Conan O’Brien is traveling across the country trying to curry favor with affiliates as he prepares to become the new host of “The Tonight Show,” the Chicago Tribune reports. During the tour, he’s noticed that the network business has changed. “When I started, you would go to these big banquets [for sponsors and stations] and there would be this giant NBC peacock in ice and people jumping off the balcony, throwing rum drinks at each other,” O’Brien told the Tribune. “It was like the fall of Rome. It turns out it was the fall of Rome. Now it’s a cash bar at the NBC store.”
—Jon Lafayette