The Conan/Leno debacle

[dfreely]

Interested to hear your thoughts on it.. I feel so bad for Conan.

[khackdrums]

I feel bad for Conan too. NBC (and Jay) has jerked him around since offering him The Tonight Show less than a year ago. I am personally glad he stood up against NBC's crap! He should go to Fox, I heard they were interested in picking him up.

His public statement:

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

Yours,

Conan

Khackdrums

[dfreely]

I liked his statement.. he's really handling this with class. Leno's been undermining him for years, and NBC.. I don't know what they're thinking. They made a huge mistake when they gave Leno a primetime show, despite the fact that virtually everyone knew it was going to bomb. Then they try to fix that mistake by taking it out on Conan. WTH?

[khackdrums]

I never really liked Jay much, always hated David, but alway's loved Conan. Craig has his moments too. I hope it all ends well for Conan. I have a request currently pending from him, I don't know if I'll be seeing that ever again now...

Khackdrums

[dfreely]

Craig's great.. he's known as "Scottish Conan guy" after all.

Not as clever as Conan, but he's got all his zaniness and insanity, and then some. And, he hates Twilight.

[khackdrums]

I can't stand Twilight.

Khackdrums

[dobie516]

Conan is the most entertaining of the bunch. Too bad he's getting treated like this. His monologue last night ripped NBC pretty good.

[Jaffer]

I liked his statement.. he's really handling this with class. Leno's been undermining him for years, and NBC.. I don't know what they're thinking. They made a huge mistake when they gave Leno a primetime show, despite the fact that virtually everyone knew it was going to bomb. Then they try to fix that mistake by taking it out on Conan. WTH?

I agree, Leno's show was doomed to failure. I think Leno is slightly tired and stale, it's time NBC moved on

[dfreely]

Part of me still can't believe this is actually happening.. there were so many cancellation rumors about Leno's 10pm show for a long time, but I never expected NBC to boot Conan and give Leno the Tonight Show again, and certainly not this fast. Just a week or so ago, I was preparing to write fanmail to Conan and Andy, little did I know they would only be working there for a couple more weeks.

[khackdrums]

Part of me still can't believe this is actually happening.. there were so many cancellation rumors about Leno's 10pm show for a long time, but I never expected NBC to boot Conan and give Leno the Tonight Show again, and certainly not this fast. Just a week or so ago, I was preparing to write fanmail to Conan and Andy, little did I know they would only be working there for a couple more weeks.

NBC isn't giving Leno the Tonight Show back, he would still host The Jay Leno Show. The only differences would be the time slot and the duration. He is going to be moved back to late night where NBC thinks his show will perform better and the shows duration is going to be cut back from 1 hour down to 30 minutes. This is why Conan's Tonight Show was only pushed back 30 minutes (12:05EST), not 1 hour (12:35EST).

Khackdrums