Bill Carter of the New York Times has apparently confirmed that NBC is in discussions with Mssrs. Leno and O'Brien about the future of their two shows. It does not bode well for Mr. O'Brien that the network is conceding that giving 11:35 back to Jay is even on the table.
One thing to keep in mind here: It's easy for us (you and me, babe) to sit here from afar and play Armchair Network Exec. We can say we'd stick Jay in this time slot or Conan in that one. We're unencumbered by the answers to real questions including, "What do Jay and Conan and even Jimmy Fallon have in their respective contracts?" We also don't know how many potential 10:00 pilots the network has, how good they are, how long it would take to get some of them into production, etc. Nor do we know if any key affiliates have made time-sensitive threats — i.e., "Get Leno back at 11:35 by April or else." Things like that.
But the fact that NBC has put out a couple of statements supporting Leno and none (so far) saying how happy they are with Conan O'Brien at 11:35 tells you the direction this thing is drifting. And aren't you glad you aren't Jeff Zucker, dealing with all this today? Any sort of move at this point would be an admission that his initial decision, the one that moved Jay to 10 PM and Conan to 11:35, was a colossal mistake. Now, he has to make another move that won't look like piling one bad decision on top of another. The TV business loves to watch when a top executive is squirming and dealing with disasters of his own making. For some, this is going to be more entertaining than anything that's ever been on NBC late night, up to and including Ed Ames and his tomahawk. In a way, it's kind of the same act.