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So 60 Minutes aired Steve Kroft’s interview with Conan O’Brien last night, a talk whose choice details the network had already largely floated before the airing. But it was still worth watching for the tone and body language; asked if Jay Leno had acted “honorably” in taking The Tonight Show back, for instance, O’Brien gave one of the heaviest sighs in recent TV memory before saying, “I can’t answer that.” And he probably really couldn’t: Kroft and O’Brien frequently referenced Conan’s nondisparagement agreement with NBC.
Note to personnel managers: if you need further proof why nondisparagement agreements are pointless, look no farther than this interview.
There was a bit more along those lines, though none of it was especially new or surprising. When Kroft mentioned that Leno had said he himself had gotten “screwed,” O’Brien said, “Jay’s got The Tonight Show. I have a beard and an inflatable bat. And I’m touring city to city. Who can say who won and who lost?”
Outside that sarcastic line, though, O’Brien came off considerably earnest in the interview, making it seem as if his emotions are still raw over his ouster. Which should not be surprising, of course–who wouldn’t feel that way?–but I have to wonder if O’Brien is more effective when he jokes about the events and lets other people express the outrage for him. As he launches his TBS show, seeming the outsider who was screwed over by NBC is probably to his advantage. But, like a politician in a race, it may be better for him to leave the attacks to surrogates. (David Letterman, for instance, still seems glad to do it for him.)
The most impressive part of the interview, actually, may have been how Kroft framed it, by noting–correctly–that NBC’s major motivation in the switch was not Conan’s ratings, but the fact that they had to get rid of Jay at 10 (lest an affiliate revolt scotch their sale to Comcast) and that it would have cost much more, reportedly upwards of $100 million more, to fire Jay than to get rid of Conan. Even on the exhaustive TV-beat coverage of the Jaypocalypse, this point has often been lost. (To the benefit of NBC, which would rather history showed that Conan’s ratings forced their hand. Leno, incidentally, has lately been posting the same ratings as O’Brien in the adult demographic that determines ad rates.)
In any event, now that Conan’s done his requisite exit interview, he may be better off dealing with the subject humorously, as he’s been doing in his stage show. Laughter isn’t just the best medicine. In this case, it’s the best revenge.