Conan's the man!

[RegularKarate]

If you go to Hulu, nearly all the tags for The Jay Leno Show are things like, "backstabber," "unfunny," "hack," etc.

That's Hulu though.  A younger crowd, who would obviously be more into Conan.

The truth of the matter is that after what Dick "mouth" Ebersol has said about Conan, he probably won't want to stay even if they let him keep The Tonight Show which means Leno will get it and he'll get good ratings. 
Bad guys win in television.

Whoever ends up actually taking Leno's place for The Tonight Show will probably be another Leno... a weasel who can play the suck-up game and give up any former talent they had (Leno was one of the best standup comics of his time, he was funny, he just stopped being funny so he could make money).

[Myxo]

I really gotta agree with a lot of what this guy says about Conan's "Tonight Show". Really great read.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-13/good-riddance/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC1

As I said earlier, I still think Conan belongs doing a show on cable or late night. I'm just not sure his brand works for an apple-pie and baseball program like the "Tonight Show".

[MacGuffin]

Leno: 'I have no animosity ... this is all business'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Jay Leno defended himself Monday against attackers accusing the talk-show host of rolling back on his agreement to hand "The Tonight Show" over to Conan O'Brien. Leno addressed the situation while taping "The Jay Leno Show."

Here are Leno's complete remarks to his audience:

I thought maybe I should address this.  At least give you my view of what has been going on here at NBC.  

Oh, let's start in 2004.  2004 I'm sitting in my office, an NBC executive comes in and says to me, listen, Conan O'Brien has gotten offers from other networks. We don't want him to go, so we're going to give him 'The Tonight Show.'  I said, 'well, I've been number one for 12 years.'  They said, 'we know that, but we don't think you can sustain that.'  I said, 'okay. How about until I fall to number two, then you fire me?'  'No, we made this decision.'  I said, 'That's fine.'  Don't blame Conan O'Brien. Nice guy, good family guy, great guy. He and I have talked and not a problem since then. That's what managers and people do, they try to get something for their clients. I said, 'I'll retire just to avoid what happened the last time.' Okay.

So time goes by and we stay number one up until the day we leave. We hand - (applause)-No, no. Okay, but I'm leaving before my contract is out. About six to eight months early. So before I could go anywhere else, I would be at least a year or 18 months before I could go and do a show somewhere else. I said to NBC, 'would you release me from my contract.' They said, 'we want to keep you here.' Okay. What are your ideas? They said, 'how about primetime?' I said, 'that will never work.' No, no, we want to put you on at 10:00. We have done focus groups. People will love you at 10:00. Look at these studies showing Jay's chin at 10:00. People will go crazy. Didn't seem like a good idea at the time. I said, 'alright, can I keep my staff?' There are 175 people that work here. I said, 'can I keep my staff?' Yes, you can. Let's try it.  We guarantee you two years on the air, guaranteed. Now for the first four or five months against original shows like "CSI" you'll get killed, but in the spring and summer when the reruns come, that's when you'll pick up. Okay, great. I agree to that.  

Four months go by, we don't make it. Meanwhile, Conan's show during the summer, we're not on, was not doing well. The great hope was that we would help him. Well, we didn't help him any, okay. They come and go, 'this show isn't working. We want to let you go.' Can you let me out of my contract? No, you're still a valuable asset to this company. How valuable can I be? You fired me twice. How valuable can I be? Okay. So then, the affiliates are not happy. The affiliates are the ones that own the TV stations. They're the ones that sort of makes the decisions, they're not happy with your performance and Conan is not doing well at 11:30. I said, 'what's your idea?' They said, 'well, look, how about you do a half hour show at 11:30?' Now, where I come from, when your boss gives you a job and you don't do it well, I think we did a good job here, but we didn't' get the ratings, so you get humbled. I said, 'okay, I'm not crazy about doing a half hour, but okay. What do you want to do with Conan?' We'll put him on at midnight, or 12:05, keeps "The Tonight Show" does all that, he gets the whole hour. I said, okay. You think Conan will go for that? Yes, yes.  (laughter) Almost guarantee you. I said okay. Shake hands, that's it. I don't have a manager, I don't have an agent, that's my handshake deal.  

