Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno and You

[SHADOW]

I am so very surprised. This is a WV Broadcasting net blog, and yet I haven’t seen one posting or anyone’s comments about the NBC Tonight Show mess. With all the radio and television employees, past and present who post about any subject, this silence is surprising. Does this mean no one who reads this blog ever lost a position or their job because of some stupid decision from management? I don’t believe so.

The NBC Tonight show is big time, the top of the heap. NBC has spent over 100 million dollars just on Leno and Conan. When this happens to people who make $20,000 or less per year, everybody posts their thoughts and comments.

What do you think? Is NBC wrong by taking The Tonight Show from Conan and putting Leno back into the 11:35 position? Do the local network stations really have the strength to force the network to do their will? After the decision they made with Letterman, in the early 1990’s, wouldn’t you think they try not to make the same mistake? Who if anybody is the winner?

[DJSHOCKLEY]

In the end, the biggest loser will be Leno... He will indeed get his old job back with the Tonight Show and an 11:35 time slot.. Conan will get a HUGE buyout, get to go to another network at 11:35, probably Fox, Letterman will still be Letterman, and all three will be sharing a smaller share of the pie..

Due to the fact that Conan will be competing against Leno, as well as the way this was handled, Leno will not only never regain the ratings he once had, but he will be seen as throwing Conan under the train...

Part of the appeal of Leno was that even when his show was bombing people still rooted for him because he was seen as being a nice guy.. Him pushing Conan out will hurt much of that perception..

Leno willgo back to the Tonight Show in a few weeks. He will sink to third place in the late night wars as soon as Conan gets his own 11:35 gig..

[Greg Goodfellow]

I noted on another board that there are conflicting reasons why this happened. IIRC, this was NBC's decision. I vividly recall Leno making fun of NBC five years before the change. This mess will be debated in college broadcasting and business classes for years.

Can anyone understand why Conan's lawyer didn't stipulate that the Tonight Show must start at 11:35? You know what happens when you ASSume.

A room full of retarded monkeys could make better decisions for NBC.

[The Interpreter]

So, I guess this thread was overlooked?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17748

[JustWinBaby]

This whole late night mess has been handled so badly it makes me think Bray Cary is running NBC.

[cgarison]

This whole late night mess has been handled so badly it makes me think Bray Cary is running NBC.

No. It just proves that Ebersol is a Dick.

[Lester]

Jay Leno Felt Sucker-Punched by Jimmy Kimmel
Sharing his feelings publicly for the first time about the behind-the-scenes machinations that eventually led to this month's NBC late-night debacle, Jay Leno admitted on Thursday that being asked six years ago to step aside so Conan O'Brien could take over the Tonight Show came as a crushing blow.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0, ... contentcnn

Interesting read.

[AmpedNow]

NBC was in the wrong for moving Leno to 10p in the first place. That's too early for "late night" entertainment. It wasn't too much of a logical leap to see this not working out. People have gotten used to cops, doctors, and lawyers in that time slot.

The main reason behind this is NBC's attempt to keep Conan from bolting to another network. A few snubs, bruised egos, pink slips, and $30 million dollars later, Conan is still bolting to another network, and their late night star Leno has been reduced to damaged goods.

Whoever's bright idea this was needs to be dropped head first from 30 Rock...

[Bob Campbell]

NBC figured they would save so much money with Jay at 10 that even if his ratings were not as good as what he replaced, they would still make more money. Unfortunately, his ratings were SO bad, they began impacting local news on the affiliates, and thus also Conan. Dumb dumb idea poorly executed.