Conan O’Brien Is the Villain
Conan O’Brien is the real villain in the “Tonight Show” controversy, contrary to the claims of his supporters. Several years ago O’Brien bamboozled NBC into taking the “Tonight Show” away from Jay Leno and giving it to him in spite of the fact that Leno had been leading his time slot for years. That’s the equivalent of benching Bret Favre to play a quarterback who has never made the playoffs.
Shortly before the transition from Leno to O’Brien someone at NBC figured out Leno was one of the few at the network who could actually win his time slot. To keep him, NBC decided to put him on in prime time even though variety shows, except for contest shows like “American Idol”, hadn’t worked in prime time for years.
The gamble didn’t work. NBC lost viewers in both time slots and local affiliates complained because they were losing viewers.
Late local news programs are often considered relatively equivalent by viewers. Many viewers will watch whichever news program comes on after the prime time program they watched or before the late program they want to watch, particularly considering that there may not be any commercials between the end of one program and the start of the next. Many of those viewers who switched to David Letterman for late night viewing may have switched news programs as well.
Conan O’Brien complained because he had “only” seven months to show what he could do with the “Tonight Show”. He ignored the fact that prime time television shows are typically only given about seven months to convince a network to give the show another season. Jay Leno would have been justified in protesting his removal from the “Tonight Show” because he was dominating the time slot at the time. O’Brien has nothing to complain about because he failed to match Leno’s success.
Unlike the previous two Tonight Show hosts, O’Brien had been doing a similar show for several years. Johnny Carson had been doing a game show when he was given the job. Jay Leno had guest hosted the Tonight Show, but had never had a show of his own.
O’Brien’s failure to match Leno’s audience indicates he wasn’t ready for that time slot. He should not have been surprised that NBC wanted him to move back and let Leno take over the first 30 minutes after the local news..
NBC has recognized that Leno is more valuable to the network than O’Brien and is doing what it should have done years ago, let O’Brien go somewhere else.
CBS’s David Letterman and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel have sided with O’Brien for obvious reasons. The last thing they want is to have to compete with Leno again.
For example, Letterman, who hasn’t been paying attention, on his Jan. 19 program suggested that Leno should have just left NBC. The people at NBC have learned something since Letterman left. They had Leno under contract to prevent him from doing that. They gave him the prime time show to keep him from attempting to go to another network like Fox.
Leno essentially threatened to go to Fox in his monologue after NBC canceled his prime time show. NBC recognized that letting Leno go elsewhere would hurt their ratings and decided to put him back in at least part of his old time slot to keep him at NBC. O’Brien issued the ultimatum, essentially saying the network wasn’t big enough for him and Leno and NBC said “okay, you leave.”
NBC is so thrilled to have Leno back on the Tonight Show it started advertising the Jay Leno Tonight Show before Conan O’Brien’s final performance. NBC is the big winner in this fight. It replaced two rating losers with at least one rating winner the Jay Leno Tonight Show. O’Brien with his $32 million settlement can hardly be described as a loser, although with his record at NBC he probably won’t get another major network program in the near future.
CBS’s David Letterman and ABC are the likely losers. Leno has already demonstrated he can dominate the first hour of late night. Whatever programs NBC replaces Leno’s prime time program with are likely to draw parts of the audience from the CBS and ABC programs in that time slot even if NBC still has the lowest rated programs in the time slot.
January 23rd, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I like both Leno and O’Brian and I have to say both of them handled this fiasco rather well. Neither had bad words about the other but like Leno said he was just staying on the Titanic that was NBC. To me it was NBC that was the villian if anyone. They screwed both hosts over and dropped the ball.
January 24th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I found it insulting to my inteligence and degrading to watch either Conan or Letterman, so I boycotted both of them and started getting History DVDs out of the library to watch during that time slot.
January 24th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Way to slant it dude…..too bad this article is based on opinion and not facts or research. Seriously, have you even watched the man? He’s a comedic genius!! Oh, I get it, you’re not of the intelligence that his fans are, so you didn’t “get” his jokes. I see. Well, good luck rambling through your humorless life with some old dude & his chin, I’m sticking with my COCO…..
January 24th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Bamboozled? NBC underpaid Conan to stay on at Late Night for 5 years and promoted Leno to prime time.
January 24th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
I agree they shouldn’t have taken the Tonight Show from Leno when he was successful at it. And I’m an O’Brien fan.
