may 2

One of my all-time favorite books is The Late Shift, a blow-by-blow account of the machinations involved in the late-night wars of the early 1990s. Bill Carter of The New York Times put together such a vivid picture of the battle between NBC, Jay Leno and David Letterman, I almost thought I was there during the book's pivotal scene: Leno, in a supply closet next to an NBC boardroom, eavesdropping on NBC executives as they discuss dumping him in favor of Letterman, even though he had been hosting The Tonight Show for only a few months.

Hopefully, Carter can bring his sense of "you are there" style to his latest book, Desperate Networks, which is due out on May 2. In the book, Carter explores the eventful and historic 2004-05 season from a few different angles: the fall of NBC, the slow-and-steady rise of CBS, the great new ABC shows that came on the air (Lost, Housewives), the retirement/departures of all three network anchors, and that nutso FOX network. The publisher's blurb on Amazon promises that Carter will be giving readers a lot of behind-the-scenes dirt, so I'm looking forward to getting this book. Is a TV Squad book review in the cards...?  We'll see...

[via Variety.com]