A&E’s “Battle for Late Night” revisits past TV clashes much more than current Leno-Conan
If you thought it was rather fast for a two-hour documentary on the late-night machinations from NBC this January and February, then, well, perhaps you're right. "The Battle for Late Night" — debuts tonight on A&E and repeats early Wednesday morning and also Saturday, May 1 — features no exclusive interviews with Conan O'Brien or Jay Leno (nor even David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel). But the special, produced by New Wave Entertainment, does mine archival footage for choice moments of Conan, Leno and Letterman from the late-night wars of 1993, and includes new 2010 interviews with the New York Times reporter Bill Carter (who wrote the book on the 1993 late-night shuffle and is hard at work on the 2010 sequel), TMZ.com's Harvey Levin (whose sympathy for Leno may suggest where he was getting his exclusive leaks?) and other observers. And if you wanted to know what Craig Kilborn is up to, you're in luck, too. Kilborn speaks candidly about both of his late-night adventures, first at The Daily Show on Comedy Central, and then The Late Late Show on CBS. "I have no regrets," Kilborn says now. You'll also learn more about Pat Sajak's brief tenure in late-night for CBS than you might have expected, as well as more than you may have wished for from Bill Maher, as he and his producers take you through his journey...
Read More