O'Brien out, Leno back in?

[PKTrekGirl]

Jeez, what a mess. Don't know if they could have fucked this up any worse with bad decision after bad decision.

Fortunately for me, I gave up on the whole lot of them years ago and now only watch Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert.....

But wow, this is a mess!

 

[wamdue]

Fortunately for me, I gave up on the whole lot of them years ago and now only watch Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert.....

But wow, this is a mess!

what about the John Oliver show?

 

[Roger Wilco]

Too short, impressive guest list though.

 

[wamdue]

Too short, impressive guest list though.

truth is I would love to see John Oliver either guest host The Daily Show, or do a The Daily Show: Great Britain: With John Oliver.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

"You are 100% wrong," one of O'Brien's reps shot back.

Zucker hears that a lot, I'm sure.

Yeah, this'll likely end in Conan getting a lot of money - not his entire payoff for being "cancelled" - and permitted to work on another network within a relatively short time frame.

 

[Roger Wilco]

truth is I would love to see John Oliver either guest host The Daily Show, or do a The Daily Show: Great Britain: With John Oliver.

I like him too, he's very good. I'm sure there are bigger things in his future than TDS correspondent.

Zucker hears that a lot, I'm sure.

It's also an absolutely ridiculous assumption, that show how far removed from reality Zucker is. The media loves this shit, there's no way this will be off the front pages anytime soon. Especially with comedians on other networks pouring oil in the fire.

 

[Broccoli]

He's a silent comedian, a watchful entertainer. A late knight.

Terrible! Go to your room!

 

[Squiggy]

Dick Ebersol is not taking into account the fact that Leno had years to build up his audience before he began regularly beating Letterman in the ratings, nor is he taking into account the fact that decreased lead-ins from Leno's failure makes it that much harder for Conan to build up his audience.

Dick Ebersol is just pissed that Conan's been calling NBC on their dickish behavior.

And he replies in an extremely diskish manner.

 

[davejames]

Dick Ebersol is not taking into account the fact that Leno had years to build up his audience before he began regularly beating Letterman in the ratings, nor is he taking into account the fact that decreased lead-ins from Leno's failure makes it that much harder for Conan to build up his audience.

Dick Ebersol is just pissed that Conan's been calling NBC on their dickish behavior.

Agreed. NBC's entire primetime schedule took a huge dip in the ratings. That's fewer people watching the network to start with, and fewer people to see the promos for Conan's show.

It didn't help that Conan's show was overshadowed completely by Leno's show when it arrived, or that Leno seemed to get all the big guests.

I'm not saying Conan wouldn't have dipped in the ratings anyway (clearly he didn't have the wide appeal Leno had), but I'm almost certain his ratings wouldn't have been as bad as they are NOW.

 

[J.T.B.]

I didn't see this posted, http://[URL="http://www.nytimes.com...ia/15conan.html?scp=2&sq=Dick Ebersol&st=cse"Dick Ebersol weighs in...against Conan and Letterman. Kind of makes you glad NBC is tanking right now with people like this leaping to its defense. The article can be found here.

Dick Fucking Ebersol. The comedy expert who wouldn't let Larry David or Harry Shearer get their sketches on Saturday Night Live thinks Leno's the greatest thing ever. Big surprise.

It has been widely known for months that Leno basically went on the offensive against Conan as far as booking guests, trying to leave Tonight with sloppy seconds as much as possible. And still he couldn't make it. So why isn't Ebersol talking about Leno's "astounding failure" at 10 pm?

--Justin

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Now that I think about it, maybe the real loser here is The Tonight Show. It's gone from a television icon to a Leno vanity project.

Has The Tonight Show ever really been an icon beyond the Johnny Carson years? I mean, I don't hear too many people wax nostalgic about Steve Allen or Jack Parr. And the Jay Leno years couldn't have been too iconic since you had The Late Show with David Letterman splitting up the audience for most of its run.

It'd be great if Dave were to formally announce the retirement he's been hinting at, then asked Conan to host The Late Show.

That is, if Craig's meant it when he's said he's not interested in the job.

Conan O'Brien on CBS would be interesting. As for Craig Ferguson, I think that moving him to a more prominent timeslot would kill him. Mainstream audiences probably wouldn't put up with Ferguson's brilliant stream-of-consciousness style of hosting.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

It'd be great if Dave were to formally announce the retirement he's been hinting at, then asked Conan to host The Late Show.

That is, if Craig's meant it when he's said he's not interested in the job.

Conan O'Brien on CBS would be interesting. As for Craig Ferguson, I think that moving him to a more prominent timeslot would kill him. Mainstream audiences probably wouldn't put up with Ferguson's brilliant stream-of-consciousness style of hosting.

You're probably right, which is unfortunate.

 

[Samurai8472]

^ "History says Conan O'Brien was a great man. Went on to host The Tonight Show. But that was another life."

Because he's the host The Tonight Show deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So they'll fire him because he can take it. Because he's not our host. He's a silent comedian, a watchful entertainer. A late knight.

Leno- It was your executives, your plan!

