Leno / Conan / NBC / etc.

[ih8music]

If I could step in and address the young'uns in the group : I think I've said this before, but for a whole lot of people (those old enough to remember watching Johnny Carson as host), the idea of the Tonight Show at 11:30(ish) is pretty much carved in stone. I remember a time when it was standard practice to watch the news and stay up through Carson's monologue at least, and decide after that, depending who the guests were, whether or not it was worth staying up to watch the rest of the show. But everyone watched the monologue. It was the ultimate water-cooler show, even when the jokes were lame (and the jokes were often lame).

 

well hey it's gettin' late

you gotta get the kitten fed

you gotta kiss the little woman

put the children in the bed

check the sports and weather

and the livin' and the dead

you don't have to read the headlines

you can hear what Johnny Carson says.

 

 

 

old fart here

[u2roolz]

FWIW, I sat down and watched my Christmas gift to my dad which was The Jack Benny Program on dvd.

It was excellent. I was shocked that I would like something 60 years old (insert joke here).

It really was timely and timeless.

 

I really loved the "character" that Benny came up with which was his onscreen persona of a cheap and vain foil.

Also, from what I gathered the black character of Rochester broke ground for minority groups on broadcast television at the time.

Rochester took verbal jabs at Jack, instead of the typical other way around of the time.

[jakobnicholas]

fyi....Jay Leno has invited Kimmel to be on his "10 at 10" segment on Thursday...might be a little interesting.

 

 

 

Has anybody thought that perhaps Leno will turn down NBC's offer, and let Conan have the Tonight Show at its original time? Leno's become the villain...although VERY unfair in my opinion. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he bails on NBC.

 

Conan's letter....very well-written but also clearly created to rally sympathy and support for himself....leaves open the possibility that he'd stay at NBC if he keeps his 11:30-12:30 time.

 

Yes, Leno retired.....from the Tonight Show. But it was very reluctantly. NBC convinced Leno to give up his show after 5 years. At the time, 5 years probably seemed like a LONG time and Leno probably assumed he'd be ready to move on and that maybe his ratings would even suggest as much.

 

Well, 5 years later, Leno was still #1 and still kicking Letterman's ass in the ratings and for Leno, it must have seemed ABSURD that he'd have to give up his show, even though it was as popular as ever. Especially with a loyal staff in a bad economic time. So Leno surely toyed with the idea of trying his show on another network. Do you blame him?

 

HUGE MISTAKE #1 was NBC trying to keep Leno. They rightly knew that Leno on another network, competing against Conan, would NOT be good for NBC. And that's how they decided to give Leno his own show in prime time.

 

HUGE MISTAKE #2 is NBC caving in to local news affiliates. Maybe put Jay's monologue at the end of his show. Maybe trim Leno's show to just a half hour, but keep it in the 10:00-11:00 time slot.

 

I've said a bunch, I'll say it again. It's Jeff Zucker and other NBC decision makers' fault, NOT Leno's.

 

WHAT I HOPE HAPPENS:

 

- Leno bails.

- Conan keeps the Tonight Show.

- Leno gets to do his show on another network against Conan and Letterman.

- Leno remains #1.

- Grumpy old balls Letterman retires after a couple years of finishing 3rd.

- Conan continues to build a bigger audience and gains on Leno.

- Leno finally truly retires in 4 or 5 years, leaving Conan the king of late night.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Has anybody thought that perhaps Leno will turn down NBC's offer, and let Conan have the Tonight Show at its original time? Leno's become the villain...although VERY unfair in my opinion. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he bails on NBC.

 

I, too, hope that's what Leno does. I only consider him the "villain" in this case because he has not done so already, and hasn't released any sort of statement that says, "I'm weighing my options, the options for my staff and the options for my other colleagues here at NBC" or something to that effect. His silence leads me to believe he has no flippin' clue how to get what he wants and not be considered an asshole (as, unfortunatley for him, getting what he wants in this case kinda makes him look like an asshole).

 

If he bails, I'll consider that the stand-up thing to do.

[cryptique]

Has anybody thought that perhaps Leno will turn down NBC's offer, and let Conan have the Tonight Show at its original time? Leno's become the villain...although VERY unfair in my opinion. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he bails on NBC.

 

Conan's letter....very well-written but also clearly created to rally sympathy and support for himself....leaves open the possibility that he'd stay at NBC if he keeps his 11:30-12:30 time.

Yup, Conan's letter seems to have been misinterpreted by much of the media as a final departure from NBC, but until Leno agrees to return to 11:35, the possibility exists that Leno will retire after all, and Conan will remain where he is.

 

Of course, now there are reports that the main culprit in this debacle, Jeff Zucker, is actually threatening to keep Conan off the air for the duration of his contract unless he accepts the 12:05 slot.

 

So, in addition to being an idiot, Zucker is apparently evil, too.

