Late Night Wars | A Darker Night Ahead | 5

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

CBS makes David Letterman a very attractive offer to leave NBC—a move he’s very willing to make—but his long-time network is desperate to keep him. So desperate they dangle the prize that Letterman felt he deserved all along—the Tonight Show.

That doesn’t sit well with Tonight host Jay Leno, who takes a major defensive stance to hang on to the position he worked so hard to get.

And in the wake of the Letterman struggle, an unknown talent emerges into the late night stratosphere—Conan O’Brien. He brings a unique, fresh appeal and his own set of rules as the networks battle for ratings, and audiences get finicky.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to Business Wars Add Free on Amazon Music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:19.0	It's December 1992 at NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Center.
0:24.2	NBC CEO Bob Wright is writing a slow elevator to David Letterman's office
0:29.0	on the 14th floor.
0:31.2	Wright is on a mission to correct an epic blunder that could cost NBC millions.
0:37.4	Back in May, Jay Leno officially took over the host chair of the tonight show.
0:42.0	But no one at the network bothered to even run this by David Letterman.
0:47.0	He's not just devastated.
0:49.0	He's incensed and opened to offers from competing networks.
0:54.0	And they are pouring in, including a very rich one from CBS.
1:01.0	Now, it falls to Wright to keep both Leno and Letterman in the fold.
1:07.0	If Letterman leaves, CBS will put him on at 11.30, head to head against Leno.
1:13.0	And that could be a potential ratings disaster for NBC.
1:18.0	Letterman watches wordlessly as Wright walks in and sits on the couch.
1:23.0	Wright gets to the point immediately.
1:26.0	Look, David, I know you're unhappy with this situation here.
1:29.0	I can't blame you.
1:30.0	But I don't want you to leave.
1:32.0	Is there anything we can do to keep you at NBC?
1:37.0	Unlike most of the network executives, Letterman respects Wright.
1:42.0	Letterman leans forward on the couch and looks him in the eye.
	...

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