On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 8:01 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > > 2. I think Dave is exercising a lot more control over his exit than Carson > did over his. It really is a myth that Johnny went out on his own terms - > Leno's ratings were higher than Carson's, and there was panic over the age > of Carson's audience, and open grumbling from NBC and affiliates over when > he would retire. Johnny stopped all of that by announcing his retirement, > and then got to bask in the nostalgic glory, which was smart, but he was > already having the door pointed out to him, if not outright shown to him. >
A couple issues with this: * If I remember correctly, it was when Helen Kushnik put that story in the NY Post that Carson's fuse was lit which would blow at the affiliates meeting (which was done to effectively shock NBC, which wasn't telling him they were thinking of dumping him). * According to his story, it started to dawn on him last fall when he and Harry went fishing. I don't think Letterman would've waited that long to pull the trigger unless something else happened: either he waited for Leno to wrap up (unlikely), or he wanted to see what would happen with Fallon. I don't think he left because of Fallon, but when Fallon took off like a rocket, he either thought "Johnny would approve of him" (which, given how much he truly respected The Tonight Show as an institution, much like Conan O'Brien did, I think is at least a >0% possibility) or "The game's clearly changed, and I'm good." -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
