It’s only one of the best TV-related books ever written, and given the recent Conan O’Brien/NBC/Jay Leno brouhaha, it seemed inevitable that New York Times TV industry scribe Bill Carter would write a sequel to his classic 1992 tome The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night. Well, the sequel is definitely happening, as Carter confirmed today at Gawker.com.

Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily reported in December that Carter was working on a new book, but he was sorta denying it was a Late Shift sequel. At Gawker.com today, though, he confirms the Conan/Leno battle will be a focus of the new book, which will be published by Viking.

As for when it will hit bookshelves (or Kindle and Nook and iPad screens), the release date may not be before Fall, though Carter tells Gawker, “The events of the past month have made it kind of important to get it out as soon as we can, but the story is still going on.”

Meanwhile, Finke had suggested in her December story that Carter was having trouble getting access to David Letterman for the new book, but the NYT reporter’s story on the behind-the-scenes finagling by Letterman and company to make that Leno/Oprah Winfrey/Letterman Super Bowl ad happen suggests he’s got some sources at the Ed Sullivan Theater.

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• Filed in Late Night, TV News
• Tags: Bill Carter The Late Shift, Letterman Conan Leno, The Late Shift