For the first time in years, the cable guys were overshadowed by the networks at the winter TV critics tour. The only TV story in town remains the Conan O'Brien-Jay Leno soap opera.
Mercy, but the cable guys tried. The cable giants of American broadcasting brought out Spielberg, Pacino and Jessica Simpson - even a giraffe - but everyone's attention in this TV hothouse was diverted by coverage of Conan O'Brien's seemingly inevitable departure from NBC and Jay Leno's supposedly imminent reinstatement as host of The Tonight Show.
While cable outlets like HBO, E! and MTV went to some effort and remarkable expense to flog their midseason lineup of new shows, most of the press corps were kept busy retyping quotes of Leno and O'Brien sniping at each other in their monologues. As the band played on, critics here were monitoring every development in the ongoing Leno-O'Brien saga, and choosing camps.
Not many Leno supporters in the group. The consensus among critics is that O'Brien has gotten shabby treatment, but will walk away from the mess well compensated (the payout is rumoured to be around $30-million U.S.). If you believe what you've been reading, NBC reps and Conan's people spent all weekend working out the particulars of his departure deal with the network.
The next move, if it hasn't happened by the time you read this, will be the official announcement from NBC that Leno is returning to host The Tonight Show, possibly after the network's coverage of the Vancouver Olympics.
Veteran TV tour critics have watched Leno closely over the years and most think he will slide back into the job as though nothing happened. O'Brien, meanwhile, is perceived as a maligned, semi-tragic figure who will now wait in the wings until Fox offers him a talk show. Where else is he going to go?
The O'Brien-Leno story lead off the TV tour and dominated the midwinter presentations from the other U.S. networks. The story should have faded once cable rolled into town, but instead it just kept steamrolling. You could hear the cable publicists grind their teeth every time it came up in their press sessions, and come up it did, over and over.
A Web reporter here had the temerity to ask Steven Spielberg his take on Leno-O'Brien following his scheduled press session; she asked him, "What's your take on Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien?' ," when the Oscar-winning director appeared with Tom Hanks to promote HBO's upcoming Second World War miniseries The Pacific, which they co-executive produced. Spielberg smiled briefly, then made for the exit.
Other stars were more candid on the issue. Rosie O'Donnell showed up to push her new documentary A Family is a Family: A Rosie O'Donnell Celebration, soon to air on HBO. As always, Rosie has lots of opinions.
Happily talking smack about Leno ("Graciousness has never been his No. 1 quality"), and throwing her support behind Team Conan, O'Donnell praised the maligned O'Brien as "a fantastic talent. Seventeen years he gave to that network. They really did a disservice to him and shame on [NBC entertainment boss]Jeff Zucker and really shame on Jay Leno."
The Rosie show was immediately followed with an appearance by Al Pacino, who plays famed right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian in a new HBO movie, quaintly titled You Don't Know Jack. As befits an Oscar-winning actor, he appeared glazed and detached. When the same Web reporter asked him about Leno and O'Brien, Pacino looked surprised, mumbled something about Johnny Carson and wandered off. Would he have been more responsive had anyone asked his thoughts on Haiti? Who knows? No one did.
What was that sound on my hotel room patio a few hours later? It was a baby giraffe, brought in for the U.S. Discovery Channel's 15th anniversary party.
Workers had spent two days assembling a massive party tent and barbecue pit on the hotel back lawn for the occasion. The baby giraffe milled in a pen outside the party entrance. Inside, the talent from Discovery and TLC shows mingled with press and the pastry chefs from Cake Boss created towering cake structures. A burly bearded chap from the show American Chopper told me he was firmly behind Leno in the situation, because "Jay's a Harley dude."
Whether solicited or not, most everyone here weighed in on the story, or chose a side. Except Jessica Simpson, who came for her new VH1 series The Price of Beauty. She didn't appear to understand the question and VH1 handlers quickly whisked her away.
A few hours later, Sarah Silverman skipped in, literally, for an unscheduled visit, and to run a short sample reel for the next season of The Sarah Silverman Program. Then she hung around the hotel lobby for the longest time, talking about Conan and Leno. "I feel guilty loving it," she said, "but it's super exciting to watch all the monologues and clips the next day. This is really interesting stuff."
So it went for three days. Critics filed the perfunctory cable stories while checking the wires every 10 minutes for breaking news on the late-night hosts. Former HBO kingpin Chris Albrecht, now CEO of the Starz cable channel, tried to put the positive spin on things, referring to the Leno-O'Brien situation as a "challenging and somewhat dazzling time ... Front pages of national newspapers. Stories about what's happening in our industry are capturing America's imagination, and that can't be bad for our business."
And then the cable circus came to a rather abrupt close. Cable broadcasters came up short in filling the third-day schedule, so the public broadcaster PBS seized the opportunity and threw in pitches for two new programs.
The second session was for the POV film The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. The documentary earned glowing reviews at last fall's Toronto International Film Festival and recalls the hardships suffered upon Ellsberg by former president Richard Nixon - and the American public -when his moral conscience prompted him to release government documents to the New York Times.
Far from dangerous-looking, Ellsberg was there, still sharp as a tack at 78, and just as passionate in his anti-war stance. It was the last session of the TV tour, and he seemed both worldly and wise. I had to ask.
"Leno and O'Brien?" said the obviously bemused Ellsberg. "I'm afraid those shows are on too late for me. And there are more important things going on in the world."
John Doyle returns tomorrow
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Airing tonight
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