The Late Shift

When Johnny Carson announces his retirement from the Tonight Show, it throws the networks, and their executives, two talk-show stars and millions of late night television viewers into a frenzy. Who could replace the most important talk-show host in history? It soon comes down to the Tonight Show's guest host Jay Leno, and the later late night star David Letterman in a fight to the finish. Take a peek behind television's most famous curtains to witness for yourself the madness, the mayhem and the money that made the battle for the Tonight Show hot-seat one of the most brutally contested- and hilarious- battles in television history. We all know who replaced Johnny Carson, but no one knew how he got there until now.