "Nightline" had been discussed inside ABC for some time. "I told them that the `Nightline' people knew they did not have that time period in perpetuity," Mr. Braun said.
The Letterman people heard a far stronger point being made. "They told us, `We are getting someone else for the time slot,' " Mr. Burnett said. "I heard that myself."
Late in February, Mr. Moonves, concerned about the way things were going, became more personally involved. He responded to an opening provided by Peter Lassally, a longtime close adviser to Mr. Letterman, and he reached out to Mr. Burnett. Mr. Lassally urged Mr. Moonves to be more receptive to the Letterman requests in areas like publicity and promotion, and simply to make accommodating gestures. He did so. His talks with Mr. Burnett became open and more cordial.
"CBS was stepping up," Mr. Burnett said. For its part, Worldwide Pants scaled back its plans to keep control of the 11:35 time period to a request that it be given first crack at producing a new show after Mr. Letterman's retirement.
Money had never been a sticking point. "We had agreed on the figures for weeks," Mr. Moonves said. CBS would pay Mr. Letterman $31.5 million a year, up 5 percent from his previous deal.
The news of ABC's overtures to Mr. Letterman broke in The New York Times on March 1, and a firestorm erupted over the fate of "Nightline." Initially, the Letterman side welcomed the published comments from ABC, concluding that they indicated that the network was indeed planning to find a new time slot for "Nightline."
And ABC executives felt they could use their willingness to stand up to the criticism to advantage with the Letterman side. "Here we were, taking bazooka shots," one ABC executive said. "We're getting pounded in the press, bullets are flying all around us and we're still walking toward Dave, with our arms out, saying `We love you, Dave, we love you!' "
But Mr. Iger found himself dealing with anger in the ABC news division. He flew across the country again to meet with Mr. Koppel to state his support and to apologize for quotations from ABC executives that he said represented a view about "Nightline" that was "far too radical."
While defending the company for seeking Mr. Letterman, Mr. Iger said it was only for so extraordinary a talent that any change for "Nightline" was being contemplated.
Those comments also had fallout. Some members of the Letterman team interpreted ABC's reaction as backtracking. Mr. Burnett said, "As the story played out, it became clear to us that we were in fact impacting `Nightline.' "
How much the "Nightline" imbroglio affected Mr. Letterman's thinking is not clear. Mr. Burnett said that he called the star only twice in the nine days he was away but that they did discuss the attention the story was stirring up, a fact that amazed Mr. Letterman, Mr. Burnett said. In the end, he said, "The `Nightline' thing was not the only factor in why we decided what we decided, but it was a factor."
Mr. Letterman did convey one message clearly from his retreat in St. Bart's. "He did not want to drag this thing out," Mr. Burnett said.
Knowing a decision was likely when Mr. Letterman returned to work last Monday, both sides pursued endgame strategies. That morning David F. Poltrack, CBS's executive vice president of research, offered an elaborate pro-CBS ratings analysis. ABC countered with its biggest player. Michael Eisner, the Disney chairman, called Mr. Letterman from Europe. The conversation was brief and pleasant, both sides reported. Then Letterman executives took a trip to ABC's headquarters to listen to one last ABC research presentation.
After breaking down all the numbers himself, Mr. Burnett declared them "essentially a wash."
On Monday afternoon, Mr. Braun and Mr. Iger were back in New York, counting down the hours, growing ever more confident. "I really thought it was ours," Mr. Iger said. At CBS, Mr. Moonves was also confident, though still on edge. "There were butterflies," he said. "But throughout the process I never once thought our chances were any worse than 50-50."
Late in the afternoon, Mr. Braun and Mr. Iger gave up trying to work. They left ABC's headquarters, walked awhile, then caught a cab and took it to Madison Avenue, where again Mr. Iger got in a little shopping.
At 68th and Madison, Mr. Braun's cellphone rang. Mr. Iger watched his facial expressions. Mr. Braun shook his head and mouthed: "CBS." Rob Burnett was on the line, but Mr. Braun did not hear anything else. "I was in such shock," he said.
At CBS, Mr. Moonves got a call minutes later. The Letterman group was on the line congratulating him. He was elated. A short time later Mr. Moonves made his way to the Sullivan theater, where he watched a tape of Mr. Letterman's performance that night. Then he went in to see the star, the first time in the entire process he had spoken to him.
"Dave said he was very relieved and thankful and happy," Mr. Moonves said. "We truly did have a great meeting, unbelievably good. I referred to his monologue where he said we're a family and we have fistfights. I said we really are a family, but we're not going to have fistfights anymore. Dave said, `Hold on a minute, I promise you we will have fistfights.' I said it takes two to fight and I'm not going to fight."
After making calls to break the news, first to Mr. Eisner, then to Mr. Westin and then to Mr. Koppel — the last conversation had "a somber quality to it," Mr. Iger said — Mr. Iger went home to his New York apartment, feeling totally let down. "I hadn't felt that way since ABC lost the Olympics," he said.
"But I don't have any second thoughts or misgivings," he said. "This was David Letterman, for goodness sakes, and the economic issues were extremely compelling. I think we would have deserved criticism if we hadn't tried to get him."
Mr. Braun, feeling completely miserable, had to go off on a long walk by himself. He went for dinner alone to Shun Lee Palace and, over Chinese food, replayed every move in the game.
