By making the "tough call" on the failed experiment known as Jay Leno at 10 p.m., NBC's Jeff Gaspin said he's trying to make the best of a bad situation. But while granting Leno his old 11:35 slot perhaps solved one problem, it just creates another: the strong possibility that Conan O'Brien could leave.
Gaspin took full ownership of the decision to pull Leno from primetime during a remarkably candid session with reporters Sunday at the TV Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena.
"I just made the tough call," he said.
He also took ownership of the dilemma he now faces.
"My goal right now is to keep Jay, Conan and Jimmy as part of our late night lineup," he said. "As much as I would like to tell you we have a done deal, we know that's not true. The talks are still ongoing."
Gaspin knows Leno wants "The Tonight Show" back, while O'Brien doesn't want to move back 30 minutes. Gaspin wouldn't say if either Leno or O'Brien had accepted the plan, but the tone of his remarks indicated what's been clear for days: O'Brien is the only question mark.
Gaspin said he understood the risks of this gambit, and acknowledged that "it's a fluid situation" and wanted to give "everyone the weekend to think about it."
The executive said he "can't imagine" there won't be a deal in place by post-Olympics. That's when NBC's plan is to shift Leno to 11:35 and O'Brien to 12:05, with Jimmy Fallon at 1:05. He said he's all but certain Leno's 11:35 show would still be called "The Jay Leno Show": "That's the brand we're selling," he said.
He claimed affiliate pressure was behind the sudden nature of the moves.
As TheWrap previously reported, up to one-third of NBC affiliates had been loudly complaining about Leno's impact on their local news, Gaspin confirmed. He wouldn't say just how many were threatening pre-empting Leno, but it clearly was a significant enough number to force NBC's hand.
While NBC could have challenged affiliates, who are contractually obligated to air whatever NBC programs unless they have community standards issues, Gaspin said it would've created a PR nightmare for NBC had such a revolt taken place in the open.
"They made it clear they were going to be more vocal in their displeasure," he said.
"This was not going to go well for us."
Still, Gaspin maintained that at the network level, there was no panic -- at least not yet.
"This was not an issue for the network," he said, adding that, financially, NBC was still making money with Leno at 10.
Gaspin said NBC first started getting indications as early as fall that affiliates were concerned that the impact on their newscast was worse than expected. By December, once smaller markets started seeing numbers from the November sweeps, something close to panic started setting in among some stations.
Their bottom line to NBC: Dump Leno -- or we will.
In December, Gaspin ordered his staff to begin coming up with different ideas for what options NBC had.
