Conan Declines News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Spot. >> in an effort to stop "the tonight show" viewer dropoff, nbc asked leno if he'd be willing to do a half hour show at 11:30, pushing conan's "tonight show" to midnight. jay agrees. conan declines. >> then it became these camps. the jay camp, the conan camp. >> the backseat, the front seat. it just was a disaster. when that curtain between reality and perception is torn, everybody feels uncomfortable. that's a real problem for a host. >> the uncomfortable situation resolves when nbc pays conan and his staff $45 million to step aside. jay resumes his role as host of "the tonight show" in ...

I mean, they're very -- stylistically they're very different. their personalities were different. jay was comfort food. he was macaroni and cheese. you knew exactly what you were going to get. >> leno had way more viewers. they'd lost the number one spot. >> reporter: in an effort to stop the tonight show viewer drop-off nbc asked leno if he'd be willing to do a half hour show at 11:30, pushing conan's "tonight show" to midnight. jay agrees. conan declines. >> then it became these camps. you know, the jay camp, the conan camp. >> just the back scenes had become front scenes. it just was a disa...