The next day Mr. Braun flew home to Los Angeles. That evening he sat down with his children. He said, "I told them how important it is to try and not be afraid to fail."
Taking his first public statement about ABC's failed bid to lure David Letterman from CBS, the Walt Disney Company's chairman, Michael D. Eisner, suggested that his deputies had become overoptimistic on their chances of snaring Mr. Letterman.
Though he had his own doubts, he said, the confidence of Disney and ABC executives persuaded him that the network had a real shot. Mr. Eisner made the comments yesterday on "American Morning," the CNN program with Paula Zahn as its host.
When Ms. Zahn asked Mr. Eisner how close his network had come to hiring Mr. Letterman, Mr. Eisner said: "Well, it depends who you listen to. We were — I was not on the line, I was listening to the people at ABC. They were really encouraged."
Mr. Eisner said that he had believed that Mr. Letterman would ultimately decide against moving to ABC because he would find distasteful the prospect of effectively causing the end of "Nightline" — the news program with Ted Koppel as its anchor — at 11:35 p.m. "I envisioned that," Mr. Eisner said, "and unfortunately, I guess, for us, that is what happened."
ABC and Disney executives have continued to stress that they would still consider replacing "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m., with or without Mr. Letterman. They have said, however, that "Nightline" would only be removed from its time slot to make way for an extraordinary talent.
After Mr. Letterman made public his decision to stay at CBS on Monday, Mr. Koppel and his top producers issued a statement demanding a substantial commitment to "Nightline" and implying dire consequences for ABC and Disney should they be rebuffed. Mr. Koppel, who is insisting that "Nightline" be kept in its time slot, is said to have an opening in his contract that allows him to pursue employment elsewhere in the fall.
Asked about his plans for "Nightline," Mr. Eisner would say only, "We are very supportive of ABC News, and I, personally, have not continued the conversations about what the show is going to be, and how long it is going to be, and all the rest of it."
David Letterman's new contract with CBS requires the network to throw extra promotional weight behind his late-night program, bowing to Letterman's hope that will help narrow the gap between his show and ratings leader "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."
Yet after a tumultuous 10 days in which Letterman's possible defection to ABC commanded national headlines, late-night ratings this week have been virtually unchanged, with Leno beating "Late Show With David Letterman" all three nights for which ratings are available--including Monday, when Letterman returned from a weeklong vacation and announced on the air his intent to stay at CBS.
Analyzing data from 50 major cities monitored by ratings service Nielsen Media Research that account for well over half of U.S. households (national estimates for late night won't be available until next week), Leno has averaged a 4.6 rating and 12 share this week, meaning 4.6% of all homes and 12% of TV sets in use
during that hour were tuned to "The Tonight Show."
Letterman enjoyed a minor spike Monday, with a 3.9 rating and 10 share, but dropped the next two nights and averaged a 3.6 rating Monday through Wednesday, mirroring his average this season.
Meanwhile, "Nightline" averaged a 4 rating in its half-hour and "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher" averaged a 2.7 rating, both deviating only slightly from their season-long averages.
Those results reinforce the sense that shifts in late-night viewing habits tend to be glacial, raising questions about how much impact additional promotion is likely to have--especially as long as NBC continues to beat CBS from 10:30 to 11 p.m., leading into late local newscasts. On Wednesday, for example, a rerun of NBC's "Law & Order" more than doubled viewing of "60 Minutes II" in that half-hour.
The value of promotion may also be mitigated by how long the late-night players have been in place, with many people having made their viewing choices.
For the season, Leno is averaging 6 million viewers per night nationally, compared with 4.3 million watching Letterman.
Tune-in for both shows drops after midnight, and each leads ABC's combination of "Nightline" and "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher," which would have been displaced had ABC landed Letterman. Those shows average 4.6 million and 2.6 million viewers, respectively.
Letterman's contract calls for CBS to leverage assets from parent company Viacom to promote the show, including MTV, VH1 and more than 180 radio stations across the United States. Viewers can also expect to see extensive "Late Show" promotion during CBS' coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament.
Michael D. Eisner, in France for the opening of a festive Walt Disney theme park, made a phone call back home on a decidedly unfestive issue facing his company: Ted Koppel's future at ABC News.
The Disney chairman spoke to the anchor of "Nightline," but the newsman did not hear the words he wanted to hear: unequivocal and long-term support for his late-night program, executives said.
The pro forma call, an apparent effort to cool the talk engulfing ABC News and Disney, did nothing to resolve Mr. Koppel's stand-off with his corporate bosses, and Disney executives appeared to do little yesterday to bridge the gap.
Mr. Eisner's call came as attention focused on Mr. Koppel's next move. Only hours before, Mr. Koppel had issued a statement demanding a substantial commitment to his 11:35 p.m. program after ABC's attempt to replace it with a David Letterman talk show failed with Mr. Letterman's decision to stay at CBS. ABC and "Nightline" officials refused to confirm reports late yesterday that Mr. Koppel had an opening in his contract this fall allowing him to seek employment elsewhere.
Mr. Koppel told his Washington staff yesterday morning only that the call from Mr. Eisner was "warm and friendly," people who were there said.
