I think Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, which is the parent to CBS, so that may be closer to happening than we all know it to be.

I can't believe so many people are interested in what is going to happen in the year 2009.

when conan takes over, will the show be based out of LA?

maybe it's just because I'm from the east coast, but I find that the NYC based latenight shows are a lot more appealing than the west coast shows.

If Jay has those 2 Motorcyle Goofballs on one more time.....


Anyway, I like Conan but I wish he would take it down just 1 notch. That's all.

i dont like jay at all this is good news conans taken over but its in a long time.

As someone in my mid-30s who thinks Conan is about as funny as a cardboard box, I have to say this doesn't give The Tonight Show a promising future. Since everyone knows Letterman would have left CBS for this job - even if it's five years away, looks like NBC dropped the ball again. I was actually hoping they'd go after Seinfeld when Jay stepped down.

Unless, I am mis-reading this, I'm going to disagree. Dave would NEVER have taken this job to replace Jay in 5 years.

In fact, while I don't care to even think 5 years in advance, I'm old enough right now, I would make a guess that Dave won't even be doing the Late Show in 5 years.

I could see him leaving in 2 or 3 and with that not being too long from now, if Stewart is as hot as he is now, he would make an excellent replacement and, unlike poor Conan, who is a NYC kind of guy, like Dave and Jon, he wouldn't have to relocate to LA. Conan will.

Conan's going into his twelfth year and his comedy still seems pretty fresh to me. I doubt he's going to drop it in just five years.

This of course doesn't take into account any pressure he may get from NBC to tone down a bit; I would think they know what they're getting.

Letterman will be living the high life full-time in St. Barts in less than five years. And the birth of his son during the past year pretty much assures that will happen. to JS as his replacement.

It's not as though we're discussing the year 3009. 2009 is less than five years away.

Also, the sky is blue.

Scanning the thread, I still didn't seen an answer to a previous question...

Why is Jay stepping down?

Any word on who will get Late Night? That is an important show and has been around too long for them to get rid of it.

Most likely George Lopez.

The way I see it, Conan's audience will be 5 years older. I've been watching Conan since he first went on the air, I was a freshman in high school. 10 years later, I can't stay up as late anymore due to responsibilities and life. NBC's doing the smart thing and keeping a recognizable face for when the conan crowd grows up. He probably won't be as cutting edge with his humor, but conan's personality is what drives the show. He'll just need some new great writers.

My concern is whether he'll move to LA or stay in NY.

Looks like Stuttering John will be crawling back to Howard in four, five years.

Bingo!

Everyone who thinks that Conan will bring his fratboy humor into the Tonight Show will be disappointed...

5 years ago no one would have known that the Daily Show and Jon Stewart would become the "it" show, winning all the Emmys, etc.

In 5 years Conan will change, funny and hip will be at the very least be somewhat different. Heck, Bush will be finished with his 2nd term in office. We may all be unemployed and homeless by then.

I think the cache of the Tonight Show has lost a lot in just the last 5 years of Leno. Not only does the show not win, it doesn't even get nominated for anything. And it's well deserved in this case.

What will it be like after 5 more years of being destroyed by Leno? Why would we assume Conan would take the job if there was something better available in 5 years? That's not completely impossible. Who know where NBC's ratings will be or what late night will be like then.

I think 5 years in advance is a long time to speculate on anything, it wasn't a personal attack or anything.

I love this. 10 years ago Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien's shows were considered bombs. Now they're in the running for the 11:30 slots.

read a few post above yours and you will see that this makes sense. All those who grew up on Conan and are or will be in their more mature years that can't stay up that late because of work and so on will be watching him.

It's actually a good move by NBC. By then those who like the fratboy humor now will like the tamer version he will be as they would have grown out of it. Still conan is a shit lot more entertaining then leno.

I don't know about some of you, but I'll never outgrow the fratboy humor type stuff.

All this talk of frat boy humor...I wonder, do you know were'e talking about Conan, not Kilborn, right??

Quote:

Originally posted by shaun3000
This must piss Dave of. He'd been with NBC for 10 years in Conan's spot and was Johnny's choice to replace him, but NBC went with Leno, a relatively unknown. Now NBC has said, five years in advance, they they are going to replace Leno with Conan. Ouch.

BUT, good choice.

So...waitaminnit...NBC didn't let Carson pick his successor but they're letting LENO pick his...???

This seems prefectly clear.

NBC wants to secure Conan. With Kilborn retired I'm sure World Wide Pants brought it up to his table. Conan's contact with GE is up in 2005. World Wide Pants could have offered conan the late late show spot with the sweet deal that once Letterman retires (expected in the next five years) that he gets Daves spot. NBC wanting to secure conan offers him that in the next five years Leno is out the door and gives him the spot.

Makes sense to me.

I was thinking the same thing.

Except the Leno part. He's said recently that he'd like to die at that desk, he certainly gave no indiction that he wanted to leave in 5 years. Leno loves the Tonight Show and he loves to work. If NBC wanted to secure Conan that way, either they already knew Leno wanted only to do the show 5 more years (which would be surprising) or, at some point, they kind of told him this is what we want, go along or we'll do it anyway and you'll have an audience who knows the network isn't really behind you.

Leno is lucky he still has a job now. Leno is probably considered the worst host working late night shows right now with Kilborn finally gone. Even a poll between Kilborn and Leno might have been close.