Next thing I see Conan has a story in the paper saying he doesn't want to do that. They come back to me and they say if he decides to walk and doesn't want to do it, do you want the show back? I go, 'yeah, I'll take the show back. If that's what he wants to do. This way, we keep our people working, fine.' So that's pretty much where we are. It looks like we might be back at 11:30, I'm not sure. I don't know. (applause) I don't know. But through all of this - through all of this, Conan O'Brien has been a gentleman. He's a good guy. I have no animosity towards him. This is all business. If you don't get the ratings, they take you off the air. I think you know this town, you can do almost anything. You get ratings they keep you. I don't get ratings, he wants. That was NBC's solution. It didn't work so we might have an answer for you tomorrow. So, we'll see. That's basically where it is.

[Stefen]

If anyone ever listens to Bill Simmons podcast, he's a sports writer for ESPN and an overall hilarious dude always dropping references to The Wire and Boogie Nights, he used to be a writer for Kimmel and he said that Jay Leno is a jerk behind the scenes. Like if Kimmel would get a guest on his show before they went on Leno, Leno would not allow that guest to ever come on his show. All kinds of shady shit. Fuck Leno.

[Myxo]

Leno had the opportunity to agree with Conan and tell NBC that a 12:05 Tonight Show wasn't fair to him. Instead he chose the well-traveled road of laying down like a bitch and taking it from Zucker and his cronies. I can't wait until Conan switches to Fox or whatever his plans might be. He is going to destroy Leno with actual good shows as a lead in. NBC will realize how big of a mistake they made. I watched Conan last night on "Inside the Actor's Studio" and he made a comment which made total sense to me. Mind you this was recorded while Conan was still with the Late Show. Anyway, he commented that his Late Show took a year or two to pickup steam. It took a little bit of time to build an audience, just like it's taking a little bit of time to gain trust at 11:35. NBC should have let Conan have a couple of years. Seven months is barely enough time for foreplay in the TV world and it certainly didn't help that Leno's show was awful as a lead in.

[Stefen]

Early Conan was boring as fuck anyways. Leno deserves that spot because he sucks so bad.

Leno appeals to people who aren't funny. Have you ever met a Leno fan who had a sense of humor? I haven't. He's an accountant ass talk show host.

Put Conan later or better yet, on FOX where they may let him get away with more, earlier.

[tpfkabi]

what is wrong with me - i enjoy Headlines.  

i guess that's found comedy though.

[RegularKarate]

what is wrong with me - i enjoy Headlines.  

Some people like Ice Milk... it's just a matter of taste.

Kimmel said it best when he was being Leno: "Turns out there are a lot of misspellings in newspapers".

Also, did everyone see ?

[Fernando]

I did.....in 2004, but man time fucking flies, right now jay had such a great opportunity to show some class and instead of accepting again TTS just step off and go to greener pastures, im sure other networks would be happy to have him, in fact I see jay fitting more in fox than conan, conan's too liberal for that tight ass channel, anyway, I think ppl could be turned off by jay's move and he probably will struggle for some time to beat dave.

[Tictacbk]

Its too late, theres too much bad blood now.  This is a done deal.  All we can do now is enjoy the 4 episodes that are left with Conan at the helm of TTS.  The way I see it this is the end of The Tonight Show as a great franchise in television.  Really Leno killed it years and years ago, but there was always that glimmer of hope left knowing that Conan would take it over one day.  Thats all over now. NBC's late night lineup is just as bad as everything else on the network (except thursday nights, those are great). Leno+Fallon=fail. Letterman has always been the best anyways.

I just hope Norm gets to be a guest on Conan one last time (the guests for his final shows are still unknown).

[tpfkabi]

what is wrong with me - i enjoy Headlines.  

Some people like Ice Milk... it's just a matter of taste.

Kimmel said it best when he was being Leno: "Turns out there are a lot of misspellings in newspapers".

Yeah. I mean I don't go out of my way to see it, but I laughed pretty hard last night.

The closest I've ever seen in real life was one time for MLK the paper accidentally printed:
"We Be Closed" on one of the bank's ads before MLK day.

Of course, that would not be PC enough to even make it on Headlines - or really funny for that matter.

