conan obrien deal

Jay Leno Vs. Conan O’brien: Who Will Be King?

We’ve all watched the recent melodrama unfold between the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and the Jay Leno Show both on NBC. The story is the same where NBC tried something new by putting the Jay Leno Sho on a 10 pm and the Tonight show follows after the evening news as it always had. Well both were ratings disaster and NBC scrambling to correct the mistake wanted to move Conan back in to his old time slot so that the Jay Leno Show could bbdgin yet again after the evening news. Naturally Conan wasn’t gooing for it and screamed breach of contract which led to all this hoopla being made in the press about the ’shake-up!’ Well now it’s official that the Jay Leno Show is axed and Jay goes back to the Tonight Show and Conan is out sent on his way with $30 million dollars to console hisbruised professional ego. That’s where we are at now but where should we be?

Almost 20years ago a similar shake-up happened when Johnny Carson retired from the Tonight Show and heir apparent David Letterman was skipped over in favor of Jay Leno. Now Dave was fuming too for he had helmed the Late Late show for years waiting for his opportunity to take over the Tonight Show and when he got bumped in favor of Jay he left and went to CBS. He’s never beaten Jay Leno in the ratings but has done quite well stabilizing CBS’s then non-existent late nigt programming giving them a winner. Jimmy Kimmel on ABC is distant third and not even rating in the late night game but that’s how the current line-up came to be with Jay reigning as king.

there are those who want to take sides and label Jay as a spoilsport or opportunist and say he was selfish and wrong for not leaving and giving Conan’s show a chance to fly. That may be true but really this is NBC’s falt for their fears of Jay going to another network and taking his audience with him. They had no confidence in Conan so they hammered out this deal for with Jay’s contract up there was nothing to stop him from going somewhere else. Plus Jay’s domination of the late night game scared the proud peacock so they felt they needed to keep him tied up somehow thus this ridiculous idea of a ten o’clock show was born. Jay went along with it since the money was good (as anyone would) and Conan didn’t object probably figuring like everyone else did that the idea would be a flop, it would get canceled, and he wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. How wrong could they have been. Conan, a unique comic who has to grow on you kind of like David Letterman, couldn’t get the ratings up fast enough and Jay was just in the wrong spot. People wind down watching a show like Jay’s otherwise they want to see dramas in that time slot. That’s how we’ve been programmed for some fifty odd years of television watching and that wasn’t going to change overnight. It didn’t take long for the novelty to wear off and viewers started going to other channels to find dramas and watching Dave Letterman to wind down after the evening news. So this new format was doomed to failure from its inception bringing us to now where two late night titans are at odds with their network and each other. Dave was having a field day taking pot-shots at Jay (until the SuperBowl commercial which I found totally amusing) while Conana got $30 million dollars richer (hey Conan, how’s about shooting a $1 million or so my way? Remember that cup of coffee I bought you that day you were out of cash? teehee) and Jimmy Fallon got an early promotion. So everybody won and lost (except Jimmy Fallon who just won!) at the same time.

I personally don’t know what to make of it for I was not a big fan of Conan’s show and watched Jay’s show almost religiously. I do know though were it me I would be steamed like Conan was and I wouldn’t have went for it either. Yet I’m not really to sad about the results though I do hope Conan does come back on another network with a new show. I also would like to see Arsenio Hall back on the late night scene though without all the ass-kissing and pining. He’s a man too and a great late night show perforer and should get his own show again along with George Lopez. There’s room for other late night titans and they don’t all have to be white men. But as far as Jay and Conan it’s just round one in an ongoing late night drama and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

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