With Conan O'Brien on the brink of walking from NBC (albeit with a $30-$40 million pay off), Jay Leno got serious last night and told his audience about the behind-the-scenes drama at the network that will surely go down as one of the great debacles in the history of broadcast television. By forcing top-rated Leno from
The Tonight Show and elevating O'Brien to host that show, NBC sowed the seeds for massive ratings drops for both men. Leno told his audience that he never thought the experiment of putting a new show for him in prime time would work, but he went along with the plan anyway. It now appears that Leno will revert back to being host of
The Tonight Show, with O'Brien not only paused to compete with him on another network, but to have been paid millions of dollars by NBC to do so...
Click here to watch a clip from Leno's discussion.Â