January 24th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Haha, you’ve got to be joking. Conan asked for the Tonight Show six years ago. Leno asked for the Tonight Show barely a year before Carson had to give it up. A five years notice is a really long time, and your Bret Farve analogy is horrendous.
Do you know why Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame stopped doing his beloved comic strip back in 1995, while he was still on top? It wasn’t because he was out of ideas or because he was being forced to quit, it was because he was on top. He didn’t want his work to be ran into the ground. He quickly retired and went off to do his own thing while still on top of his game and everyone respects him to this very day.
Leno however makes a big deal about how he’s going to retire, then six years later begins to cry about how he was forced into cancellation. How can you honestly respect a guy like that? Conan isn’t the villain here, it’s overgrown babies like Leno and the NBC executives that are sleeping with him that are the villains. Jay is not the victim here, he’s had a nearly 20 year run if you include his once a week hosting gig at the Tonight Show back in the 80s, it’s time for him to step down and fade into obscurity. Johnny Carson did it and he didn’t act like a complete fop.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Conan the victim? Way to spin the real story on its ass. I know this is an opinion piece, but how about forming your opinion based on fact instead of a bunch of misinformed hearsay?
January 24th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
“although with his record at NBC he probably won’t get another major network program in the near future” you’re an idiot, what record, he freaking worked with the Network for like 20 something years, so is that a bad record to have? I think he will find more work, and pple will definitely watch him versus the slimey Leno.
January 24th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
It’s interesting that much of this is speculation, but presented as if it were fact. Where is the source information confirming these statements and motivations are accurate. If they are not available, then one can only surmise this is the situation as you wish to see it.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Leno apparently was expecting to be able to go elsewhere after being replaced on the Tonight show, but NBC wouldn’t let him out of its contract so he was stuck with whatever NBC would give him. Conan was a failure on the Tonight Show. He took the show from a ratings leader to being well behind Letterman because most recognize that Conan is silly not funny.
According to the statements at the time Conan was promised the Tonight Show he convinced some dim bulbs at the No Brains Company that if he wasn’t given the Tonight Show he might take Letterman’s job even though there was and is no indication that Letterman has any interest in retiring.
Conan has now shown he cannot compete in the time period before midnight.
January 24th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Becky, you are correct: I am “not of the intelligence that his fans are.” Enough said!
January 25th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
I tried to watch O’brian over the years but he
just never connected with me. I’ve watched Leno and thought he was o.k. I really believe the
monetary settlement was pretty outrageous.
February 4th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Conan the villian?? Hardly.
Let’s go back to the beginning of this whole saga, when Johnny Carson announced his retirement. Carson wanted Letterman, not Leno, to succeed him. He created ‘Late Night’ for him specifically to prepare him for ‘Tonight’. NBC execs didn’t like Letterman, and they offered the job to Leno, instead. If Leno had one shred of decency he would have refused the job, knowing it was against Carson’s wishes. Strike one. At the same time, he screwed Letterman, who had worked in the trenches for nearly a decade for his shot on ‘Tonight’. Strike two. I’m guessing that O’Brien sought to secure his place on ‘Tonight’ by negotiating his contract early on to avoid the same fate. This is where things get truly weird. Instead of retiring at the top of his game, after an incredible run of 17 years, Leno wouldn’t leave. He had agreed to leave ‘Tonight’, but he still wanted the limelight. Somehow he talked NBC out of the M-F 10pm slot. Then, his show flopped. Turned out the only thing he had going for him all those years was the ‘Tonight’ name. When he replicated virtually the same show at 10 pm it tanked. Why? Because without the ‘Tonight’ franchise behind him viewers came to the realization that they wanted the House That Carson Built, not a crappy imitation. The loss of viewers trickled down on local affiliates, and then on Conan. Then, incredibly, NBC again sided with Leno and forced Conan out (at tremendous expense)to clear the way for Leno’s return on ‘Tonight’. Strike 3. Leno must have made a deal with the devil himself to keep getting what he wants.
February 4th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Yeah.
February 6th, 2010 at 2:04 am
The Tonight Show didn’t belong to Johnny Carson and it wasn’t his to give away. According to stories at the time CArson retired, the local affiliates preferred Jay Leno over David Letterman. Considering their ratings head to head , NBC made the right decision in choosing Jay over David.
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Conan needs a better agent who recognizes that Conan is miscast as a talk show host. His talents are better suited to a show like Saturday Night Live or possibly even a sitcom.