The rumors have been brewing for months, ever since Jay Leno took over the 10 p.m. timeslot on NBC every single f-cking weeknight, and was met with nothing but crickets chirping. Leno is out, finally and thank God. Except he’s not really out, he’s just out of the 10 o’clock slot as of February 12. The chairman of NBC Entertainment announced that there are hopes that Leno goes back to 11:30, Conan O’Brien goes to 12:05, and Jimmy Fallon goes on late-late night. To which I say “meh” for many reasons. First of all, good luck breaking all of those contracts, douchebags. Secondly, last year, NBC handed Leno a pile of money and walked away from promoting their few remaining hour-long original dramas, so screw them no matter what – if a network doesn’t want to pay for originality and storytelling, why should I feel for them? They got what they deserved, and how.
Jay’s walking off prime time.
Confirming days of rumors, Jeff Gaspin, the chairman of NBC Universal Entertainment, on Sunday announced that starting Feb. 12, The Jay Leno Show will no longer air at 10 p.m. but that the network hoped to keep Leno for an 11:35 p.m. show, Conan O’Brien for 12:05 p.m. and then Jimmy Fallon after that.
But, Gaspin adds, “It’s not a done deal yet.”
Gaspin admits that The Jay Leno Show “did not meet affiliate needs” but that through it all, Leno and O’Brien have been “incredibly gracious and professional.”
“Beyond that is a private conversation and when it all settles, you can talk to them about that,” Gaspin says. “We’re back in conversation tomorrow.”
When asked why O’Brien would choose to remain at NBC with other networks interested in him, Gaspin says, “Conan’s motivation will become more clear as time goes on. We gave something important to him, which was The Tonight Show, made it clear that it was moving with him. Conan wanted the franchise of The Tonight Show; Jay wanted to tell jokes at 11:30. Still things [need] to be worked out.”
[From People]
The only person I actually have any sympathy for is Conan O’Brien. No, that’s not true, I feel for Jimmy Fallon too. The two of them are getting royally screwed when all they did was honor their contracts and try their best. And I do think Gaspin is blaming Conan to a certain extent, especially when he says “Conan’s motivation will become more clear as time goes on.” As in “The Tonight Show is failing because Conan is unfunny, and not because Jay Leno’s hour-long show sucks all of the air out of the room every single f-cking night.” I feel like Conan and Jimmy are going to be falling on their swords big-time, when really this ridiculous scheme was the kind of out-of-touch corporate stupidity that any f-cking idiot knew was going to fail. Oh, and it’s Leno’s fault too. And I hope he gets his.
I never thought any of those 3 were funny–EVER.
Never saw Leno’s show, frankly I was to angry that they shut down production on a few good shows to save money and showcase Jay Leno, whereas it cost them alot more than money in the long run.
So NBC, let’s say you introduce a really good drama at 10p.m. (e.g. like the show you canceled for Jay – Southland) and it has stellar ratings.
Let’s sat that the ratings continue to be good going into the 11p.m. news and then BOOM they tank at 11:35p.m. for Jay’s new timeslot.
What then?? Will you finally accept the fact that Jay SUCKS and it doesn’t matter the timeslot?
Sheesh, you people are so incompetent in your decision making it is sad.
I wish that Conan would exercise his right to move to another network, have them pay him $1 per year so that YOU NBC are forced to pay his salary differential AND have Conan eat into your ratings by competing directly with Jay!
Team Conan!
I like Conan 🙂 I cant say much for the others though cos I dont watch TV almost ever; plus Im not in the US so its a rare glimpse for me.
I say NBC is getting what they deserve. If all the network suits and producers hadn’t gone batsh!t crazy for “reality” programming, none of this would have happened. I detest reality TV, so I no longer watch network TV; I watch FX, TBS, USA, and TNT. They actually have scripted shows that are intelligent, funny, and worth watching.
I love Law & Order, SVU, House, and NCIS, but I can catch those re-runs on USA. I can also watch Southland on TNT (I believe). Why do we even need network TV?
I think all three of the comedians are funny at times, and for the network to blame the comedians for THEIR failed “marketing plan” seems ridiculous to me. I hope all three are able to stick around and do what they do, but if not, NBC, you’ve earned it!
I like Jay AND Conan, and hope they work it out so that there’s room for both. It would be cool if Jay hosted a few nights a week, then Conan hosted the rest. That way we could have both and everyone would be happy (yeah right).
Conan was genius as host of ‘The Late Night Show’ The reruns still crack me up even when Ive seen them several times before. The risks he was able to take in late-late night he’s just not been able to do that with the ‘Tonight Show’ its ok but not great and I miss him on Late Night.
