Jimmy James

Precisely. Saddest of all, Leno is the one who gave us the road map when he had that gag order in the Jackson trial or whichever one it was -- they just have to get Andy, Norm MacDonald, or somebody else to do the NBC material while Conan stands there with a big smile on his face.

Darknite39

http://www.tmz.com/2010/01/18/live-c...medium=twitter

Live feed of the rally at Universal.

DVD Josh

I'm pretty sure that FOX DC's news is an hour.

Darknite39

Plus, I don't think prime time is a good idea for Coco. 11pm sounds like a winner, though. Time will tell!

Jimmy James

11 should be pretty much perfect. He gets a jump on the other chumps that way.

ScissorPuppy

Yep...
Every city I have ever been to (lived or visted) has had a 1hour 10P-11P news slot.

Conan will be on at 11PM.

whotony

Local news on Fox is 10-11 in most major markets.

Fist of Doom

And if there's one thing to be learned from this mess, it's that you don't screw around with the affiliates' local news.

jpb07

People need to get a life. It's not Leno's fault that NBC feared letting an unknown (at 11:35) Conan go to the point of making Jay step aside so Conan would stay. NBC now knows that Conan's comedy is more for the college aged 12:35 crowd than the pretigious Tonight Show and instead of compounding the mistake, are taking corrective action. For those that say Jay should have left NBC...NBC paid him well to stick around and whether they want to admit it or not, be an insurance policy for 11:35. With affliates up in arms, NBC was forced to cash in that insurance policy and give the quirky Conan the boot.

I think it is important to also realize that the much hyped 2004 deal was made in a much different environment. NBC was still a power player in the ratings...they'd get big ratings by airing Dateline just to fill time. The world has also undergone an economic contraction in which advertisers are more selective of how they spend their money. Also, let's not forget that online media wasn't even a mainstream concern until the WGA strike in '07-'08. With networks losing a lot of their power (i.e. advertising dollars), the affliates have gained a greater voice in the decision making process.

jpb07

We're in the hour long FOX news group as well. Conan will be in 3rd place which will be good enough for FOX. I liken the coming Leno/Conan matchup to SNL/MadTV. Yes, MadTV got alright ratings and had some talent but they always got the C-list people after SNL made their choice. The only thing that may save Conan is that a lot of young comedians (Rock/Spade/etc.) will likely side with him.

The other angle is how this will affect the succession plans for TTS. I would hope they put Leno on a Carson-like schedule with a rotation of guest hosts to figure out who would work best after Leno leaves. Unless the plan is to hire Kimmel away from ABC...

Also wanted to add...For those in the half hour markets, I suppose the network could fill the gap by airing a FOX News based half hour late evening news show. I doubt they'd want to go with primetime-local news-rerun-Conan.

Matt

You know what would be nice? If they brought Joel back for this last week of shows.

superfro

Wait..what year do you think this is?

wmansir

The funny thing is if Conan goes to Fox @11 then Fox will basically have what NBC was trying to do, 2 hours of prime time and a cheaper, earlier variety program, only without hurting the affiliate's news ratings. Of course, it's success depends on Conan being right in blaming everyone else for his poor ratings.

jpb07

Young in relation to Conan/Jay. Younger than the Robin Williams era guys.

Nefarious

Then NBC should also know that a lot of those college kids that watched him have aged and now have families and followed him to the 11:30 slot. I think it is ridiculous to say "Conan only works at the 12:30 slot based on his humor."

The man got f'd from the beginning with Jay not leaving the network and taking a show that led into his. Then he got f'd again by Jay acting like it wouldn't be a big deal to have his show from 11:35-12:35.

brayzie

Exactly. By Jay Leno doing a similar program, earlier doesn't that compete with Conan?

If Leno was sincere in what he said in 2004 he wouldn't have done the Jay Leno Show and still had Conan following him and he wouldn't have agreed to knocking Conan out of his time slot.

pinata242

RoyalTea

unknown?

Count Dooku

RichC2

That's all I could think of reading that post as well.

I think the problem wasn't Conan in general, it was Conan changing who he is to fit the Tonight Show mold.

Don Homer

If you want to know how petty NBC is they are apparently having employees vote against Conan on a TMZ poll. The poll ("Who is the bad guy?") had Conan at 5% earlier today. He is currently leading at 41% and some 300,000 votes have been cast today (there were 220,000 votes this morning and the poll had been up several days). There are comments by people claiming to be NBC interns who were told to vote for Conan as the bad guy until 5:00 PST.

The Cow

Jay's show got canceled.

Tommy Ceez

The conversation ender is this...

How would Jay have reacted if Johnny didnt retire but instead started a daily 10pm show?


F T W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

The Cow

Seems like your sig is spot on.

Jimmy James

As usual, starting with the declarant, who is also hashing this out on a message board just like the rest of us.

Prestigious? Formerly prestigious, perhaps. Some of us hoped that there would be a return to glory under Conan, but that sure as hell ain't happening.

No, it would have been important for NBC to realize that before going through with the deal. If you are correct, they should have just written Conan the buyout check and told him his options were 12:35 or goodbye. Trust me, that is going to end up being a cheaper option than this debacle.