A dramatic account of the politics and personalities behind NBC's calamitous attempt to
reinvent late-night television.

When NBC decided to move Jay Leno into prime time to make room for Conan O'Brien to host
the Tonight show - a job he had been promised five years earlier - skeptics anticipated
a train wreck for the ages. It took, in fact, only a few months for the dire predictions
to come true. Leno's show, panned by critics, dragged down the ratings - and the profits -
of NBC's affiliates, while ratings for Conan's new Tonight show plummeted to the lowest
levels in history. Conan's collapse, meanwhile, opened an unexpected door of opportunity
for rival David Letterman. What followed was a boisterous, angry, frequently hilarious
public battle that had millions of astonished viewers glued to their sets. In The War
for Late Night, New York Times reporter Bill Carter offers a detailed behind-the-scenes
account of the events of the unforgettable 2009/2010 late-night season as all of its
players- performers, producers, agents, and network executives-maneuvered to find footing
amid the shifting tectonic plates of television culture.

Download File Size:200.89 MB

---