• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 12, 2010

Whatever you think the new drama around Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien means to NBC viewers, think about what Jerry Seinfeld said during the NBC portion of the Television Critics Association meeting about the explosive late-night situation: "There are no rules in show business."

 

But, alas, there could be penalties, especially if O'Brien's lawyers determine his "Tonight Show" deal isn't the real deal they signed up for. According to a source quoted in Daily Variety:  "The 'Tonight Show' is not the 'Tonight Show' at 12:05. By definition, 12:05 is tomorrow."

Yeah, but there are still no rules -- and TV networks and programmers don't attach themselves to normal conventions.

Years ago, George Clooney was told that "ER" was considering resuscitating one particular character. Clooney was reported to have said: "But he's dead." To which one NBC executive said: "Not necessarily."

Still, sometimes no rules mean a disregard of money -- strange as that sounds. Executives will spend millions based on emotional, scientific, and/or logical business reasons that turned out to be mere belly-aches.

Where's the public in all of this? Do you see protestors in Burbank/Universal City marching around with placards saying: "Leave our Leno alone" or "O'Brien! Oh my!"

I couldn't find any. (But you can find a lot of California state college students getting angry about proposed massive tuition hikes).

National TV advertisers? According to Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, they are fully supportive of NBC's decisions. No injured parties here, except perhaps all those Ford Motor branded integrations in the Leno  show potentially having to move to late-night time slots, a term which wasn't in the original deal.

Local TV advertisers? That's another story. A weaker local NBC station gives them reason to buy another network's late news, but perhaps fewer alternatives to grab their already-decreasing late news demo target. They need to hunt for other news communications opportunities, perhaps adding more fractionalization to news and entertainment viewing.

Still feeling hurt and betrayed? Looking for some government intervention into your late-night viewing?

Think about the first rule of show business, even more so in the digital age where viewers are fast on their feet: There are no rules.