According the news media NBC wants to make Jay Leno retire in 2014 and appoint Jimmy Fallon as the new host of the Tonight show. Unlike the bungled Conan O'Brien transition in 2009, Fallon won't have to relocate 3,000 away to Burbank since a Fallon hosted Tonight Show will be in NYC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which is the same location as Fallon's current Late Night show. I don't think Leno's too happy about NBC's decision either since he compared NBC's executives to "snakes" in a his Monday monologue. IMO, I suspect NBC thinks they can save money by moving the Tonight snow to NYC and keep Jimmy Fallon on a lower salary. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/b...d-to-return-to-new-york-with-fallon.html?_r=0 http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...rass-monologue-monday-night-article-1.1292901
I haven't watched a single minute of late night talk shows in three years, not since I cancelled cable and stopped watching Conan. The whole Tonight Show snafu soured me on the concept! Leno is an ass and should have told NBC to shove it, but selfishly he wanted his show back. Now I just follow Conan on Facebook and watch the funny clips he posts on his website.
What was Leno upset about? He's made a frickin' bundle doing...well not having to do all that much, far as I can tell.
leno should just turn showing his people around his massive garage interweb videos a fulltime show, he's got so many awesome cars to show off
I'll be completely shocked if this goes off exactly as planned without one or more snafus (like or Leno not wanting to vacate the Tonight Show, Fallon getting replaced by Conan or something equally unthinkable right now).
Stupid. Jay Leno is one of the bright spots for NBC. Until they get a better lineup, why chance bringing Fallon out? Is Fallon forcing their hand (could he be headed somewhere else)? I don't think he's as well suited as Leno.
Jay Leno was in Homicide: Life on the Street, so he's automatically better than Jimmy Fallon. On the other hand, Jimmy Fallon has The Roots, so he's automatically better than Jay Leno. It's a paradox.
One, I loved a twitter response to this news I read that said, "Fallon to replace Leno in 14, hope Jimmy likes TBS." Two, I have seen several people talking about there being more of a behind the scenes story evolving. That it is Lorne Michaels is the one going out for the kill on Leno. Lorne was a big supporter of Conan in the back offices of NBC, and was very unhappy about the whole tonight show incident and how Conan was treated. Now that executives at NBC/U have changed, Leno has lost a lot of his supporters, and Michaels is out for payback and has been punching for the dumping of Leno.
Like all talk show hosts, Leno does a lot of stuff behind the scenes. He's as much a producer as he is a host. But I don't think anyone likes to be forced out of a job they love, regardless of how much they make.
I would agree, but only conditionally. Conan would need to be free to produce the show that HE wants to produce. A big reason that the Tonight Show under Conan was a lame duck was that he and his writers (the EXACT SAME staff as the successful Late Night show) were handcuffed to some ridiculous standard of 11:35p needing to be tamer. That makes no sense; after watching an hour of Law & Order where pimps are killing prostitutes and getting shot and whatnot, then watching the uber-depressing local news, why would the Tonight Show need to have tame jokes? Conan is making the show he wants to make on TBS, 35 minutes earlier, and a hell of a lot funnier than anything he was allowed to do on the Tonight Show. I'm with CoCo. His youtube channel is just a sampling of the hilarity he can do. I'd like to see Conan write/produce a TV show one day, because he's a truly gifted comedian.
It's sad and funny, that Leno thinks the NBC executives are now snakes. What did he expect? That they are okay screwing over others but would never do it to him? That's like a cheating husband who ends his marriage to be with his mistress, and then she is shocked to discover he is now cheating on her with someone else. When people are greedy, they don't care who it is that's getting screwed over. Some of the leadership might have changed, but a business culture doesn't change overnight. I never much cared for Leno's boring show, I don't really watch Fallon either, though he does at least have a sense of humor. I used to like Letterman but he's too grumpy now. Jimmy Kimmel has always kind of annoyed me (and by the way he so does not look like a "Jimmy"!). So basically I'll just keep watching Conan every now and then. I actually like that it's on TBS because I get the east coast feed as well so I can watch it at 8 PM before I go to bed at 9:30 PM.