The Sunshine Empire

As the battle between Team Coco and Team Jay gets more and more vicious, and NBC Universal head Jeff Zucker proves he must have been the basis of Tom Cruise’s character in Tropic Thunder, I was struck by how similar this is to a political campaign for elected office.

NBC’s battle for The Tonight Show is shaping up like a classic bitter primary campaign as members of the same corporate family lash out at each other and look to damage each other’s brand. Jay Leno had committed himself to retirement, but has decided to mount a primary challenge to kick out his successor. After being double-crossed and stabbed in the back by the party elders (Jeff Zucker), Conan O’Brien has decided to fight back against their negative campaigning with a scorched earth policy to ensure he makes Jay unelectable in the general election. David Letterman seems to be that incumbent (he is number one in late night now) who is sitting back and relishing the internecine civil war that seems to be occurring at NBC. Whichever way NBC goes, both Jay and Conan are less electable than they were before this.