# why does everyone say that Leno "stole" the Tonight Show? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-say-that-leno-stole-the-tonight-show/286596 "2005-01-25T15:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-say-that-leno-stole-the-tonight-show/286596/21 "2005-01-26T18:03:45Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > I defer to your knowledge, but I recall allegations that Leno’s agent allegedly pushed Carson from his throne–and Carson felt similarly. Johnny, it was widely reported, planned on finishing out his 30? years on the Tonight Show, but Leno’s scheming combined with the NBC executives’ realization that the network could save millions annually convinced them to nudge Carson. Once Carson got wind of their preferences, his sense of dignity took over and he decided to hell with them. In short, history repeats itself. Today NBC, looking to its future, has essentially placed Leno on notice that he will leave Tonight Show within 5 years, making way for O’Brien and a new advertising demographic. > > All of this, IIRC, explains why Carson would never so much as acknowledge Leno, once Carson left. Didn’t help that, on his opening night, Leno didn’t so much as thank Carson for handing him the reigns. As has been noted in this and other threads, the evil entity in the whole mess was Leno’s agent, Helen Kuschnik. According to the book, after Kuschnik extracted the deal with NBC to have Leno replace Carson, she planted a news story that NBC executives wanted Carson out. Only days later, Carson surprised everyone (including the network) by announcing his retirement. The author’s implication was that no one from NBC had made anything more than idle chatter about when Carson might leave, and certainly no one had tried to do anything to speed up the process. It seems clear to the author that Leno himself was never involved in any of the backstabbing, but also that he had a complete blind spot to what Kuschnik was doing on his behalf. Carson never expressed a preference for either Leno or Letterman, and apparently no one from NBC bothered to ask his opinion. Kuschnik became executive producer of the Leno version of the Tonight show. Again according to the book, Leno had wanted to say something nice about Carson on his opening night, but Kuschnik vetoed it on the grounds that there would be a clean break between the two shows (and besides, Johnny hadn’t said anything about Leno on HIS final show). In fairness, the staff was somewhat divided over whether Leno should have paid tribute. Kuschnik’s antics as executive producer eventually became so bad that NBC fired her, locked her out of the building and told Leno to agree with the decision or else. Leno took the news with surprising calm. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everyone-say-that-leno-stole-the-tonight-show/286596.md?page=1)