Disney executives, however, emphasized that the call was only a courtesy. Mr. Eisner, they said, simply expressed to Mr. Koppel a wish to move beyond the topsy- turvy 12 days since ABC's negotiations with Mr. Letterman became public.
The Disney executives, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, suggested that the conversation was brief and said Mr. Eisner did not engage with Mr. Koppel in talks about the future of "Nightline." It is unclear if Disney executives will engage in such talks at all.
The company was standing by a statement from the ABC president, Alex Wallau, that said "Nightline" would remain in its 11:35 time slot but did not specify how long. In the pursuit of Mr. Letterman, ABC officials said the show's mission at 11:35 p.m. was usurped by cable news and the Internet and suggested that they would continue to explore possible replacements for Mr. Koppel's program, even if Mr. Letterman did not switch networks.
So Mr. Koppel was left yesterday in a waiting game, without a substantive response to his statement.
In the statement, also signed by the "Nightline" producers, Tom Bettag and Leroy Sievers, Mr. Koppel had requested from Disney "more than bland assurances" about his program's longevity, and asserted, "It would not be reasonable to expect all of us at `Nightline' to continue our work in a climate of ongoing uncertainty."
Neither he nor his producers would elaborate on what exactly that implied — whether it included an implicit threat to resign.
Indeed, Mr. Koppel, recognized as one of television's shrewdest and toughest interviewers, kept to his strategy of refusing to be interviewed, preferring that his written message remain unfiltered.
Since the controversy began, he has communicated only twice publicly — his written statement Monday night and a gentler, less threatening article in the Op-Ed page of The New York Times last week.
His Monday night statement was not receiving unified support at ABC News. Some rank-and-file ABC News employees expressed disapproval with Mr. Koppel's tough stance. In interviews yesterday, they took issue with his implication that ABC News would be in disarray without "Nightline" and with Mr. Koppel's implication that he could not work without guarantees of his program's future at 11:35.
Mr. Koppel is paid many millions a year to anchor his program three nights a week, they complained, while many others are taking pay cuts on much smaller salaries to work much harder with no such guarantees.
Barbs were directed at Mr. Koppel from outside the division, too. Chris Matthews, the MSNBC talk show host, criticized Mr. Koppel's work habits at a Washington lunch yesterday of the Cable Television Public Affairs Association. "If the show's so good, why doesn't he show up?" Mr. Matthews said, according to the Web site of Broadcasting & Cable.
Still, even those staff members who complained about Mr. Koppel acknowledged the excellent quality of his program and said it added prestige to ABC News.
The program also continues to have an advocate in the president of ABC News, David Westin. A staff member who attended a meeting of Mr. Westin and division staff members yesterday said Mr. Westin expressed relief that the immediate danger to "Nightline" had passed. Mr. Westin also said he would continue to emphasize to Disney and ABC officials the importance of the news division and he challenged his staff to work even harder to further bolster its position within the company.
Friends, couch potatoes, countrymen, lend me your eyes;
I come not to bury Eisner, but to praise him.
Sure, Eisner is ambitious to keep the Disney coffers filled.
And, yes, Koppel is an honorable man.
But who are we kidding? Spare me the deification of TV news.
The air is absurdly thick with dudgeon. And broadcast hotshots will no doubt find fresh outrage in the fact that it took a comedian to stay Ted Koppel's execution.
Everyone has painted Michael Eisner as Cruella De Vil, trying to take the precious puppy known as ABC News and turn it into a flashy polka-dot wrap. He is the Philistine who's stomping on the hallowed halls of journalism, trying to junk the estimable "Nightline" for the ka-ching of late-night jokes.
Still, the bitter donnybrook between Disney and ABC News is not as black and white as "Steamboat Willie." It is simplistic to cast it as the noble crusade of journalism versus the crass demands of commerce, bread versus circuses.
Even though Mr. Eisner and Robert Iger treated Mr. Koppel shabbily, they were embracing the same objectives that network news divisions have been embracing for years. They were simply taking the game to the next level.
In a way, "Nightline" is like that little house that always got in the way of some big new casino going up in Atlantic City. Donald Trump or somebody would offer a fortune to tear it down, and the owner would put up a fight on principle.
"Nightline" is a lonely holdout with a strong commitment to journalistic principles and mature anchors whose features still move.
Much of TV news had already become part of the big casino, supplanting Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite with neon and showgirls.
News executives have been racing to tart up the news with pretty faces in leather coats, soft and sexy stories, and promos for prime-time shows brazenly masquerading as legitimate news features. They obsess over the talents' Q-ratings the way Hollywood suits obsess over the weekend box-office rankings.
Otherwise, why pay Katie Couric 65 million bucks to perk? Why zoom the camera in on Paula Zahn's lips and advertise her as sexy? Why celebrate Greta Van Susteren for remaking her face?
David Westin, the ABC News president, has been agonizing over the fate of Ted Koppel — going ashen- faced at one meeting and declaring that a Letterman usurpation would be a "tremendous blow" against the news division.
But isn't this the same guy who sent Leonardo DiCaprio to interview President Clinton about the environment? And the same guy who's been grooming George Stephanopoulos, the former Clinton aide who was deemed as cuddly and doe-eyed as a Disney character by New York magazine, and Claire Shipman, the former NBC It Girl on the White House beat, to bump off Sam & Cokie and shoot for a younger audience for its Sunday public-affairs program?
