Shatner havoc on Tonight Show

The new host of NBC's The Tonight Show had a hard time of it last night when Star Trek veteran William Shatner dropped by to promote his new biography and upcoming TV series. Shatner, 78, was red-faced and sweating and appeared to be drunk. He gave his host Conan O'Brien the finger, made a number of crass jokes and at one stage pretended to masturbate.

In an attempt to gain control of the situation, O'Brien turned his back on the veteran actor in a display of disgust, prompting Shatner to pipe down for a few minutes. But the lull was short lived. He erupted again when O’Brien gave a namecheck for his new show.

"Your talk show Shatner's Raw Nerve airs on the Biography Channel," O'Brien said, but was shot down by the ageing actor, who barked: "No, it's Bio". O'Brien pointed out that his notes said Biography Channel but the former Captain Kirk wasn't having any of it and stuck his middle finger up at him.

Once the ordeal was over and Shatner had left the stage, O'Brien tried to make light of the situation by jumping on his desk with his arms in the air and asking "What is that all about?" before moving on.

But the debacle is likely to unnerve NBC bosses who have watched ratings slip since O'Brien took the helm from Jay Leno at the start of the month. According to the New York Post, the show had always beaten its CBS rival, The Late Show with David Letterman, when Leno fronted it. But since relaunching on June 1 with O'Brien in the chair, viewing figures for The Tonight Show have fallen every day.

By June 9, only 2.93 million viewers tuned in to O'Brien, as against an audience of 3.38 million for Letterman. Network executives are unlikely to allow this to continue.