Conan Just Quit (The host not the barbarian)

[ODBJBG]

Meanwhile Conan won the ratings overall on Friday. NBC is so stupid. He's been crushing Dave in the demos, but now he's winning households too. It's almost a shame this isn't some ploy to get some attention on the Tonight show.

[Evel KMego]

I've never laughed at Leno once.

[Werewolf]

I think I'm fairly impartial in this not being a fan or avid watcher of either.

I think it's unfortunate Jay is being made into some kind of monster over this when the fault clearly lies with NBC.

NBC didn't want to lose Conan to another network so they forced Jay into an early retirement when he was still on top of his game and ratings. Not long after NBC got a bit "buyers remorse" over Conan and wanted to keep Jay around, so they gave him a new time slot. This kept Jay from going to another network and they were able to keep him in reserves in case Conan tanked as host of the Tonight Show. Both Jay and Conan were an ill fit in their new timeslots and their ratings suffered.

It was shrewd of Conan, if not a bit of dirty pool, to paint himself as the victim of big evil Jay and blame him for his ratings sucking and NBC wanting to change their timeslots around. Props to Jay for being publically the classier of the lot and not blame anyone for his ratings, attack Conan and take all the really nasty comments and insults in stride.

And like I've said before, they're both millionaires and will get tons of money no matter how this mess turns out.

[EMCE Hammer]

Did you guys see the clip of Kimmel on Leno? At first I thought he was kidding, but by the end I wasn't sure. If he really was serious it was brutal. Letterman is supposed to be commenting on it tonight.

[The Toyroom]

The latest is that NBC may be paying Conan $30 Million to vacate the Tonight Show, which would revert back to Leno.....

[Goblin19]

Conan was hilarious last night. He is really sticking it to NBC and Leno.

[ctc]

>It's going to be very hard for NBC to sign anyone with a name because they'll all be afraid Leno and/or the Network might do it again.

Problem solved: I'LL do it. But be ready for lots of swearing, and guests I don't like get punched in the stomach.

Don C.

[bobws]

I think it's conan's own fault. here jay was on top and conan was riding his tailcoat and so conan decided to push NBC for them to make him Jays successor, when jay had no reason to pick a deadline for when he would leave. Jay was nice and did so. but once the time got here conan wasn't so hot, jay still was and NBC got scared. they shoud have just told conan to shut up and wait and see when leno WANTED to retire and not try to force the issue. He is getting what he deserves for his stunt. now however NBC has blown it. Jay's show should have been put on at 8pm and left the dramas at 10 to go into the news. but no matter what, Conan was always going to have his butt kicked by letterman and be subpar to leno. conan doesn't have the class to pull off the Tonight show. he belongs on later where drunk college kids can watch his style of humor.

[saildog]

Oh, and I think he was the villain, to a certain extent, during the original Tonight Show debacle.

I might have agreed with that, back in the day, but given that certain **** has come to light over the years, corporate-f-n-Amerika could easily be given a free pass in this totally engineered fiasco, though on a second pass, I realize they were ******s all along.

(They NEVER seem to have anything to lose, do they?)

[saildog]

It's going to be very hard for NBC to sign anyone with a name because they'll all be afraid Leno and/or the Network might do it again.

This decision will haunt NBC for a long time.

Seriously, from NBCs perspective, Carson should have never aged.

They had it sewn up for so long that they never thought through all of the scenarios....and almost twenty years down the road, they still can't come to grips that THAT time slot is NOT a given.

[Goblin19]

Oh, and I think he was the villain, to a certain extent, during the original Tonight Show debacle.

[Goblin19]

Leno's not the villain, he may be a bit of a d-bag, though. I think the network set this situation up just to hedge their bets once Conan's ratings slipped in his last few years at Late Night.

[Mikey]

And what the hell is going to happen when Leno does really retire in a couple of years? No way they're plugging Fallon into that spot.

.

It's going to be very hard for NBC to sign anyone with a name because they'll all be afraid Leno and/or the Network might do it again.

This decision will haunt NBC for a long time.

[saildog]

I still don't see how anyone could NOT see Leno as the villain.

It's hard for me to call the guy a villain. The Network is the Villain.

However, I think Leno is the one who needs to "do the right thing". That would put the whole debate to rest.

[ODBJBG]

I still don't see how anyone could NOT see Leno as the villain.

He agreed to retire. He sat the timetable. He said he was retiring. It wasn't until a year or so ago when he floated the notion that he might head to ABC. Which is why NBC renewed him and gave him the 10PM show.

Imagine if Johnny Carson had said he was retiring, gave Jay Leno the Tonight Show, then started the Carson show on ABC to run opposite Tonight... That's more or less what Jay threatened to do.

Now Jay's show failed. NBC had no choice but to pull the plug. So Jay wants his old timeslot back. That's a bunch of crap. Jay agreed to the 10PM thing, he's the bad guy because he's fighting to take back the spot he gave away.

Whether or not he was ratings king or if he wasnt really rady by 2009 is a moot point because he agreed to retire gracefully. Leno escaped the first Tonight Show war mostly pretending that he was some lucky doofus and that his producers were the villains, but the reality is that Leno has always been a greedy limelight hog. I don't know how it could be more evident than now.

It's not like NBC asked Leno to take back over the Tonight Show. Leno has threatened to destroy the Tonight Show brand if they don't give him that time slot. NBC is more afraid of Leno than they are Conan (which makes sense in the grand scheme of things) and are going to back this unsufferable *** instead of who they and Jay promised the job to.

And what the hell is going to happen when Leno does really retire in a couple of years? No way they're plugging Fallon into that spot.

Leno wants the money, the time slot and the fame and the hell with anyone he steps on in the process. He doesn't care what he wreckes (Including the whole of NBC) until he gets what he wants.