Zucker- Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I'm a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it. You know, I just... do things. Letterman has plans, Fallon has plans, Conan's got plans. You know, they're schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I'm not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.

Zucker-Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair!



back by popular demand


Leno- You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

 

[Jetfire]

If Conan is getting up to $80 Million to walk away...I would take some time off to consider my next move instead of just jumping into another show/network.

If that happened to me I was just quit show business.

 

[ALF]

Can anyone else not fucking believe this is happening?

Honestly, when I heard Conan was going to helm the Tonight Show I thought to myself, "this is too good to be true." And after it started airing, I actually thought it was better than Late Night.

And now the reality of this is setting in. Now life makes sense again. What a kick in the dick.

 

[Praetor]

It's okay. I have confidence everyone will ultimately get what they deserve, both good and bad. I think Conan will come out better from this, and NBC will reap some serious backlash.

 

[Timewalker]

The big thing I heard this morning on the radio was that, while Conan's contract was indeed for The Tonight Show, is contract did not include anything about a specific timeslot for the show to air.

There is a such thing as breaking the spirit of an agreement while adhering to the letter of an agreement.

You can call it The Tonight Show if you want, but if you move it to 12:05 -- when it's no longer "tonight" -- then you're ruining the brand, and you're forcing the host to share the spotlight with the guy who's on at 11:35. And that's just not done.

This is a silly argument. There are more than two timezones in the U.S. Here in the province of Alberta, Canada, The Tonight Show starts at 12:35 a.m. MST. It always has, except when pre-empted. I don't remember anybody screaming that it can't be called "The TONIGHT Show" if it doesn't start until after midnight. At least it airs when it's dark, doesn't it? And considering these shows are actually taped in the afternoon...

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Now that I think about it, maybe the real loser here is The Tonight Show. It's gone from a television icon to a Leno vanity project.

Has The Tonight Show ever really been an icon beyond the Johnny Carson years? I mean, I don't hear too many people wax nostalgic about Steve Allen or Jack Parr.

Because it was such a long time ago. In their days, Allen and Paar were both enormously successful, unique TV personalities and The Tonight Show was closely identified with them. Allen basically invented the late-night format. Think about that for a moment. These guys all have their disparate personalities and comedic postures, and all follow the same format fifty-five years later...

There's quite a famous incident involving Paar as the host which is summarized thusly at wikipedia:

On February 11, 1960, Jack Paar walked off his show for a month after NBC censors edited out a segment, taped the night before, about a joke involving a "W.C." (water closet, a polite term for a flush toilet) being confused for a "wayside chapel." As he left his desk, he said, "I am leaving The Tonight Show. There must be a better way of making a living than this." Paar's abrupt departure left his startled announcer, Hugh Downs, to finish the broadcast himself.

Paar returned to the show on March 7, 1960, strolled on stage, struck a pose, and said, "As I was saying before I was interrupted..." After the audience erupted in applause, Paar continued, "When I walked off, I said there must be a better way of making a living. Well, I've looked... and there isn't."

 

[Jetfire]

Would it suck if Leno goes back to the The Tonight Show and in a year passes it on to Jimmy Fallon?

 

[Yoda]

The big thing I heard this morning on the radio was that, while Conan's contract was indeed for The Tonight Show, is contract did not include anything about a specific timeslot for the show to air.

There is a such thing as breaking the spirit of an agreement while adhering to the letter of an agreement.

You can call it The Tonight Show if you want, but if you move it to 12:05 -- when it's no longer "tonight" -- then you're ruining the brand, and you're forcing the host to share the spotlight with the guy who's on at 11:35. And that's just not done.

This is a silly argument. There are more than two timezones in the U.S. Here in the province of Alberta, Canada, The Tonight Show starts at 12:35 a.m. MST. It always has, except when pre-empted. I don't remember anybody screaming that it can't be called "The TONIGHT Show" if it doesn't start until after midnight. At least it airs when it's dark, doesn't it? And considering these shows are actually taped in the afternoon...

This is a silly argument. 11:35 covers the majority of cases in the US. 10:35 in the central time zone. I don't know about Mountain, but I doubt it would be 12:35 like in Alberta, and regardless it's the least populated time zone we have (not counting whatever the hell happens in Alaska/Hawaii). But the fact of the matter is the concept of the programming block.. eastern and pacific have 8-11 as prim time, 11 as a half hour for news ,and then late night at 11:35. In central its 7-10, 10 o'clock news, and 10:35 late night. But the important thing is that 10:35 is the top late night spot, and that's the Tonight Show. If you bump Conan back a half hour it's the back ass half of the Tonight Show, and the front half of his Late Night show. It's most certainly not what he signed up for. I can imagine that there are lots of people who tune in for the first part of the 11:35 shows, then go to bed after the monologue, or the first guest, or whatever.

If you think that giving the 11:35 show to Conan, only to be pushed back 30 minutes by the guy who used to host the 11:35 show, and now hosts a 'new' show with a different name from his original studio in the exact same time slot goes with the spirit of the agreement and isn't insulting, you're nuts.