If TV news were that high-toned, wouldn't the impressive Andrea Mitchell have her own show, instead of the zany Ashleigh Banfield and her glasses? And wouldn't Brian Ross be trussed up in a leather coat doing sizzle news on "Downtown 20/20" instead of Chris Cuomo?
If network news were all about excellent journalism, wouldn't Tim Russert and Candy Crowley be the anchors-in-waiting? Instead, there's a queue of pretty-boy pod-people in the wings, on the off chance the evening news manages to survive the departure of Tom, Dan and Peter.
Mr. Westin sees himself as the righteous shield keeping Mr. Eisner from censoring all the stories about the Disney Company. But like all TV news executives, he has been infusing glib entertainment values into the news division for years. So he cannot now act shocked, shocked when his bosses take the next step and decide to bump a news show for entertainment.
Mr. Westin has discovered why you should never negotiate with hostage-takers: If you give a Mouse a cookie, it will want a glass of milk.
Though they are archrivals in the race for ratings supremacy, David Letterman and Jay Leno have effectively joined forces in one cause: Keeping the late-night field clear of an emerging talent who might someday replace them.
The jockeying for Letterman's services, in fact, underscores not only the paucity of candidates perceived to be ready to front a late-night show but also the iron grip with which Letterman and Leno have held onto their late-night thrones in the last decade.
"This used to be a great forum for young comics to get national prominence," complained one prominent talent manager, speaking on condition of anonymity lest he alienate either "The Tonight Show" or "The Late Show." "And these two hosts almost made a conscious effort to eliminate that."
The manager noted that both shows had improved talent relations of late.
But the comparatively gentle, nurturing era in which Johnny Carson was king of late night and broke in comics on "The Tonight Show"--introducing them to audiences through repeat visits to his stage and allowing a few to be guest hosts--has long since given way to the highly competitive Leno versus Letterman, either-or years.
It's an all-consuming and personal ratings battle that doesn't allow any other comedic voice to be heard.
Granted, Carson could afford to be magnanimous; he didn't, for the most part, have competition. Leno versus Letterman, on the other hand, is all about competition. Leno consistently wins, much to the consternation of Letterman, whose ego evidently can't abide simply being the more critically admired of the two.
His people (it is never Letterman himself) carp that "The Late Show" loses to "The Tonight Show" in large part because CBS' prime time and late local-news audiences are weaker than NBC's, an argument that would seem to belie the average American's ability to point a remote control at the TV and press a button.
Regardless, Leno and Letterman have redrawn the politics of late night, a side effect of their talent and drive, not to mention the profits generated by each of their shows. Neither has a guest host, opting to air reruns when they go on vacation.
When Letterman underwent quintuple bypass heart surgery in January 2000, elaborate discussions about who would fill in eventually gave way to a tiny concession on "The Late Show's" part: For a few weeks, quasi-guest hosts reminisced about past appearances. Then Regis Philbin did a night, and so did Bill Cosby. But the point was well taken: Letterman is bigger than the show itself.
ABC's offer to "The Late Show" host marks the first seismic shift in late-night since 1991, when it was announced that Leno would succeed Carson on "The Tonight Show" and Letterman, deprived of his dream job, eventually retrenched at CBS. That 10 years have passed since then signals the glacial pace at which the landscape changes in late night, where two men, now both in their 50s, don't figure to give way to successors in the near future.
At the same time, networks are so focused on short-term gains that talent development has practically ceased, observers say. Thus, Disney-owned ABC, evidently having decided that it needs a more profitable product than "Nightline" at 11:30 p.m., seized on a quick casting fix when the opportunity to enter the Letterman talks arose.
Late-night entertainment is a key potential profit center for the networks because the successful shows draw a heavy concentration of men ages 18 to 49, an elusive demographic that advertisers labor to reach. In addition, the attrition of prime-time ratings has increased the emphasis on developing late-night franchises.
Fox has been searching for a late-night show for years, knowing that it can get a jump on the competition by starting a program at 11 p.m. A recent play for Conan O'Brien, host of the 12:30 a.m. "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," ended when O'Brien extended his contract at NBC through 2005.
For that matter, one could argue that with the exception of Arsenio Hall's late-'80s insurrection, most have failed in late night, from Dennis Miller to Magic Johnson. It is not a job, in other words, that is as easy as it might look.
Longtime talent manager Bernie Brillstein, who shepherded the careers of everyone from John Belushi to Martin Short, articulated several familiar talking points in the comedy world that resonate in the bidding frenzy for Letterman: The death of "The Tonight Show" as a classy breeding ground of young talent; the attendant rise of the comedian-as-multimillion-dollar sitcom star; and the explosion of cable channels, which dilutes the creative gene pool and causes a clutter of talk shows and talking heads.
Before now, ABC has done little in the way of developing for late night, even as "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher's" stock has dropped internally. "PI," which airs at midnight, after "Nightline," hasn't even been a part of the public debate, further evidence--if any were needed--that the show won't be renewed at the end of the year.
Andrea Wong, the network's senior vice president of alternative series and specials, declined to be interviewed, as did Maher.
Also not speaking is Jon Stewart, who many believe is best positioned to jump into the late-night waters thanks to his topical satire-talk show "The Daily Show," which airs on cable's Comedy Central, a cable network part-owned by Viacom, owner of CBS.