I like having the earlier show because I don't get to stay up late enough to see all of the others because of work.

[polkablues]

I just hope Norm gets to be a guest on Conan one last time (the guests for his final shows are still unknown).

Did someone say Norm?

[MacGuffin]

Conan O'Brien deal finalized
Deal worth a reported $45-$50 million
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Conan O'Brien is a free agent.

Lawyers for the talk show host and NBC on early Thursday morning finalized a settlement sealing O'Brien's exit from "The Tonight Show."

The settlement is said to be worth between $45-$50 million, in line with the annual production cost of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien." According to the Wall Street Journal, O'Brien is getting $32 million from NBC, with the network also agreeing to pay his staff $12 million in severance.

NBC also announced the return of Jay Leno as "Tonight" host. He'll start March 1.

"We're pleased that Jay is returning to host the franchise that he helmed brilliantly and successfully for many years," said Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Uni TV. "He is an enormous talent, a consummate professional and one of the hardest-working performers on television."

"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" will continue as part of NBC's lineup, airing as usual at 12:35 a.m.

Next week, NBC will air Conan O'Brien repeats in the slot.

Under the deal, O'Brien will be sidelined until Sept. 1, when can return to TV as the host of a show on another network.

As first reported by THR.com, NBC will retain the rights to characters that O'Brien created.

While in public statements News Corp. brass have been cautious about the prospect of launching a late-night show at 10 p.m., Fox remains very high on snatching O'Brien. It is expected to open more formal talks right away, with some speculating an announcement about an O'Brien-fronted show on Fox could come as early as next month.

The decision to scrap the low-rated "Jay Leno Show" at 10 p.m. and bring Leno back to NBC's late-night lineup was made by NBC Universal's entertainment chief Jeff Gaspin who led the negotiations with O'Brien's reps along with NBC Entertainment chairman Marc Graboff.

NBC has no plans to promote the end of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," whose last original will air Friday. The network will mount a big promotional push for the March 1 return of Leno to "Tonight" during the Winter Olympics.

The deal puts an end to weeks of speculation about O'Brien's "Tonight Show" departure. O'Brien held the job for only seven months -- after waiting five years to take the position while hosting NBC's "Late Night."

"This whole experience has been so surreal," O'Brien told his "Tonight" audience Wednesday night. "I never thought I'd be jealous of the long, illustrious run that NBC gave 'Joey.'"

[Fernando]

damn you mac, you beat me to it.


so its official (like it wasnt already?). conan and co. will get 45mill, 33m for coco and 12m to his crew, not bad at all. will ferrel and tom hanks will be tomorrow for the final show.

I wonder if guests will slam/make fun of leno for accepting this, i cant see nbc giving leno uncomfortable guests in the first shows.

[Pubrick]

I really gotta agree with a lot of what this guy says about Conan's "Tonight Show". Really great read.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-13/good-riddance/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsC1

this guy's spot on.

the tonight show was like the american presidency at the time Conan took over. it had jumped the shark long before conan came along, but whether 7 monfs is or isn't enuff time to see what he could hav done once the boring-as-fuck novelty of being in LA had worn off, the fact was the weight of the show was always going to stifle him creatively.

all of his dreams about what he wanted to do with the show, stuff like he wrote in his quittin letter, should have started happening already.. maybe. but the whole format just fucking sucked to begin with. no more max interaction? god, apart from the excessive focus on playing to Los Angeles stereotypes (shut the FUCK up with the latino bullshit OK?? you were funny as an IRISH PIRATE LEPRECHAUN not as one-note conando), what i hated the most was the inclusion of andy. he adds NOTHING. his quips are shit, and appears to hav no chemistry with conan anymore than a cardboard cut out of tiffany thiessen had with mark-paul gosselaar. at least when max failed to hav any chemistry with conan THAT WAS THE JOKE, and a good one at that,.

it's such a shame that it took the destruction of the franchise to bring conan back from the dead comedically. this week has been great.. especially the return of the masturbating bear! but i hope wherever he goes, whatever he does next, he'll try to be funny and not just pander to the most obvious and superficial among his location/demographic/whatever, he was becoming Leno and it's good riddance to that alternate reality. like that dude said.