Dave, Oprah and Jay: Wait -- NBC agreed to this?
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Amid all the multimillion-dollar ads during the Super Bowl, a quickly assembled and shot CBS promo spot nearly upstaged them all.David Letterman pulled off a great stunt by secretly taping a 15-second spot reprising his promo from CBS' last Super Bowl broadcast in 2007, where he sat and watched the game with Oprah Winfrey. This time, he added his once and future late-night rival, Jay Leno, to the mix.
According to LA Times, Letterman himself concocted the bit last week, and both Winfrey and Leno quietly flew to New York on Tuesday (Feb. 2) to tape the promo (Leno even wore a disguise when he entered the Ed Sullivan Theater). "Late Show" executive producer Rob Burnett first called his counterpart at NBC, Debbie Vickers, to see if Leno would be interested.
Leno then talked to Burnett and agreed to come to New York pending his NBC bosses' approval, which they granted. Read that again: NBC brass had to agree to a spot on a rival network in which not just Letterman, but their own guy, stick another thumb in the eye of the network.
NBC might have figured that getting Leno's face in front of 95 million people or so -- and showing he can take a joke -- wouldn't be a bad thing. But given all the hits NBC has taken to its image in the past month, it's really surprising that it would want another one to be seen by the biggest TV audience this year.
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Photo credit: CBS
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It was the perfect move for both of them. Without directly burying hatchets, the spot had the effect of settling accounts. Letterman looks like a genius for thinking it up, Leno looks like a good sport for agreeing to it. When it's Leno vs. Letterman again, the residue of Leno v. Coco is no longer there to contend with. It is, once again, as it was before. Plus, both parties got to stick it a bit to NBC, for different reasons, but it reverse rehab for the network, implying they can take a joke. The point of an advertisement is to make the product look good, and in this case, it succeeded.
Dw Dunphy said it all. I agree. It made Jay look good and Dave look good. I think Dave really appreciates Jay as a rival more than Conan. Conan was a "wimp in the ratings". Jay is competition and makes Dave better.
Plus, having Oprah there means Dave is the "King of all media", no one else! He gets the Queen to sit beside him and the Joker to be the butt of his humor.
Dave rules!
jay showed class doing that spot
Jay came out looking the better of the two; hence it's a win for him. Advantage, NBC!
Jay shows why he is King.
Elvis Presley wisely said, There is NO King but King Jesus!" Good advice is to humbley and sincerely ask King Jesus Christ to be you Lord, God and Savior..ONLY His kingdom lasts forever.