Cancelling Jay Leno’s show would be the better idea. Why did they give him a show anyway? Wasnt the point of retiring from the Tonight Show to y’know actually leave? Ive never found Leno funny. I find Fallon much funnier and Im not a big fan of Jimmy Fallon so you can only imagine.
I feel for both Conan and Jimmy because its foolishnes pushing them back an hour for a show/host that does not want to admit their time is over.
Team Conan.
Leno is a backstabber. (just ask Letterman!) He should bow out gracefully and honor his previous intentions to retire!
I think you have to look like a douchebag to work for NBC. I think that’s one of the main prerequisites, primary example: Carson.
Uh, I don’t think Leno ever intended to retire – NBC gave Conan the Tonight Show in 2009 at least five years prior in contract negotiations to keep him from jumping to another network. Maybe they were *hoping* Leno would be ready to retire, but that was sort of a stupid assumption based on how much that man works (and not due to financial need). I like both of them – but NBC threw Leno (at #1) under a bus to keep Conan from jumping ship (a la Letterman), gave Jay the 10 pm show to then keep *him* from competing with Leno (a la Letterman), and now all three hosts are getting screwed at one point or another. NBC’s fault – these guys have done nothing wrong – unless you count not taking a forced retirement. Jay would have had a competing late night show on another network before flat-out retiring, which would have been well within his rights.
Coco needs to head to Fox. He can move back to NY and put together a show more like his old Late Night Show- which was genius.
Conan has worked for Fox before, as a writer and producer on The Simpsons. Fox is openly hinting that they would love to have Conan, and previously made him a huge offer when he was mulling over the NBC Tonight Show transfer. I think that Fox would be willing to let Conan be his freewheeling, insane, funny self. I hope that he starts at 11:00, a full half hour before Jay and that Jay bombs.
Conan and Fallon have been royally screwed by NBC.
I am so glad I’m not the only one who is on Team CoCo. If Jay didn’t want to retire he should have just stayed. Conan moved his family cross country for this. As Pier Bernard would say, “I am comfortable and angry, Conan.”
Good, he’s a major yawn. I haven’t watched The Tonight Show since Johnny Carson left (but I have watched Letterman on many occasions). I hope Conan tells NBC to suck it.
Jay said he was going to retire… how is it retiring if he continues to do the same show, with most of the same people on it, mainly difference is he doesn’t have a desk to sit behind. Jay chose to retire, so he should have. He could have gone on the road and do standup. Maybe the reason Conan’s ratings are down is because of Jay. People don’t watch Jay, then find another station for their news and watch whatever follows their news station. A lot of news-stations said that Jay’s show cost them revenue because people weren’t staying and watching the nightly news after Jay’s show was over.
Jay’s show has been doing very poorly in the rating which is also showing to be true for NBC’s news that directly follows. Conan isn’t getting the viewers because they aren’t staying around to watch Jay or the news and have found other things they’d watch instead.
Conan is hilarious, I love him but I agree that he’s not able to take as many risks with the time slot which changes the show a lot.
I’m on Team Conan. I’ve watched his show since the beginning of Late Night. I don’t understand why NBC is trying to keep Leno. It’s like he wants to win just for the sake of winning but could care less what happens to any of the time slots.
@ab, kudos for the Pierre Bernard and the Recliner of Rage reference! Loved it.
I am Team Conan for sure. Leno is not funny to me, and while NBC is to blame for this mess, Leno isn’t helping. If he wasn’t ready to retire, he should have said no – instead he took the 10 pm show. That bombed, he should walk away – instead he’s apparently willing to bump everyone else back again. Seems to me the torch was passed to Conan and Jimmy fair and square.
As much as I loved Late Night with Conan, I haven’t been watching the Tonight Show because one 10 pm hits, NBC goes off on my TV.
One good thing of all this – possibly 5 new shows on NBC (and a lot more jobs in the industry), though it sounds like it’ll just be more Law and Order and reality stuff. This is their chance to try something new and original, but I bet they don’t do it.
between letterman’s pervy old ass and leno’s unfunny old ass, late night TV is in a bad way. conan and fallon are both funny, but neither is a “hold his own wide audience show” type of guy. hell, let’s bring arsenio back. what’s he doing? nbc is screwed regardless – none of these shows are going to be huge hits b/c they get moved a half hour AND breaching these Ks will cost them a fortune.
UPDATE: Conan has told NBC to suck it. Awesome!