CONAN!!!

[Roberto Lequeux]

Love you COCO.

 

[Michael Romano]

Second that!

 

[Martin Weiss]

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

?

Conan O'Brien is a comedian who had a late night talk show. Jay Leno promised him "The Tonight Show in 5 years." But when the 5 years finally came Jay didn't leave he just moved his show to a prime-time spot. Now NBC is trying to push Conan back to his original spot in order to return the tonight show slot to Leno which Conan refused to do and is ending his show.

 

[M Most]

Conan O'Brien is a comedian who had a late night talk show. Jay Leno promised him "The Tonight Show in 5 years." But when the 5 years finally came Jay didn't leave he just moved his show to a prime-time spot. Now NBC is trying to push Conan back to his original spot in order to return the tonight show slot to Leno which Conan refused to do and is ending his show.

I like Conan O'Brien as well, but that's hardly the way this played out. All show movement and host replacement decisions were made by the network, not by Leno. Leno went along with the program because NBC forced his hand. Leno didn't "promise" anything. The network told him the change was going to take place and asked him to accept it, which he did. The 10 PM show was completely NBC's idea because they did not want Leno to leave the network and potentially set up a competing show on another network. The fact that it completely failed and ultimately backfired is not Leno's doing, and it is not O'Brien's doing, it is all solely attributable to decisions made by NBC (well, that and the fact that Leno's 10 PM show was just not very good). However, it is also undoubtedly true that if O'Brien had delivered anything even remotely close to Leno's numbers on "Tonight," he would still be hosting it and Leno would be the one being paid to leave. But the fact is that he didn't. The numbers were down by over 50% and the show was being beaten by Letterman nearly every night. That's just a simple fact.

 

[Ivan G]

Leno is much better hands down! I'd rather beat myself watching soap opera then Conan's tonight show. NBC's gave him 30 million anyways, so he'll be fine...

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I wish someone would pay me $30M+ just to leave.

Conan will be fine.

 

[Omar Saad]

Leno is much better hands down! I'd rather beat myself watching soap opera then Conan's tonight show. NBC's gave him 30 million anyways, so he'll be fine...

Well I suppose that all open to ones personal tastes. IMO I don't think Leno has been funny for at least the last 10 years. In fact, when Jimmy Kimmel hosted his show the other week as Jay, he nailed the impression simply because his bits were tired and jokes were flat. I'll agree that Conan wasn't the same since he made the switch to the Tonight Show but I think he's was at least a comic that was willing to take some risks in pursuit of some laughs.

I do agree that by all accounts it appears to be NBC that screwed this thing up though. It'll be interesting to see what Jay's ratings are after he retakes the show... with NBC's primetime being what it is.

 

[C.H.Haskell]

I salute you coco.

 

[Tom Lowe]

I knew this was going to happen five years ago when the announced it. Tonight Show audience is a lot older. My Mom AND my Grandma both watched Leno. They are not going to "get" Conan.

The problem is, there apparently weren't any adults with balls enough at NBC to stop this whole thing a couple of years ago.

 

[Brandon Kraemer]

Conan has a lot of class, what he said last night was very cool and heart felt. NBC's mistake was diluting the schedule and adding Jay Leno at 10pm. Conan was never given his chance to galvanize an audience. I don't think Jay is funny at all, a horrible replacement for Carson at that, who was way more innovative at comedy despite having appeal to the older crowd.

Did anyone notice the band that closed his show last night? Beck, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, and Conan himself playing a mean guitar (seriously, he has chops). That was pretty wild, despite the lackluster comedic vocals by Will Farell.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Conan has a lot of class, what he said last night was very cool and heart felt. NBC's mistake was diluting the schedule and adding Jay Leno at 10pm. Conan was never given his chance to galvanize an audience. I don't think Jay is funny at all, a horrible replacement for Carson at that, who was way more innovative at comedy despite having appeal to the older crowd.

Yep. I think Conan went out like a shining star. I'm sure someone will pick up his show. Conan was just fine as Leno's replacement, NBC did not allow enough time for audiences to adjust. And audiences were not keen on adjusting when Leno was still on the air at a different time slot. Except the network screwed up Leno's show as they tried to fit it more into the mold of Ellen or other talk shows on in other time slots.

I didn't think Leno was that funny, but he did have his moments and I kinda liked him as a host for such a show. As for the comedy, a lot of it comes down to the writing staff. And I've felt the writing staff for both Leno and Conan have been lacking for some time. NBC comedy writing in general is pretty much "bleh" anyway.

And none of it can top what the network had with Carson.

Did anyone notice the band that closed his show last night? Beck, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, and Conan himself playing a mean guitar (seriously, he has chops). That was pretty wild, despite the lackluster comedic vocals by Will Farell.

Yep. Saw it. I've seen Conan play a guitar somewhere before too. The dude can play. Like I said above, he will do fine. Too bad NBC had to go and make a big mess out of it all.

 

[Rick Darge]

One thing he said stuck with me,

"Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."- Conan O'Brien

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Yeah I don't really subscribe to the Leno vs Conan blood match. It's clearly NBC's fault. But it was poorly handled.

If they wanted Conan in the Tonight show they should have let Leno go not kept him around waiting in the wings.

 

[Tom Lowe]

If they wanted Conan in the Tonight show they should have let Leno go not kept him around waiting in the wings.

To me it's obvious that they knew Conan would not click with that demographic and audience and that's exactly WHY they kept Leno around. The whole thing is kind of bizarre. It seems to me that there were simply no adults around to stop this whole thing a couple of years ago when it could have been stopped before a meltdown like this. I would blame the NBC boss/CEO, whoever that is.

 

[Chuck Z]

Jay had 18 months to get his ratings above Letterman. Conan had seven.

 

[Justin Kirchhoff]

Jay had 18 months to get his ratings above Letterman. Conan had seven.

By months you mean years....Conan did have only seven months though. To hear people say the writing staff on Conan's show wasn't funny is unreal. The guy was a comedic genius. I don't want to get into it because it's purely opinion, but whatever.

Conan had a great show last night and what he said will be remembered for a very long time.

 

[Craig Ryan]

Conan will be back, without a doubt. He's too talented, and much too loved to be forgotten.

IMHO, it's a totally different world from the Carson and Doc days. There were much fewer channels, no internet, etc...apples to oranges. Impossible to compare today's shows with that era.

To be completely honest, I wish this whole thing was an Andy Kaufman esque scam to get more ratings. If it was, it sure as hell would have worked. Oh well.

Going out with Freebird like that was pretty damn epic too. And after all these years, we FINALLY got more COW BELL!

 

[Jeff Coatney]

Network TV in its current form is doomed. In the hey day the networks were the dominate players, now cable programming is chipping away. Soon, Apple, Netflix, Hulu and YouTube will give us A'la Carte programming direct to our 4K displays in the home. Within a decade, the network TV map will be redrawn.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I don't think Conan could have ever matched Leno. Leno found a formula that was simple, easy to digest and safe. He was extremely consistent and almost impossible to find offensive. That's going to have a much broader demographic from Conan who was far more courageous and took a lot more risks. Trouble with risks though is that they don't always succeed.

I don't think Conan needed more time to capture an audience, I think he was just too risky. NBC wanted Leno's audience but Conan's highlight reel.