On tonight's monologue, Jay Leno sounds angry and upset, even going so far to say he has "trust" issues with NBC right now. Which indicates that Leno and his reps are fighting NBC's attempts to cancel The Jay Leno Show at 10 PM primetime Monday through Friday. That would violate his 5-year contract in which the network gave his show a 2-year iron-clad commitment. But NBC doesn't want to absorb the penalty -- "it's just too big" -- so their solution is to find a place for Jay in late night. But, wait -- wouldn't Leno like NBC's idea to return him to the 11:35 PM time slot he called home from 1992-2009? Not so much if it's an abbreviated half-hour that's just a lead-in to Conan. That's right, TMZ's report today was wrong: I'm telling you that Leno is not being offered The Tonight Show.
The fact is O'Brien doesn't want to give up The Tonight Show, and NBC won't dare make him because that incurs its own costly penalty. On the other hand NBC also recognizes that Jay's monologues are a big draw and thinks having that first half-hour back will help trounce ABC's Nightline which has gained strength ever since O'Brien took over The Tonight Show. NBC may act like this sked change is a slam dunk, but I'm told "Conan hasn't agreed to anything yet, especially not to push back to 12:05 AM." NBC has the contractual right to start The Tonight Show as late as 12:05 AM, which the network sometimes does for sports or news. So if NBC gives Jay Leno back the 11:35 PM slot, and calls it The Jay Leno Show, and keeps Conan on The Tonight Show, the network incurs no penalties either way.
Yet NBC Universal chairman Jeff Zucker already deemed O'Brien was the future of the network's late night and Leno was the past. Yet here is Leno back again aftr failing in primetime. Jay had 18 months to transform his Tonight Show from a critical and ratings disaster into #1 in late night. Conan has only had 7 months. Now he's being humiliated with a later start time just the same. So NBC's waffling startements today start to make sense as both hosts and their reps fight a behind-the-scenes turf war with the network.
at Cameron and Perrie. Conan's face was just 
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