Bill Carter, executive producer of CNN’s docuseries The Story of Late Night and host of the Behind the Desk: Story of Late Night podcast, details the chaotic transition of The Tonight Show from host Jay Leno to Conan O’Brien—and back again. In 2010, NBC’s CEO Jeff Zucker, had it all worked out when he moved Jay Leno from behind the desk at The Tonight Show, and handed the reins over to Conan O'Brien. But his decision was a spectacular failure. Ratings plummeted, affiliates were enraged—and when Zucker tried to put everything back the way it was, that plan backfired as well. No one is more uniquely suited to document the story of a late-night travesty than veteran media reporter and bestselling author, Bill Carter. In candid detail, he charts the vortex that sucked in not just Leno and O'Brien—but also Letterman, Stewart, Fallon, Kimmel, and Ferguson—as frantic agents and network executives tried to manage a tectonic shift in television’s most beloved institution.

ビル・カーターは、深夜枠という聖域で繰り広げられた権力闘争を、単なる業界裏話から崇高な人間ドラマへと昇華させました。レノとオブライエンという二人の巨星の葛藤、そして経営陣の傲慢が生んだ悲劇は、まるでシェイクスピアの戯曲のような重厚な読後感を与えます。個人の矜持と組織の論理が衝突する瞬間を、筆者は冷徹かつ情熱的な筆致で鮮やかに描き出しています。 自らが製作総指揮を務めるドキュメンタリー番組との相乗効果も見事です。映像が当時の熱狂や表情を鮮明に蘇らせる一方で、本書はテキストならではの強みを活かし、当事者たちの内面深くに潜む焦燥や計算を緻密に言語化しています。映像で歴史を体感し、本書で「メディアの残酷な本質」を読み解くことで、この狂乱のドラマは初めて真の姿を現すのです。