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Liquidlasagna's Reviews > The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night
The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night
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I think the clincher is that Leno always tried to be nice to everybody, and would be willing to work harder than anyone else to improve things, and never complained or never was rude to any NBC Executives.
Letterman was rude and abrupt with lots of NBC executives, but he did have honesty and integrity, and a completely unique talent.
NBC just had some people like Agoglio who felt that, for most celebrities, the answer is 'money', and the real thing is Letterman just had zero interest at being on at 12:30am, especially with Carson gone.
NBC merely wished that Leno was at 11:30 and Letterman at 12:30 and they could just have it running as one seamless machine, much like the The Daily Show followed by the Colbert Report.
What i found interesting about the book is that i have a lot of sympathy for 90% of the people involved. Ovitz seemed to have a rather ruthless reputation, but I think he was more of a massive headache for the Studios, but he was a prince to his clients. Though it's an open question of who should be 'designing' package deals and who should 'work with whom'... the Studio, the Director, Casting etc.
Kushnick's biggest sin i think is how she controlled guests for the Tonight Show, and how actors or musicians or comics could be blacklisted if they appeared elsewhere. Once she was gone, Leno and the others had it so that, actors could just schedule dates when it was 'most convenient for them' to do whatever was easiest for them!
It's truly a masterful book, and well i think you realize that Networks care about ratings, sports, what time blocks and shows earn the most most money, and how you avoid disaster, and how you stifle creativity by bean counting like when GE took over NBC.
I think it's a book where you admire Leno and Letterman more after reading it.
And depending on how much you care about the people around them, you get a lot of sympathy for people trying the best job they can, even if some people do murky things in the corridors of power, or where the dollar sign, and contracts rule the Networks...
You do get a bad taste for the 'media machine' though and whoever feeds the bad blood into it.
Letterman was rude and abrupt with lots of NBC executives, but he did have honesty and integrity, and a completely unique talent.
NBC just had some people like Agoglio who felt that, for most celebrities, the answer is 'money', and the real thing is Letterman just had zero interest at being on at 12:30am, especially with Carson gone.
NBC merely wished that Leno was at 11:30 and Letterman at 12:30 and they could just have it running as one seamless machine, much like the The Daily Show followed by the Colbert Report.
What i found interesting about the book is that i have a lot of sympathy for 90% of the people involved. Ovitz seemed to have a rather ruthless reputation, but I think he was more of a massive headache for the Studios, but he was a prince to his clients. Though it's an open question of who should be 'designing' package deals and who should 'work with whom'... the Studio, the Director, Casting etc.
Kushnick's biggest sin i think is how she controlled guests for the Tonight Show, and how actors or musicians or comics could be blacklisted if they appeared elsewhere. Once she was gone, Leno and the others had it so that, actors could just schedule dates when it was 'most convenient for them' to do whatever was easiest for them!
It's truly a masterful book, and well i think you realize that Networks care about ratings, sports, what time blocks and shows earn the most most money, and how you avoid disaster, and how you stifle creativity by bean counting like when GE took over NBC.
I think it's a book where you admire Leno and Letterman more after reading it.
And depending on how much you care about the people around them, you get a lot of sympathy for people trying the best job they can, even if some people do murky things in the corridors of power, or where the dollar sign, and contracts rule the Networks...
You do get a bad taste for the 'media machine' though and whoever feeds the bad blood into it.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
Finished Reading
(Mass Market Paperback Edition)
January 10, 2021
– Shelved
(Mass Market Paperback Edition)
January 26, 2022
– Shelved
