Peacock Fight

The Times is reporting that longtime NBC executive Dick Ebersol has joined the war of words over his network's late-night lineup yesterday declaring the reason for Jay Leno’s return to NBC’s late-night roster after a short stint in prime time was a simple one: disappointing ratings for Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show.”

Referring to the pointed jokes made this week by O’Brien and David Letterman, Ebersol said it was “chicken-hearted and gutless to blame a guy you couldn’t beat in the ratings" adding that what this is really all about is "an astounding failure by Conan.”

Huh?

While I guess he has his reasons for defending his colleagues -- Ebersol has a longstanding relationship with NBC Universal’s embattled chief executive, Jeff Zucker -- his statements don't even make any sense. What about Jay Leno's ratings? Were those an "astounding success"? O'Brien was only on for seven months. Leno, on the other hand, was still getting hammered in the ratings by Letterman THREE YEARS after taking over from Johnny Carson. (That all changed in 1995 when hooker-happy Hugh Grant came on and the nation heard Leno ask, "What the hell were you thinking?" and the rest is ratings history.)

Another thing to consider is this: as bad as Conan's ratings were, he managed to lower the median age of the "Tonight Show" viewer by TEN years (down to 45) -- something that NBC obviously was looking for him to do when they promised him the job back in 2004.

One thing is clear here: the only winner in all of this is Daniel Roebuck, who will undoubtedly be dusting off his prosthetic chin for the inevitable HBO sequel to "The Late Shift."