Groupthink In The Tonight Show

The main purpose of this case study was to show that groupthink was happening while NBC was making decisions for the replacement of former host Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.” After 30 years hosting, Johnny Carson decided to retire from the show leaving NBC to search for another host. This paper shows how they eliminated candidates and worked as a group to find the right person to replace Johnny Carson. In addition, NBC was also trying to decide what to do with their other host, David Letterman, after they did not offer him the job as the host of “The Tonight Show.” NBC worked as a group to make a decision about the successor to Johnny Carson and what to do with David Letterman.
The observable causes of Groupthink or the, antecedent conditions, are behaviors or qualities of the group that perpetually cause groupthink to occur. The primary antecedent, as stated by Janis, is high cohesiveness within a group (as cited in Rothwell,

251). This happens when a group doesn’t consider outside forces as they are or fail to acknowledge warnings that would cause the group to reevaluate their decision. Think of a sports team for example. Often teams will mock and think less of other teams, resulting in placing an automatic assumption of the other team’s capabilities. This can be destructive the day of competition when the team finds out that the opposing team is just as strong, fast and skilled, or even better than then their own team.
Lastly, Rothwell explains how pressure toward uniformity is another general symptom of groupthink. This occurs when there is an assumed sense of agreement which results in no one speaking up when they have an opposing opinion (p. 251). Often times the false sense of uniformity causes there to be direct pressure on the deviants which does not allow for an open environment for opinions to be shared and considered (Rothwell, 2013, p