O'Brien out, Leno back in?

[ParticleMan]

It will be interesting to see the ratings from all of this.

I'm curious, too. If NBC decides to stick with Conan and he agrees, I wonder if this will be his Hugh Grant.

Conan beat Dave Tuesday night Adults 18-49. 1.7/7 to .9/4

Meanwhile, Leno was down 10% that night.

It would be really interesting if this were the watershed moment for Conan on the Tonight Show...this controversy being just what it takes for Conan's audience from Late Night to completely hook into watching at 11:35 and the PR nightmare from NBC finally unleashing Conan to be himself at the earlier hour...

With the overwhelmingly pro-Conan sentiment, NBC would be utterly and completely stupid beyond all forms of measurement to not give in and keep Conan and allow all this to boost the Tonight Show ratings. Of course, it is NBC we are talking about, so I fully expect them to make the most boneheaded move possible...

 

[Frontier]

My god, Letterman is having a field day with this whole thing. It's all he can do not to talk about it. He's been waiting 20 years to just eviscerate NBC and Leno, but never had a viable excuse to out-and-out take them on and mock and ridicule them. Now he does and he's laying waste to them.

Honestly, I'm wondering if NBC is trying to take FOX's "stupidest network" title away. They have a lot of catching up to do on bad decisions, but this is a big start!

We always knew they where dumb; I mean, cmon... they canceled Star Trek. Twice! LOL.

The thing that pisses me off the most? Is the lack of dignity and honor Leno has. He should be a bigger man. He should quit, and end this controversy. He could lay this whole thing to rest, but instead he's looking out for numbero uno no matter what the ramifications. I'm hoping a whole host of celebs boycott him now and in the future in whatever capacity he's around.

 

[JacksonArcher]

The thing that pisses me off the most? Is the lack of dignity and honor Leno has. He should be a bigger man. He should quit, and end this controversy. He could lay this whole thing to rest, but instead he's looking out for numbero uno no matter what the ramifications. I'm hoping a whole host of celebs boycott him now and in the future in whatever capacity he's around.

Those are my sentiments as well. Leno should have never accepted The Jay Leno Show. He should have quit when Conan took over The Tonight Show. Letterman had a very good line summarizing this: "When Johnny Carson quit, he quit".

 

[barnaclelapse]

That's not what Zap2It is reporting. Although NBC is denying, there's some pretty highly placed sources suggesting NBC might just use the Olympics hiatus to quietly shelve the Leno show altogether:

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/01/report-says-leno-is-done-nbc-denies-it.html

They won't replace O'Brien with Leno. First, O'Brien is starting to build is audience. Second, NBC would have to pay him millions in a contract buy-out. It's just not feasible. And you can't compare ratings for a prime-time show and a late-night show. They're completely different animals. A late-night show is doing well if it gets a few million people watching; a prime-time show that gets those numbers usually gets canned quickly. (Keep an eye on Ugly Betty...) Thirdly, after the much-publicized hand-over last spring, if NBC suddenly changes its mind it'll look like an ass -- and, worse yet, the longest-running entertainment program on Earth could die as a consequence.

A more likely scenario is that Leno will go away for a bit and come back with another show (assuming he stays with NBC) which will hopefully not be the cannonball (in terms of destruction to other shows like Southland) that the 5-night-a-week Leno show has been.

One thing to watch for is whether NBC affiliates start to bail. We saw the threats of this last summer, but if enough stations decide to, say, put on first-run syndicated shows or expand their evening newscasts, NBC wouldn't be able to do much about it.

Alex

I sure hope that's the case, although I'd be much happier if Leno just went the hell away. I've been sick of his shit for almost twenty years now.

 

[ParticleMan]

I have to wonder just how far down this hole we will get before we start to see some NBC executive's heads roll...is NBC Universal just holding out with the intention of letting Comcast do the eventual dirty work after the merger or what?

 

[Bad Bishop]

BTW, some of Aragorn's dialogue/plot swaps are pretty funny. I enjoyed Jack Bauer in Lord of the Rings.

That's remarkable, considering it was a made-up example.

What's your point, Spiff? Of course it was made up, at least a year ago by Aragorn (if I am not mistaken). Incidentally, how many pages is your file on him? Is it enough to fill a college-ruled notebook yet?

