Leno Doesn't Want to Go

Tonight Show host Jay Leno is supposed to hand over the reigns of his late night show to Conan O'Brien sometime next year. Leno is having second thoughts:

“Tonight Show” host Jay Leno is having second thoughts about his announced 2009 departure from the late-night scene, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The newspaper reports that three unidentified people close to the situation confirmed Leno’s displeasure with arrangements made in 2004 to turn the host’s chair over to Conan O’Brien.

New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams wrote in March that Leno was unhappy with the agreement and wanted to hang on to his job. She also reported that ABC and Fox were interested in Leno for late-night duty.

Should Leno and NBC renege on the agreement, the network would have to pay O’Brien a default fee of $40 million, according to the Times.

“We are working with Jay to convince him that there is life beyond late night,” Marc Graboff, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, tells the paper. “He’s a great talent. We really want to stay in business with him.”

Leno is still enjoying his job and wants to keep doing it, but the real argument is about demographics. Leno has been around long enough that his average viewer is growing older and NBC wants to play more to the younger demo, something which Conan O'Brien is supposed to be able to do.