Stewart, who hosted "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend, joked during his monologue that he would take whatever network role offered him, including NBC weatherman Willard Scott's job of "waving at old people."
Stewart's "Daily Show" draws fewer than 1 million viewers at 11 nightly, but a wave of positive press has recast him as a kind of matinee idol of late-night comedy, with the accessibility of Leno and the cynicism of Letterman but without the more objectionable qualities of each.
Several sources said Stewart reveres Letterman and would be reluctant to take him on as a competitor, and they noted that he is signed at Comedy Central through January 2003. Chris Rock, another proven commodity via his run as host of HBO's "The Chris Rock Show," is said by his representatives to be preoccupied with his film career, both as star and director.
That leaves Craig Kilborn, the man chosen by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, to succeed Tom Snyder as host of CBS' "The Late Late Show." But although Kilborn has improved the network's performance among young men, he has done little in his three years on the air to convince executives that he's ready for a higher-profile time slot.
In today's era of vertically integrated media conglomerates, executives talk of using cable channels as "labs" to develop late-night personalities for the broadcast networks. In this way, presumably, a comedian named Zach Galifianakis, host of VH1's new late-night talk show "Late World with Zach," could someday become a late-night personality for CBS, as both are owned by Viacom.
More to the point, however, will VH1 exhibit the patience with Galifianakis needed to develop him, assuming he deserves the chance? Or is the trial-by-fire that O'Brien survived at NBC, where he lived on 13-week contracts in his initial months on the air before the network made a long-term commitment, the exception that proves the rule?
"The question is, 10 years from now, or 15 years from now, who's going to be in your living room every night? And how are they going to work their way in?" said Doug Herzog, president at USA Cable Networks, who, before a stint running Fox, launched "The Daily Show" at Comedy Central.
"These guys are like pillars," Herzog said admiringly of Leno and Letterman. And pillars, unfortunately, don't grow on trees.
David Letterman told his audience Monday that he would "like to finish my career" at CBS, agreeing to a new contract with his current network and leaving jilted suitor ABC measuring the damage that its bid might have done to ABC News and "Nightline," the venerable program Letterman would have displaced.
After weighing the two offers, the 54-year-old host returned from a vacation on the Caribbean island of St. Bart's and signed a new three-year agreement with CBS, with an option for two additional years.
ABC quickly announced in the wake of Letterman's decision that "Nightline" will remain in its current time slot, opposite Letterman's program and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" on NBC. Letterman detailed his decision in a monologue during his show's taping in New York Monday afternoon.
While the deal appears to reinforce late-night television's status quo, the reality is that ABC's unsuccessful grab for Letterman seems likely to have long-term repercussions for all of the principal players while jump-starting what promises to be an ongoing debate about the future of network news.
Letterman's deal will reportedly pay him about $31.5 million annually, up from the $30 million he had made in the last year of his previous pact. But the key provision involved written guarantees that CBS' parent company, Viacom, will bring its vast resources to bear in promoting his late-night program, which continues to trail "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" in the ratings, a source of frustration to the mercurial host.
ABC's attempt to land Letterman leaked out 11 days ago and fueled a spate of stories about the diminished commitment to news by companies that control the major television networks, foremost among them the Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC.
Responding to that criticism, ABC defended its interest in Letterman in a statement issued Monday. "In today's competitive environment, it is incumbent upon us to explore all programming options, and 'The Late Show With David Letterman' was an opportunity that ABC felt compelled to pursue," the network said.
A spokesman for the Walt Disney Co. said Chairman Michael Eisner and President Robert Iger were unavailable for comment. Iger and Eisner reportedly spearheaded the pursuit of Letterman.
"Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel, who had limited his public comments to an opinion piece for the New York Times, issued a pointed statement Monday in which he and his producers chided Disney, saying that "intentionally or not, collateral damage has been done" to ABC News and that it would be unreasonable to expect the show's staff to continue "in a climate of ongoing uncertainty. There must be a great many talented comedians who would welcome the opportunity to take over the 'Nightline' time slot. Our hope is that Disney will send a clear and unmistakable signal . . . that 'Nightline' can count on serious corporate backing."
Christopher Dixon, an analyst with UBS Warburg, echoed Koppel's point, observing that while Disney's strategy to bring Letterman to ABC had "an enormous amount of merit, the issue was how it was executed. . . . Iger and Eisner did not manage the process well."
Now, Dixon said, Iger and company must "rebuild credibility with the senior news correspondents" at ABC.
As it stands, high-profile ABC News personnel--including Barbara Walters and Sam Donaldson--have publicly expressed outrage over what they saw as an obvious slight to "Nightline" and its anchor, Koppel, who has hosted the prestigious news program for more than 22 years.
Letterman's decision to remain at CBS is only the latest in a series of setbacks at ABC.
The network's prime-time ratings have dropped dramatically this season, as viewing of the quiz-show franchise "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" sank faster than officials anticipated.
In addition, Letterman's courtship represents only the latest public relations mess involving a perceived snub of key talent.
In the fall, network officials angered "Millionaire" host Regis Philbin by suggesting they might cancel the fading quiz show without informing him. The network also irked Walters by temporarily yanking her news program, "20/20," from the Friday time period it had occupied for more than a decade.
