Gongol.com Archives: August 2025
August 23, 2025
All's fair in love, war, and late night
In an interview with Marc Summers (the same person who once hosted "Double Dare"), Jay Leno claimed that his secret weapon in succeeding Johnny Carson as host of the "Tonight Show" was his willingness to act as a guest host for a fraction of the price that other guest hosts wanted to charge. ■ There are plenty of legitimate criticisms to offer about Leno: His handling of the transition to Conan O'Brien's time in the seat is almost impossible to defend with a straight face. And his treatment of Monica Lewinsky as a punch line (rather than as a young person who was involved in an office affair that had a pretty clear aggressor at fault) probably crossed the line into public bullying. Yet other criticisms are entirely fair play. ■ But he probably doesn't deserve to be skewered for his approach to landing the "Tonight Show" gig in the first place. Some weird things happen when an attractive opportunity emerges that has a monopsony structure. In a monopsony, there's only one buyer (in this case, NBC). There was no "also-ran" opportunity chasing after the "Tonight Show": Carson made it not just an 800-lb. gorilla, but really the only game in town. ■ And when there's only one buyer, prospective sellers -- in this case, Leno and his fellow guest hosts -- may be entirely rational if they choose to do just about anything to land the gig, including working for absurdly low rates. Land the contract, prove your value, and raise your prices later. That wouldn't excuse doing something illegal or immoral to anyone else to get the job, but within the bounds of law and decency, almost anything else is fair play.
