I would hope that Comcast has corrected the sinking NBC ship by then.
I feel dirty rooting for Comcast to do something right.
O'Brien out, Leno back in?
- Thread starter Professor Zoom
- Start date
I would hope that Comcast has corrected the sinking NBC ship by then.
I feel dirty rooting for Comcast to do something right.
Good for Conan! He'll be better off at another network. I admire him for not wanting to be part of The Tonight Show at 12:05.
You all just know that Letterman is laughing his ass off over at CBS.
Classy response from Conan, all things considered. We'll see what happens next, whether they force him out and just hand the Tonight Show back to Leno, or if they have to re-think Leno at 11:35 in order to keep Conan from going to Fox and sinking whatever Leno was going to do anyway...
Has this been the best year Letterman has ever had. Even with the Palin thing, and his sex/blackmail scandal, it just seems like he's riding high right now, and, like you said, laughing all the way to the bank.
He probably has some empathy for O'Brien - certainly the guy who wrote "The Late Shift" has got to be picking up a hell of a lot of material for a sequel right now. 
Yeah, we'll see Conan as guest on The Late Show with David Letterman in a month or two, guaranteed.
CNN has posted O'Brien's complete statement:
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/12/conan-releases-statement-on-late-night-situation/
Wow. He manages to be a class act while at the same time delivering what could be the strongest condemnation of a network by one of its stars I've ever seen.
Earlier I posted "Tonight Show 1954-2010" and afterwords I wondered if that might have been an overreaction. I don't really think that anymore. Certainly this is the beginning of the end of O'Brien at NBC because even though he might not have talks going on right now (or so he says, anyway) some of those "far more lucrative offers" he alludes to might well rear their heads again.
Alex
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/12/conan-releases-statement-on-late-night-situation/
Wow. He manages to be a class act while at the same time delivering what could be the strongest condemnation of a network by one of its stars I've ever seen.
Earlier I posted "Tonight Show 1954-2010" and afterwords I wondered if that might have been an overreaction. I don't really think that anymore. Certainly this is the beginning of the end of O'Brien at NBC because even though he might not have talks going on right now (or so he says, anyway) some of those "far more lucrative offers" he alludes to might well rear their heads again.
Alex
Wow...great response by Conan...he makes a great point about not being given the same chance Leno was given AND the piss-poor performance of the rest of NBC's shows effect on the Tonight Show ratings.
Personally, I'm a little surprised he was able to resist the temptation to pull a Governator and have the first letters of each line spell:
"F-U-C-K-Y-O-U-N-B-C"
Oh, and the closing line is classic:
"Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair;
it's always been that way."
Personally, I'm a little surprised he was able to resist the temptation to pull a Governator and have the first letters of each line spell:
"F-U-C-K-Y-O-U-N-B-C"
Oh, and the closing line is classic:
"Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair;
it's always been that way."
Conan O'Brien Says He Will Not Host "Tonight Show" in Later Time Slot
Conan O'Briensaid he will not host the "Tonight Show" if it airs at 12:05 a.m.
The comedian, who has hosted the show for seven months, released a statement Tuesday saying he would not accept the time-slot move proposed by NBC.
"Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the 'Tonight Show
SLIDESHOW: "Late Night" Bits We'd Like to See Return.
However, O'Brien left some wiggle room for staying with the network.
"There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next," he said. "My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work."
On the other hand, this would be an excellent opportunity for NBC to just say "You know, fuck it", fire them both, and offer Jon Stewart whatever he wants to take over the Tonight Show instead
Pretty sure that he'll be announced as the new host for The Late Show about three seconds after Letterman says he's stepping down.
That's the thing many people seem to have forgotten. Jay Leno's Tonight Show tanked, big time, when it went on the air. People hated Jay. They hated the ugly purple set. They hated the band. And they hated Jay for being chosen instead of Letterman, who most felt was the heir presumptive (despite Leno's decade of guest-hosting Tonight). When Letterman did what O'Brien is now planning to do and bolted to another network, people watched his show more than Leno's.
Back in 93-94 people were saying the Tonight Show was dying, but NBC stuck with it, and the show built its audience. Leno retooled it by getting rid of the curtains, and adding many of his signature gags. And by the time he started chiding Hugh Grant for the hooker and bringing on the Dancing Itos, the show had found its audience. And by 2009 no one could imagine Tonight without Jay Leno except for us old farts who remembered Carson.
There is nothing new going on regarding Conan that didn't happen back in 93-94. His brand of humor is taking time to get used to - just like Leno. His pacing is different from Leno, just as Leno's was different from Carson. Conan is facing competition from Letterman, just like Leno did - only Letterman got the edge this past year thanks to some high-profile newsmaking issues involving Sarah Palin and an employee.
What's different this time is that Conan was also competing against Leno. When Jay Leno came on in 1993, NBC did not immediately launch a Johnny Carson Show at 10.
We may never know what O'Brien's Tonight Show, unfettered by Leno, might have accomplished. But at least it would have lived and died on its own merits. I agree with O'Brien 100% that he wasn't given a fair shake, or the time necessary to, perhaps, do his own version of the retooling Leno undertook back in the mid-90s that assured the show's survival.
And now we have a situation in which Leno has lost face, O'Brien has lost face, and possibly the only winner is Fallon as millions of people are being reminded his show exists.
Alex
They will all get paid 20+ million dollars a year anyways.
It's more than just money. For me it's the principle of the matter.
I know that, but people here, like in the Avatar forum, over think it. To me they are fucking over someone that they made move 3,000 miles to just fire him?!
It seems like he will go to Fox and probably will get canceled there within a day. Still I rather be canceled by a new network then treated liek shit for a company you worked for for 20 years.
I think that in the long run this'll be the best thing to happen to Conan in a long time. Mark my words.
They will all get paid 20+ million dollars a year anyways.
It's more than just money. For me it's the principle of the matter.
I know that, but people here, like in the Avatar forum, over think it. To me they are fucking over someone that they made move 3,000 miles to just fire him?!
It seems like he will go to Fox and probably will get canceled there within a day. Still I rather be canceled by a new network then treated liek shit for a company you worked for for 20 years.
I wonder how Conan would really do with an 11 or 11:30 pm late show on Fox? It seems like his natural audience would also be the ones watching the Daily Show at that time...but then, I had read somewhere recently that a Fox executive speculated that if Conan were to come over there, they'd give him COMPLETE creative control over the show and let him be as wacky or whatever as he liked...
And surely Fox's prime time lineup would be a better lead in than NBC's is now...
A
Amaris
Guest
They will all get paid 20+ million dollars a year anyways.
It's more than just money. For me it's the principle of the matter.
I know that, but people here, like in the Avatar forum, over think it. To me they are fucking over someone that they made move 3,000 miles to just fire him?!
It seems like he will go to Fox and probably will get canceled there within a day. Still I rather be canceled by a new network then treated liek shit for a company you worked for for 20 years.
Oh, I hope he does go to FOX.
I also wonder at what point, if any, does NBC place any blame at all on Jeff Zucker for the boneheaded decision to keep Leno around at 10 pm?
None at all. NBC doesn't blame anyone at their networks or their network for anything. They truly live in a bubble.