Channel 4 News started at 11:00 PM as usual. In mid-show, they began covering a high-speed chase — the third one today to interrupt programming on Los Angeles TV. Actually, this one was a high-speed chase — about two dozen police chasing an SUV containing an armed man who'd allegedly assaulted or attempted to assault a peace officer. The driver then stopped in the street and now he's just sitting there in his car as police attempt to talk him out.
When they started covering it around 11:15, it looked like an exciting event so the station's news producers decided to interrupt their own broadcast and perhaps delay the start of Mr. Leno's show a bit. I suspect they now regret that decision. Around 11:40, the chase stopped being a chase and became pretty boring…and as I write this, the station's anchors are stuck ad-libbing play-by-play when nothing is happening. So we just have this shot of a bunch of police cars sitting there with cops staring at the SUV…and Channel 4 has to cover it until there's a resolution.
Oh, wait. A few minutes ago, they were saying they were going to stay with this story as long as it took, then run The Tonight Show. Now, they just announced they're going to join The Tonight Show and continue to cover this story on their website.
And now at 12:10, they're joining The Tonight Show in progress, meaning that L.A. has missed the monologue and most of the show. They'd never have done this to Johnny.