 

[Timby]

Bill Simmons, of ESPN (and formerly a writer for Kimmel) is reporting that next week will be Conan's final week hosting the Tonight Show, and his staff is currently working to book the biggest guests they can. Including Howard Stern.

And if you're not familiar with Stern's take on the late-night scene, he hates Jay Leno with the fire of a thousand suns.

 

[John Picard]

Bill Simmons, of ESPN (and formerly a writer for Kimmel) is reporting that next week will be Conan's final week hosting the Tonight Show, and his staff is currently working to book the biggest guests they can. Including Howard Stern.

And if you're not familiar with Stern's take on the late-night scene, he hates Jay Leno with the fire of a thousand suns.

I have never seen the humor with Stern and never cared for Conan, yet I wish I had a TV so I could watch this unravel.

 

[ParticleMan]

Bill Simmons, of ESPN (and formerly a writer for Kimmel) is reporting that next week will be Conan's final week hosting the Tonight Show, and his staff is currently working to book the biggest guests they can. Including Howard Stern.

And if you're not familiar with Stern's take on the late-night scene, he hates Jay Leno with the fire of a thousand suns.

Oh dear...if that's true, then next week will be epic...

 

[Amaris]

I have got to find that old VCR somewhere in our garage.

 

[ParticleMan]

This makes me wonder if, since the statement a few days ago, if Conan has managed to get some kind of preliminary deal with Fox or some other network, and he's going to go out of NBC in a blaze of glory...which would be so freaking awesome if it were so...

 

[Squiggy]

There's a general rule in radio that if you fire someone, that's it. They don't get anymore shows because chances are they'll break every single rule there is.

I'm glad NBC doesn't beleive in this.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Bill Simmons, of ESPN (and formerly a writer for Kimmel) is reporting that next week will be Conan's final week hosting the Tonight Show, and his staff is currently working to book the biggest guests they can. Including Howard Stern.

And if you're not familiar with Stern's take on the late-night scene, he hates Jay Leno with the fire of a thousand suns.

Well, at least Conan will go out in a blaze of glory. I will never watch Leno again. That's for sure. NBC is making a pretty dumb mistake. I wonder if NBC fired Conan or Conan just left?

 

[JacksonArcher]

Zucker Threatens to Ice Conan -- "I'll Keep You Off The Air For 3 1/2 Years"

This is getting pretty intense, if that report is at all accurate.

 

[RoJoHen]

Scary. Even more reason for Conan to pack up and leave.

 

[davejames]

Bill Simmons, of ESPN (and formerly a writer for Kimmel) is reporting that next week will be Conan's final week hosting the Tonight Show, and his staff is currently working to book the biggest guests they can. Including Howard Stern.

And if you're not familiar with Stern's take on the late-night scene, he hates Jay Leno with the fire of a thousand suns.

Yeah, after last night, I don't think there's any doubt that Conan is gone. And I'm sure he realizes it too.

It's a shame, because his show has NEVER been more watchable.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Scary. Even more reason for Conan to pack up and leave.

This is really all LENO's fault. He should have just left NBC, after his show flopped. He comes off looking like the bad guy, and has given LETTERMAN fodder to shoot his mouth off.

Bad move JAY...bad bad move.

To bad FOX can't hurry up and get a set/stage ready. Because if Obrien could jump and immediately start his show up against Leno/Letterman, it would be great...

Rob

 

[JacksonArcher]

I wonder if this will be the best thing that has ever happened to Conan. I mean, if this works like it did for Letterman and CBS, Conan could be on the air for years (I'm assuming at FOX). I know this is stretching it, especially since this was Conan's dream job to host The Tonight Show, but trying to look at things with perspective here...

 

[Emher]

Yeah but who wants to host the show of your dreams if it turns out the dream is handled by people who don't give a shit about you? There's a difference between being stuck with the dream and realizing that the dream is perhaps somewhere else.

All I know is I've always liked Conan but the last few episodes have been fantastic!

 

[John Picard]

I wonder if this will be the best thing that has ever happened to Conan. I mean, if this works like it did for Letterman and CBS, Conan could be on the air for years (I'm assuming at FOX). I know this is stretching it, especially since this was Conan's dream job to host The Tonight Show, but trying to look at things with perspective here...

Twice in my life, the best opportunities came along when I was laid off/lost my job. I suspect it could be the same way for Conan.