Hours after NBC Universal said it would sell its storied NBC Studios in Burbank, late-night talk show host Jay Leno offered his take on the news from the stage of Studio 3, his home of 15 years.
"We are coming to you from the NBC lot in Burbank as now seen on EBay," Leno riffed during his monologue Thursday. Then, as part of a skit, an actress posing as a real estate agent in a gold blazer barged onto the set with a young couple in tow. "It has air conditioning and 87 bathrooms," she chirped.
Leno mildly objected, saying he was in the middle of his show.
"Don't worry about all of that," the woman said, motioning dismissively toward Leno. "It will be moved out by the time you're moved in."
The gag makes light of the bind Leno now finds himself in. NBC has laid the foundation to move him out of "The Tonight Show." But television's top dog of late night doesn't want to go, according to three people familiar with the situation.
As part of a high-stakes gambit engineered by NBC Universal executives three years ago, Leno agreed to step down in 2009 as "The Tonight Show" host to make room for Conan O'Brien. Afraid that O'Brien, whose talk show airs after Leno's, would bolt to a competing network, taking his desirable young audience with him, NBC locked up his services by promising him "The Tonight Show."
But as the date has drawn closer, Leno has become frustrated, reluctant to retire from late night.
"It's almost unprecedented in television for someone as successful as Jay has been to have his departure planned several years in advance," TV historian Tim Brooks said.
Brooks said the last time such a big TV star left at the top of his game was in 1968, when Andy Griffith said goodbye even though his CBS sitcom was No. 1 in the ratings.
"This is a very different approach, and a very risky one for NBC," Brooks said.
After 2009, Leno could pack up his show, and his audience, and move to ABC or Fox. Fox has tried unsuccessfully for years to grab a piece of the late-night advertising pie. CNN also could make a bid for Leno to eventually take over Larry King's spot. (Turner Broadcasting, however, said that King could have the job for as long as he wanted.) CBS might even be a contender if David Letterman decides to leave after his contract expires in 2010.
That's one reason NBC is trying to keep Leno in the fold.
