When the guy you pay to like you won't stay, it's beyond redemption. People reports that Leno sidekick Kevin Eubanks—whom Letterman dubbed "the guy with the guitar who laughs at everything"—is heading for the door. [People]

Bill Carter, the New York Times' TV industry reporter who literally wrote the book on late night, is working on a new book for Viking that will focus on the recent drama between Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and NBC.

Carter called us from California, where he's doing research. "I'm reaching out to everyone I possibly can to get every side of the story," he told us.

Carter said he isn't taking a Team Conan or Team Jay stance now—or in the book. "I obviously have to reach out to all sides," he said. "For the longest time, I personally tried to watch as many episodes of all the shows as I could to get sense of each show, and what each guy does. I don't just pick one and stick with that guy."

Although the book will touch on many of the TV industry's struggles, Carter said he is focusing on the recent late-night infighting. "It's fun to have something to write about again," he said.

Carter's 1992 The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night had exclusive details about one of televisions most infamous power struggles: the original battle between NBC, CBS, Jay Leno and David Letterman for Johnny Carson's seat on the Tonight Show. The Late Shift revealed secret NBC documents; Johnny Carson's role in Letterman's decision to join CBS; and ridiculous scenes like Jay Leno hiding in a closet to spy on a secret NBC staff meeting. It was later turned into an 1996 HBO movie.

His new book, which he is writing for Viking, is sure to have more theatrical scenes from based on the new network drama.

Is this the Late Shift sequel we've been waiting for?

Carter says he's working as fast as he can for his publisher. "The events of the past month have made it kind of important to get it out as soon as we can, but the story is still going on," he told us.

As for the book, we might not be able to read Carter's on the late night drama until this fall or later.

In the meantime, we can watch David Letterman imagine a version of the Late Shift 2 on HBO:

The Jay Leno Show died today. It was five months old. Tonight, a half-dead zombie version of the show briefly rose from its deathbed to celebrate its own demise. This was as fun to watch as you might expect.

The Jay Leno Show's cause of death has been the subject of much controversy in past weeks. But all signs during tonight's final show pointed to the failure of that most vital of organs: The host. "This show was supposed to last 2 years, but my sentence was reduced to five months for good behavior," gasped Leno. "Five months! Do you realize guys on viagra had erections that lasted longer than that?" The audience's forced laughter only underscored how depressingly macabre the whole thing was; if you're going to have a zombie stagger around telling jokes on stage, at least make them good jokes!


A short video was played in honor of the deceased. It was celebrity-studded and about as funny as someone drawing a dick on a roadside cross which marks the site of a bus crash. There could have been no more fitting tribute to The Jay Leno Show.

Ashton Kutcher delivered a eulogy: "I felt like it was fitting that I came on the last show to reveal that the whole Tonight Show/earlier show thing was a punk." A hilarious punk!

As did Bob Costas: "The Last '10@10' huh? Kind of like being involved in the last broadcast of a Clipper's season, isn't it?"

And just to make sure we didn't miss it too much, the show included one final installment of the worst reoccurring comedy bit in the history of television: "Beer Pong Shot of the Week." Let's do a little bit of revisionist history here and say that it was "Beer Pong Shot of the Week" which ultimately killed The Jay Leno Show. Maybe this will keep anything like "Beer Pong Shot of the Week" from happening ever again.

And with that, The Jay Leno Show was declared dead on February 9th, 2010, 11:00pm EST.

The final Jay Leno Show was a smirking retreat, not a tearful goodbye. Which is fitting, since nobody's crying for The Jay Leno Show. We've all heard the dark rumors that mad scientists are even now working feverishly in NBC's hilltop fortress to breath monstrous new life into the show's putrefying corpse. Quickly, fellow TV-watchers! Our only hope is to draw and quarter this abomination and scatter its parts to the very ends of the earth! Dear God. Do you hear that? We're too late! The Tonight Show with Jay Leno! It's... it's... It's alive!

After five months, Jay Leno leaves prime time tonight, returning his "magic" to late night.

You've read about the Cold War-level skulduggery that went into keeping that Letterman/Leno/Oprah Late Show promo secret in the days before the Super Bowl. Tonight, Jay Leno gave his side of the story on his show.

It was nothing that we didn't already know: Dave's producer called up Jay's producer and asked if Jay would want to be in the spot. Jay said yes and the two recorded the ad in a super-secret shoot with Oprah last week.

Some have wondered what Leno could possibly have to gain from appearing in a spot for his soon-to-be rival (again). Tonight, Leno spun the ad as a very public move to clear the air of any leftover fog of Late Night War in advance of his move back to The Tonight Show:

I walk in and I see Dave, and he puts out his hand and we shake hands. And you know, whatever happened for the last 18 years disappeared. It was great to see my old friend again. It was wonderful—he was very gracious, we talked about the old days, we told some jokes... you know, it was really good to see him.

But if the Late Night Wars spectacular ratings boost are any guide, Leno should be throwing darts at a picture of Dave's face right about now.

Most of Conan O'Brien's staff turned in their badges and Blackberries this weekend, and employee Aaron Bleyart documented the scorched earth affair. No, seriously, the place has been razed. NBC's preferred renovation appears to be explosives. [BAM]

How badly does NBC just want to put this Whole Conan Thing behind them? Via Peter Kafka at All Things Digital, so badly, they're trying to eradicate all history of it ever having existed from The Internet. What history? Exactly.

But come on, Peter Kafka. NBC wouldn't be so stupid and brazen as to remove the archives of their first serious cause célèbre to come to the network in a while, would they?

If you said "yes" outloud just now, well, you're right. Per Peter:

A little odd, given that a couple of days ago, the network was offering every single "Tonight Show" episode O'Brien had taped on NBC.com. But then again, everything about this story has been odd. I've asked NBC for comment. NBC - at least, I'm assuming it's NBC - has also been aggressive about taking down Conan episodes from Google's YouTube (GOOG).

A look at NBC's site shows, well, nothing.

The NBC-partnered Hulu shows nothing, either!

Nothing here, either

That said, you can still watch other great NBC programming, like...Lipstick Jungle! Which was canceled last May.

Or Kings! Which, like Conan's show, was a fan-favorite NBC canceled because they were too incompetent to figure out how to make money off of it.

Or the NBC reboot of Knight Rider, which was just as stupid of an idea as it sounded!

You can even buy old Tonight Show gear!

But you know what you can't do? Watch Conan O'Brien's The Tonight Show. Probably because it reminds NBC of nothing but their tremendous failure to do anything correctly, ever. A pattern they manage to move forward with by erasing Conan from their memories. Thankfully, for you, dear customer: Conan Lives On, in our hearts, minds, and at Gawker.TV, where we're apparently servicing NBC's customer base better than that network will ever—ever—be able to be.