Drop

Huge ratings at 11:30 are not the same an hour and a half earlier. I understand NBCs move, but Leno should've been classy and either done something completely different or retired.

I think NBC is run by morons, and they deserve the majority of the blame, but Leno deserves some too.

MvRojo

I don't see why Leno should get much blame besides for putting on a lousy show (never liked his Tonight show either). NBC was the one who didn't want to lose him, offered him more money, offered him a primetime show, and was too lazy to come up with a decent development slate. Leno just took advantage of an easy opportunity.

Using your argument, then Letterman shouldn't have jumped from NBC to CBS when he didn't get The Tonight Show since he had had a show for over a decade already.

Sorry, I just like debating.

JasonF

I don't blame NBC and Leno for trying something different. The point isn't that Leno shouldn't have moved to 10:00 once Conan got the Tonight Show as promised; the point is, what to do once it's determined that the 10:00 experiment didn't work out?

dx23

From what I've read and seen, Leno is very good a playing the backstage political games that have taken him to the top. He back stabs people like Carson, Letterman and now Conan and then acts like a nice guy and the lamb that hasn't done anything wrong. That's the reason why everyone is siding with Conan on this issue and are taking shots at Leno at the same time.

WallyOPD

NBC threw a ton of money at him and gave him the opportunity to keep a bunch of his friends and coworkers employed and he's a bad guy for taking it? I don't buy it.

Frenzy

I didn't understand why they gave Leno the new show in the first place. Meh.

MvRojo

They thought they could have their cake and eat it too...they figured this way they wouldn't lose Leno or Conan to a competing network.

pinata242

Wouldn't Leno be happier on the Speed Network anyway?

Chrisedge

This says it all.

RoyalTea

I like how he talked about how Letterman (and later O'Brien) wanted the Tonight Show because they grew up watching the show, loving the show and wanting a chance to take things to a higher level, while Jay Leno wanted the Tonight Show because he just wanted the Tonight Show.

With Conan's statement today, I get a real King Solomon vibe, where the baby is the Tonight Show. Conan loves the Tonight Show too much to see it get destroyed. I doubt Jay Leno shares the same feeling.

Doug Heffernan

I never liked Leno - and now I DVR the tonight show because of Conan. I used to be a big Dave fan back in the day, but now he just comes off as an out of touch cranky old man.

It is irrelevant to me when the tonight show is on, because I watch it the next day anyway. I wish Jay would just go away.

jjcool

I wonder what would ahve happened if Conan was already established as the host of the Tonight show, then they put Jay on at 10. The issue that I saw, was that NBC knew that Leno was going to pull in less of an audience than their 10 PM dramas would have. This, in turn hurt the late news on the affiliates, because they didnt have a strong lead in. On top of that, you ahve a brand new show on at 11:35 that is still trying to find it's audience. It is like the perfect storm of bad programming.
But what would have happend had Conan been doing the tonight Show for a while and already had built up an audience before the put Jay on at 10? Would that have made a difference?

Eric D.

Conan is such a class act. NBC needs to grow a pair and get rid of Leno once and for all.

jjcool

I used to flip flop between Letterman and Leno. But Conan at 1235 could not be beat. The tonight Show/Late Show were just a time waster until Conan was on. I have tried to watch conan on the tonight show, and I jsut cant get into it. The vibe just seems off, and alot of what made him great at 1235 (the off the wall comedy) I havent seen yet on his version of the Tonight Show.

shaun3000

It seems to me that no one is supporting Leno. I doubt many will watch Leno's show after this, especially if Conan leaves. NBC needs to wake up and ditch Leno. It's going from bad to worse.

dolphinboy

I don't see how anyone can defend Leno, even if NBC is terribly managed or not.

When did they roll this out? Wasn't it 5 years ago or something when Leno first announced Conan would "eventually" take his job in 5 years and everyone was laughing, including Letterman, about making such an announcement 5 years out?

Letterman was interviewed by RS about a year ago and said he couldn't believe it when he heard it. He admitted that he liked Conan (he doesn't like Leno) and made a comment about sort of understanding that they might not have wanted to lose Conan in a ugly fashion, so they made some kind of deal to hopefully make everybody happy. But even Letterman said, he (Leno) has been doing the job for NBC, why would they do this?

If Leno didn't like it, didn't want to give up the Tonight Show, agreed to step aside so Conan could be the new host, and Leno would do other things, he had a LONG time to voice those concerns or go somewhere else and do an 11:30 pm talk show. I mean, it does seem like that time period prefers Leno's bland comedy to Letterman AND Conan.

No, I don't care what Leno says publicly, but he's screwing Conan over big time. He all but killed the brand of the Tonight Show really meaning anything by sucking, albeit in front of a larger audience, for so long, and if Conan had capitulated and moved his The Tonight Show to start half way through Letterman, it wouldn't matter what the show was called, it would lose all meaning, as late night viewers would still see Leno as the Tonight Show host and Conan as his monkey boy.

If Leno comes back and, now it seems he'll get the Tonight Show for the full hour again, he might be helping NBC by competing with or beating Letterman and for of us who want to see scripted show not get the shaft, giving up all those 10 pm slots is a godsend even if it gives us a couple of good hours a week.

But if things weren't working out, considering how long Leno had to think about this, what it meant for Conan, personally and professionally, Leno should have been the one to walk out and go to Fox or elsewhere.

I don't find Conan all that funny, but I like him a lot better than I do Leno, which, I know is irrelevant to business is business, but Leno totally F^ucked Conan hard here. He could have just said, "I can't do this, I agreed to this probably stupid idea of stepping down, and I can't shaft Conan who hasn't even had much time to make the Tonight Show his own."

shaun3000

I would imagine there are network people behind the scenes who are trying to control the show and end up watering it down. Again, NBC is fucking it up.

pinata242

6 years, per Conan's statement.

darqleo

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Darknite39

Well, I for one can't fucking wait to see what's in store on this evening's shows.

Brent L

It makes me imagine the idiots who drive Krusty insane on The Simpsons are behind the scenes dealing with all of this.

fumanstan

If Conan had the ratings, I imagine there wouldn't be any question about moving him.

Deftones

Hell yeah! Brilliant statement and pretty much sums up the failures of NBC.

Double_Oh_7

I actually agree with this. I'm no Leno fan, but he's just doing what NBC tells him. I doubt there was any behind-the-scenes shenanigans on his part to get the 11:30 time slot back. He's just cashing in on NBC's blunder. Who here wouldn't do that?

Darknite39

I was just thinking, perhaps this could eventually work out. Conan could take over for Letterman when he decides he's had enough, leaving Craig where he belongs (i.e., free to do whatever the hell he wants at 12:30). For me, that lineup could not be beaten.

Just a wacky thought.