The fact that ABC News President David Westin was blindsided by the Letterman negotiations has also fueled a sense that news is not a priority for Disney as it seeks to revive the network.
Insiders at CBS say they had been generally optimistic Letterman would stay, despite what are perceived to have been frayed relations between the host and CBS Television President Leslie Moonves.
"It was a matter of, 'If I'm not appreciated, I should make a move,' " said Lee Gabler, co-chairman of Creative Artists Agency, which represents Letterman. "He wanted to be with a network that cared about his show as much as he did. . . . CBS stepped up."
Letterman considered ABC's overture only after CBS balked at meeting certain demands during an exclusive negotiating period, among them the right to control the hour he currently occupies for 10 years after he quits the program.
While that concession was not met, CBS did agree contractually to promote "Late Show" using Viacom's far-flung assets, which include MTV, VH1, an outdoor advertising company and more than 180 radio stations in major cities across the United States--all outlets that offer the means to reach the young-adult audience most advertisers crave.
If nothing else, the publicity has drawn attention to his program--something Letterman no doubt contributed to by making his announcement on the air Monday.
On NBC, meanwhile, Leno offered his own joke about Letterman's new deal, saying that Disney pursued Letterman before the studio "realized they already had a guy working there named 'Grumpy.' "
NEW YORK--David Letterman used the opening comments of his show Monday to tell viewers of his decision to stay at CBS, but not before getting in a few jokes at the expense of his employer.
Toward Ted Koppel, however, whose "Nightline" would have been pushed aside had Letterman gone to ABC, the comedian was nothing but gracious.
Letterman called Koppel a great "Late Show" guest who "might be too funny for a newsman," then noted that his "contributions to American culture speak for themselves."
Because of his stature, Letterman continued to applause, the newsman "at the very least . . . deserves the right to determine his own professional future."
With that, Letterman said he had decided to stay at CBS, although he said it was not an easy decision--and not without repercussions. "There goes the vacation to Disney World," he quipped.
He opened the night's "Late Show With David Letterman" by joking that "all of a sudden, they [CBS] can't kiss up to me enough," saying that he "finally got a get-well card from my bypass surgery" two years ago.
Later, he turned serious and called the contract talks "trivial, pointless and downright silly" in comparison to the terrorist attacks of six months ago.
But the jokes quickly picked up. When he came to CBS nine years ago, he said, the network was nothing. "We were able to build something," he boasted, showing a clip reel that included a Stupid Pet Trick and a Richard Simmons appearance.
As to the negotiations with ABC, Letterman said the Disney-owned network had "all the . . . money in the world."
The situation got "crazier and crazier and crazier," he said, adding, "When I drop dead there won't be this much press."
David Letterman will keep his late-night talk show at CBS, he announced yesterday, spurning a strong bid from ABC that would have displaced that network's highly regarded news program "Nightline."
Mr. Letterman made his decision official in a statement he delivered just after the start of the taping of his "Late Show" last night in Manhattan.
On the program, Mr. Letterman told his audience that he appreciated the generosity of the offer from ABC, but that he had decided to stay at CBS and that he hoped ABC would continue with "Nightline" and its anchor Ted Koppel, "for as long as that guy would like to have that job."
Mr. Koppel, who has been angered by ABC's treatment of him and the staff of his program, issued a sternly worded statement last night, joined by his top producers. The statement said that the network had damaged "Nightline" and hurt its staff members and that it was the network's obligation to repair the damage.
"We hope the corporate leadership of Disney understands that it would not be reasonable to expect all of us at `Nightline' to continue our work in a climate of ongoing uncertainty," the statement read.
"There must be a great many talented comedians who would welcome the opportunity to take over the `Nightline' time slot. Our hope is that Disney will send a clear and unmistakable signal to them, to us, to the advertising community and to all of our loyal viewers interested in the robust future of network television news that `Nightline' can count on serious corporate backing." (ABC is a unit of the Walt Disney Company)
A senior ABC executive who was involved in the talks defended the network's effort to win Mr. Letterman, as "sound business reasoning."
He said, "I'm proud of what we did," and noted that the situation was extremely delicate because ABC had to go all out to woo Mr. Letterman while trying not to offend the staff of "Nightline" and the ABC News division.
"I don't see how we could have handled this much more adeptly," the ABC executive said. "It was a very, very difficult corridor we were navigating."
Rob Burnett, the president of Worldwide Pants, Mr. Letterman's production company, praised ABC's effort: "ABC made a fantastic run at it. They are terrific guys, and we believed they would have done everything they promised."
CBS was forced to make a number of concessions to keep Mr. Letterman, who was disappointed with the network's initial approach in the negotiations. Mr. Burnett said that Mr. Letterman, after seriously considering ABC, chose CBS because it had "seriously stepped up" in the most recent negotiations, offering Mr. Letterman much more in terms of commitments to promote the show more widely and promises to limit pre- emptions and delays in the show's starting time.
For example, CBS made the unusual concession of agreeing to trim the local news on the stations it owns to start Mr. Letterman's show on time at 11:35 p.m. whenever a network program, like an awards show or a movie, runs five minutes or less past 11 p.m.
