Conan O'Brien's last show tonight

...before moving to new time slot in June

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/arts/television/19conan.html?ref=media

Building a Home in Late Night’s Shifting Sand


By BILL CARTER
Published: February 18, 2009

Over the past week, his last as host of NBC’s “Late Night,” Conan O’Brien has taken to entering the NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Center from the ice-rink side, breaking with his long routine of coming in from Avenue of the Americas.

“I was just determined that in the last few days I would walk through the front and into that main entrance,” Mr. O’Brien said. “I know I won’t come this way again.”

He added, “I’ll probably cry like a baby on Friday night.”

That will be his last night on NBC’s 12:35 a.m. series, “Late Night” — show No. 2,725 in his 16-year run — before he decamps for Los Angeles to prepare to replace Jay Leno as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.” As part of an unusual deal Mr. O’Brien has waited patiently for five years after the network announced that he would become Mr. Leno’s successor in the premier real estate in late-night television.

“I feel like that’s sacred ground,” Mr. O’Brien said. “That’s the job I signed up for, and that’s the job I’m excited about.”

Sacred it may be, but that ground has shifted in the past few months. Rather than see Mr. Leno move on to another network to compete against his old show, NBC announced in December that it was opening up the 10 p.m. hour each weeknight for him, altering the makeup of late-night television.

As some outsiders see it, Mr. O’Brien, who turned down offers from ABC and Fox to remain at NBC, could be stuck in a familiar role — the follow-up act to Mr. Leno. It is a position that could leave him competing within his own network for guests and attention.

According to these people, Mr. O’Brien is getting, well, stiffed.

“I feel a little sorry for Conan,” said one longtime late-night executive, asking not to be identified because of possible future business with NBC. “I think he’s getting sandbagged.”

Warren Littlefield, who was NBC’s top program executive when Mr. Leno began at “Tonight” in 1992, said: “Sure, Conan is still getting the ‘Tonight Show,’ but who are we kidding? Call it what you will. But if NBC hasn’t done it yet, you know they are going to at some point be saying: ‘Late night begins at 10 o’clock.’ ”

Competitors certainly smell vulnerability. They point out that Mr. O’Brien is down to 1.9 million viewers this season from 2.6 million in 2007, though virtually all network shows have fallen off in recent years. Meanwhile on Comedy Central Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert posted record ratings last year (the election helped) and now land A-level guests.

On CBS Craig Ferguson, whose show is also on at 12:35, has been winning fans and defying expectations by edging past Mr. O’Brien among total viewers on occasional nights. (“Late Night” consistently wins among younger viewers.)

ABC’s host, Jimmy Kimmel, has a show at 12:05 and his backers at that network have discussed a move up to 11:35 to take Mr. O’Brien head-on. David Letterman, meanwhile, is talking about extending his CBS contract beyond next year, perhaps thinking he can reclaim late-night leadership.

Mr. O’Brien acknowledged some trepidation about the move. He described it by recalling a scene from the film “Apocalypse Now.” “I’ve spent my fair share of time at 3 in the morning,” he said, “lying awake like Martin Sheen in the movie, staring at the ceiling fan, thinking about my trip up river — and we all know how that turned out.”

Sitting in his cramped office on the ninth floor of NBC headquarters and wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, Mr. O’Brien was surrounded by mementos of his “Late Night” years: a stash of guitars, some signed by guests like Les Paul; photos, including one of Mr. O’Brien with Ted Williams (his dad’s baseball hero), another of him playing guitar with Bruce Springsteen (“He told me, ‘Conan, get your jazz box,’ and he is the Boss, so you do what he says”), and Mr. O’Brien with Mr. Letterman, from a day when Mr. Letterman, his predecessor, and “arguably one of the great broadcasters of all time,” came by the studio.

“Following him,” Mr. O’Brien said, “was like Ted Williams departed the field and a fetus ran out in a baseball cap.”

Mr. O’Brien noted the Pegboard with cards listing the final week’s guests. The board routinely held a month of cards; now, as the cards came down, there would be no more. (The list for the final night remains a secret.)

“I’m a very sentimental person who is posing as a cynical person,” said Mr. O’Brien, who met his wife, a copywriter, while taping a comedy bit for the show. “This is a period of my life that I will never recreate.”

What he creates on “Tonight” will inevitably be different, he said, in ways still to be determined. Several other late-night producers privately question whether Mr. O’Brien’s comedy style — which he himself defines as more silly than sophisticated — will translate to the more traditional “Tonight” show. A competitor who would speak on the record, Rob Burnett of the Letterman show, said: “I think Conan will succeed. He’s a really smart, really funny guy.”

 

Why is moving him to an earlier time slot "effing him over"?