 

Conan hasn't done himself any favors lately by starting to take shots at Leno -- if Leno had been thinking of bailing, maybe he won't now -- but I still hold out a shred of hope that Leno will decide to move on and Conan will stay put.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Conan hasn't done himself any favors lately by starting to take shots at Leno

 

Leno took some good shots at Conan last night, too, from what I understand.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

They're comedians with a nightly forum to talk. Of course they're going to take shots at each other and NBC.

[Guest Speed Racer]

NBC couldn't produce a new hit drama to save its life

 

Yet, through Jeff Zucker's own boneheaded scheme, they appear to have produced the cat-fight of the century. How many weeks til this pops up as a "Ripped from the headlines!" Law & Order plot?

[OOO]

I think my ideal situation is Conan gets canned from NBC and his contract doesnt allow him to go on TV for 3 years, so he ends up creating "The ConanObrien.com Show" which broadcasts live at 11:35PM every night from conanobrien.com. Online ads in the same places that normal TV ads used to be, and with no NBC/FCC to censor him, he can do whatever he wants.

 

Anything that furthers the demise of TV and the rise of the internet is cool in my book.

[u2roolz]

What I Hope Happens:

 

It will be revealed to the world pretty soon that before Johnny Carson died his soul took over a 20 year old's body in Santa Monica.

Think Being John Malkovich. He took this said boy to KROQ, MTV, & into late night at the tail end of the late night broadcast hours or Pluto as David Letterman said.

Yes, I hope that Johnny Carson reveals himself to have never died and has been living as Carson Daly this entire time waiting in the wings to get revenge on "The Chin" and "The Hair" for the show that belongs to him.

 

Carson Daly will reveal his true identity on 60 Minutes to Andy Rooney, who will be very interested in replicating Carson's eternal youth. Jeff Zucker will faint immediately at the prospect of Johnny Carson Daly being back and ready for revenge. In a revenge plot unlike no other, Johnny Carson Daly will order Jay Leno to seek out and find the "young" Ed McMahon. "Don't come back until you find him, Mr. Dorito's plug!" Out of respect Johnny Carson Daly hands over Last Call to Matt Pinfield. In the meantime, Johnny Carson Daly has plans for Conan. He will make him his "temporary" sidekick until Leno returns with "young" McMahon.

 

To stick it to NBC and Jeff Zucker, Johnny Carson Daly will take viewer phone calls to request guests, musical acts and ask said guests questions. He will do this for 3 months. His ratings will be higher than ever before. People want to see how he escaped death and achieved immortality. Dick Clark & Regis Philbin will make multiple cameos on the Tonight Show looking for the secret to eternal youth.

 

Leno will never find the "young" McMahon and thus Conan will always be the sidekick. Johnny Carson Daly will reign supreme until eternity as the "Late Night King", since he now holds the secret that everyone is after.

[Dude]

I think my ideal situation is Conan gets canned from NBC and his contract doesnt allow him to go on TV for 3 years, so he ends up creating "The ConanObrien.com Show" which broadcasts live at 11:35PM every night from conanobrien.com. Online ads in the same places that normal TV ads used to be, and with no NBC/FCC to censor him, he can do whatever he wants.

 

Either that, or he changes his name to a symbol, and is referred to in the media as the 'The Talk Show Host Formerly Known as Conan' for the next three years.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

I think my ideal situation is Conan gets canned from NBC and his contract doesnt allow him to go on TV for 3 years, so he ends up creating "The ConanObrien.com Show" which broadcasts live at 11:35PM every night from conanobrien.com. Online ads in the same places that normal TV ads used to be, and with no NBC/FCC to censor him, he can do whatever he wants.

 

Anything that furthers the demise of TV and the rise of the internet is cool in my book.

This would be amazing.

[Analogman]

Like the Tom Green Show.

 

I think NBC should stream all of those shows online after the 11 news, and just run infomercials all night.

[jakobnicholas]

Leno took some good shots at Conan last night, too, from what I understand.

 

 

Not really. Last night Leno explained how Conan wrote a letter that was critical of NBC for only giving him 7 months to establish himself. Leno then says, "Seven months! How did he get that deal? We only got four."

 

Conan's shot was a little harsher: "And I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life, unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too."

 

 

 

Conan's ratings are up 40% the past couple nights. If he holds on to the Tonight Show, this might be his Hugh Grant moment. Conan may really need to think twice about giving up the Tonight Show, no matter what time it starts.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

I still cringe at Leno taking shots at this situation, because of his role. Obviously no one here know all the behind the scenes stuff, but from what we know, Leno decided to retire, and now changed his mind. NBC is more or less trying to appease him. So what does Leno have to complain about?

[Sir Stewart]

Can't wait for the HBO movie about this, with Conan sliding himself into a toilet to eavesdrop on NBC execs.

[jakobnicholas]

I still cringe at Leno taking shots at this situation, because of his role. Obviously no one here know all the behind the scenes stuff, but from what we know, Leno decided to retire, and now changed his mind. NBC is more or less trying to appease him. So what does Leno have to complain about?