"CBS finally convinced Dave they wanted him to stay," Mr. Burnett said. "It's very difficult to start up a new late-night franchise. Dave has done it here. He loves the theater he works in. He feels like he's really built something at CBS. It all came down to a gut decision on his part that right now he wasn't ready to leave. Ultimately, he just wanted to stay home."
Mr. Letterman's decision to stay at CBS, a unit of Viacom, brought an end to more than a week of intense speculation about his future and how it would affect Mr. Koppel. Executives close to Mr. Letterman said yesterday that he returned from a weeklong vacation eager to resolve the issue without any further delay.
On his program last night, Mr. Letterman joked about the reports of conflicts with CBS executives that had led to the opportunity for ABC to lure him away. "It's like family," he said. "There's been good times, and there've been fistfights. I'm not speaking figuratively, I'm speaking literally. I actually punched some executives."
Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS Television and the man in the middle of the Letterman negotiations, said yesterday: "When the call came I was legitimately thrilled. It made me realize, though obviously I had before, exactly how important this was to us."
Mr. Letterman kept executives at both networks in suspense to the end. His representatives did not call either network until minutes before he began his taping last evening. Then he insured prolonged secrecy by blocking out the transmission of the taping to CBS offices in both New York and Los Angeles.
No specific terms of the deal were disclosed, but both networks had reportedly been in the same range with their offers. The salary for Mr. Letterman was said to be about $31.5 million a year, a 5 percent increase from the $30 million he is making in the last year of his current CBS deal.
A CBS executive said the deal was "between three years and five years," which means that Mr. Letterman is likely to have the opportunity to renegotiate in three years. "The deal leaves Dave room to do whatever Dave wants to do," the CBS executive said.
Both networks had aggressively sought Mr. Letterman because of the profits from his show. Some reports limited that figure to as low as $25 million a year — about double what "Nightline" executives had reported as that program's profit. Executives involved in the negotiations said that the profit figure for Mr. Letterman was actually well more than $50 million. One executive said that when the profits that stations owned by the network are figured in, Mr. Letterman's show might generate more than $80 million in profit a year.
The most significant reason for the differences in profit have to do with the makeup of the audiences for the two shows. "Nightline" reaches a news audience that is generally somewhat older than the audience for Mr. Letterman's show, and advertisers still prefer reaching younger viewers.
Mr. Moonves acknowledged that ABC had been very competitive in its bid to win Mr. Letterman. "They were a serious contender," he said, adding that while not exactly on the edge of his seat last night, he remained at least a bit worried until the moment a call came through telling him that Mr. Letterman had chosen CBS. "I wanted this very badly," Mr. Moonves said.
He added that he believed that the reports that he and Mr. Letterman had personality conflicts had been "blown out of proportion."
In his comments on the air, Mr. Letterman made the point that when he joined the network in 1993 "CBS was nothing," and that since then "we were able to build something." He added, "We've had a lot of wonderful things happen."
Later he noted that despite his kind words for CBS, his analysis of network executives may not change, at least in his on-air commentary. "The morons running the network think there won't be any fistfights," he said. "There will be fistfights, and that's too bad."
But then he said he hoped to finish his career at CBS.
A crucial part in the decision, all sides in the negotiations said, was CBS's recent improvement in its prime-time schedule, at the same time that ABC's schedule has been in a steep slide. ABC tried to convince Mr. Letterman that it would provide him with better lead-in audiences because its local station lineup was so much stronger than CBS's.
Robert A. Iger, the president of Disney, and Lloyd Braun, the president of ABC Entertainment, flew to New York from California and met with Mr. Letterman's representatives yesterday morning. They made a last-ditch effort to persuade Mr. Letterman to jump networks. But they received a call informing them of the decision just before Mr. Moonves received his call.
"We're disappointed," the senior ABC executive said. "We thought it was a long shot, but we were very aggressive, very competitive."
The executive noted that ABC had recently added both the games of the National Basketball Association and John Madden as a commentator for its "Monday Night Football" games. "We're going to continue to look at business opportunities," the executive said.
On the question of damage to "Nightline," the executive said: "I have no doubt we can repair the situation. It's my hope that we're all stronger from this. We're committed to the show."
Of Mr. Koppel, the executive said that he believed that Mr. Koppel could take advantage of the increased awareness of the show. "This gives him the opportunity to make the show whatever he wants to make of it," he said.
In his remarks on his show, Mr. Letterman acknowledged that ABC had run a gantlet of criticism for its aggressive attempt to win him. "I would rather ride naked on the subway than go through what these people had to go through the last couple of weeks," he said. `'To me they were gracious and generous and very, very patient."
NEW YORK—The watershed moment for network news—when it was put on notice that budget concerns, not just public service, would henceforth be a priority—came in 1987 courtesy of CBS Chairman Larry Tisch. At the time, employees were blindsided by a report that Tisch planned a major reduction at the network's news division. Tisch ultimately cut 10% of its $300-million budget and a sixth of its 1,220 jobs.
Echoes of 1987 reverberated through the recent revelation that ABC and parent Walt Disney Co. had been plotting to replace Ted Koppel's "Nightline" with comedian David Letterman. "[It's] even worse," said Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press.
The vulnerability of "Nightline," one of television news' most honored programs, has spurred an outpouring of support, from ABC's Barbara Walters to CBS' Dan Rather to 10,000 viewer e-mails, petitions and a "Save Nightline" Web site. As the initial shock fades, however, industry executives have been trying to decipher what, if anything, the change portends for network news.
Disney's attack on "Nightline" is just the latest indignity for critics already bemoaning the declining state of TV journalism. They cite shrinking foreign bureaus, increasing hype and entertainment packaging, and obsession with celebrity to boost ratings, with actor Leonardo DiCaprio's interview of President Clinton for ABC News representing a particular low point. The trend of news divisions being subsumed by ever-bigger entertainment giants with other priorities is unlikely to slow with a new wave of media consolidation imminent in the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Many in the industry trenches counter that network news has adapted to new budget realities and, as NBC News proves, can be highly profitable. The "Nightline" situation, they argue, is distressing for the callous way ABC handled it. But it is only indicative of the difficult economic state of Disney, a financial opportunity in Letterman that the company would be irresponsible not to pursue, and a reflection on Koppel himself, who has cut back on-air hours in recent years.
The one thing everyone agrees is that the incident reinforces the message that profitability matters and will increase the pressure for CBS or ABC to make a long-discussed deal with cable's CNN to share news-gathering costs. So far, talks have languished because neither side is willing to cede control, with network executives insisting CNN-style news is shallow.
If "Nightline" goes away, it will have broad financial implications for ABC News far more damaging than the symbolic ones. Every program at ABC News has to absorb overhead costs for the entire operation, and other programs such as "Good Morning America" and "World News Tonight" will have to pick up the "Nightline" slack.
"The loss of air time will cause more difficulties for the division," said Tom Wolzien, a media analyst for the investment research firm Sanford C. Bernstein.
In the critics' camp, senior National Public Radio correspondents in a letter to the editor, called "Nightline" a "beacon of intelligent information in a TV landscape marked by increasing irrelevancies," adding that anonymous Disney remarks about the show's irrelevancy were "a sorry commentary on the vulnerability of serious broadcast journalism."
Disney President Robert Iger has said those sentiments don't reflect the company's feelings. Still Disney's willingness to trade away "Nightline's" cachet so painlessly suggests the possibility of a ripple effect to those already decrying the erosion of TV news. "It would have seemed inconceivable that one of the three networks would take on one of the genuinely marquee news programs ... and simply give it a swift kick," says Jones. "That suggests that the future of network news is very much in jeopardy."
And former NBC News President Reuven Frank, in a commentary for USA Today similarly predicted that the demise of "Nightline," if it comes, will be the first in a string of disappearing programs, with the dinner-hour newscasts "in their last days."
So is the sky falling? Well before the "Nightline" imbroglio, the evening newscasts were hurting, as local stations grabbed pre-prime time hours for more lucrative game and entertainment shows pushing the network evening newscasts earlier. In the Central time zone, network news airs at 5:30 p.m., all but ensuring that the young working professionals advertisers covet won't be home to watch.
The anchors have been aging along with their audiences: Dan Rather is 70; Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings are in their 60s. Few potential successors have the same breadth of experience and stature, which leads many to conclude that when this generation of network news anchors retires, the shows will be reconfigured or dropped.
Nonsense, said one senior industry executive, who insisted the nightly news will be around for a long time to come, its value enhanced after the events of Sept. 11, when news-hungry viewers tuned in.
In fact, the audience erosion of the 1990s has largely stopped, said another, Paul Slavin, executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight." He noted that during the week of Feb. 25, more than 30 million people tuned in on average to the three networks' evening newscasts.
"That doesn't feel irrelevant to me; it doesn't feel like something dying to me. As long as people are voting with their fingertips and remotes, we'll exist," Slavin said.
Executives at competing networks said they have already adapted to being smaller divisions of profit-pressured conglomerates. At General Electric-owned NBC, one executive noted that although Katie Couric will earn $65 million over four years under her new deal with "Today," she is on air more than 10 hours per week, gets recycled on MSNBC, and reports for "Dateline."
MSNBC has inoculated NBC News from drastic reductions, said another senior executive there. Although the cable news channel, a joint venture with Microsoft, loses money, NBC News uses it to amortize millions in costs, asking correspondents in Afghanistan, say, to file around the clock on MSNBC as well as for "Nightly News."
Though CBS doesn't have a cable news channel, the network, more so than ABC, has also found ways to amortize its expensive news infrastructure by spreading programming around. There's a co-production for "BET Nightly News," projects for MTV and VH-1, perhaps even future news shows for UPN. All those networks, like CBS, are units of Viacom. CBS News, in fact, now has more employees than before the Tisch-mandated cuts, although fewer cover hard news.
That leaves ABC News in a category by itself. Still suffering from when Roone Arledge ran the division and put together an esteemed but expensive talent roster, ABC News already eliminated 125 jobs last year, and dozens of employees have taken pay cuts of up to 25%. Right after Disney bought Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, the company scrapped plans to launch its own all-news cable channel after Fox and NBC embarked on their own efforts, saying the start-up costs were too high.
In retrospect, that may have left ABC vulnerable. More recently, said media analyst Wolzien, it was a failure to invest in entertainment shows to eventually replace the quiz hit "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" that has led to prime-time problems in a down economy. "If the network were doing well, odds are there wouldn't be as much profitability pressure" in late night, which drove the bid for Letterman, he said. ABC is "reaping what was sown or not sown strategically."