 

 

Leno might complain about agreeing to please NBC higher-ups and retire from The Tonight Show, despite being overwhelmingly the #1 late night show. THEN, instead of having a chance to try his gig elsewhere, he remains a company guy and agrees to have a show in prime time. THEN, despite his show's ratings being on par or better than expected, he's asked to stop the show after 4 months because some local affiliates complain. And Jay may now complain that he's become the villain in this mess, when all along he was trying to be accomodating to NBC and Conan.

 

When NBC came to Jay 5 or 6 years ago and told them their plan, he'd have been best to drop The Tonight Show on the spot and go over to ABC. He's likely to have continued his dominance over Letterman, and who knows how well Conan's show would be doing by now.

 

And everyone is giving kudos to Conan for having the integrity to not accept moving the prestigious Tonight Show back an hour. Maybe Conan should also be blamed for agreeing to do the show in the first place, knowing Leno was on an hour earlier. If he truly is concerned about the integrity of The Tonight Show, he should have put his foot down THEN, understanding that Leno would be doing a similar-type show.

[Winston Legthigh]

Maybe Conan should also be blamed for agreeing to do the show in the first place, knowing Leno was on an hour earlier. If he truly is concerned about the integrity of The Tonight Show, he should have put his foot down THEN, understanding that Leno would be doing a similar-type show.

Conan's contract was signed long before Jay's show was a reality.

[gogo]

Leno might complain about agreeing to please NBC higher-ups and retire from The Tonight Show, despite being overwhelmingly the #1 late night show. THEN, instead of having a chance to try his gig elsewhere, he remains a company guy and agrees to have a show in prime time. THEN, despite his show's ratings being on par or better than expected, he's asked to stop the show after 4 months because some local affiliates complain. And Jay may now complain that he's become the villain in this mess, when all along he was trying to be accomodating to NBC and Conan.

 

When NBC came to Jay 5 or 6 years ago and told them their plan, he'd have been best to drop The Tonight Show on the spot and go over to ABC. He's likely to have continued his dominance over Letterman, and who knows how well Conan's show would be doing by now.

I still don't understand how this is something for Leno to be complaining about. He made the bone-headed move of agreeing to retire in five years, when there was really no need for him to do that. If he'd said no, NBC could have picked their horse at that point, and either dumped Leno and gone with Conan on the Tonight Show, or told Conan he'd have to wait it out, which would have put them at risk of losing Conan to another network.

 

I still see this as an issue of Jay making a dumb choice, and then after realizing it was dumb, refusing to deal with it gracefully.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

So it seems it's a done deal, and Conan's last show will be the 22nd. If this is the truth, then the next week's worth of episodes are going to kick ass. If his past few shows are any indication, he's going out firing.

[u2roolz]

So it seems it's a done deal, and Conan's last show will be the 22nd. If this is the truth, then the next week's worth of episodes are going to kick ass. If his past few shows are any indication, he's going out firing.

 

Yes, and the irony would be that his ratings would skyrocket thanks to the current controversy.

Hmm. Conspiracy Theory..

 

Edit: Report on the matter...Conan/Jay Contract Talk/Disputes

 

Some bits from the article:

 

Despite these unconfirmed reports, there’s still much that needs to be worked out, as many legal experts have also been discussing several things online, everything from whether or not NBC can move The Tonight Show back until after midnight, to any cash penalties that O’Brien may be able to wring from NBC in regards to his contract to host The Tonight Show.

 

Nikki Finke of the Deadline Hollywood Daily blog has reported that Jeff Zucker, the head of NBC Universal, has threatened to keep O’Brien off the air for the length of this contract, and that O’Brien’s reps might head to court if such drastic measures are taken.

 

Finke speculates that the goal might be to keep O’Brien off the air for at least six months until Leno is back in place in his old slot, where, it should be remembered, he was the ratings leader.

 

To that possible end, TMZ.com reported that Jay Leno has signed a new contract with NBC to have a one-hour show from 11:35 a.m. to 12:35 a.m. Leno required a new contract because his current one stated that his show would run at 10 p.m.

 

NBC also announced its post-Olympics schedule with the shows that will fill the 10 p.m. slot vacated by Leno. It will include Law & Order (Monday) and L&O: SVU (on Wednesday), Parenthood (Tuesday), the Jerry Seinfeld-produced Marriage Ref (Thursday) and Dateline (Friday).

 

O’Brien seems to be benefiting the most from the bump, with initial numbers for Tuesday night’s episode jumping a dramatic 40 per cent from Monday night’s broadcast and staying strong on Wednesday night.

[Dude]

So much for "passing the torch"....... Here's to another 5 (or 10) years of Leno.

[Shakespeare In The Alley]

Jimmy Kimmel absolutely destroyed Leno on his own show tonight. I have no idea why Jay went for that, but Kimmel went for it. He seemed restrained at first, then about halfway through he let loose and every question from Jay resulted in an insult. Jay stood there with no comebacks, looking foolish as hell.

[u2roolz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dHkvZb34VA&feature=player_embedded

[blindgonzo]

i despise leno! i know, this adds nothing to the conversation. i just needed to get it off my chest.