Leno back hosting The Tonight Show?

Jan 15 2010 Published by under TV

In a perfect world Leno would retire (or die) and Conan would be left free to do The Tonight Show like he was promised back in 2004.  Unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world.

Both the New York Post and Nikki Finke are reporting that NBC has signed Leno to a new contract (because they are in breach after moving him out of the 10pm timeslot) that would put him back in control of The Tonight Show at 11:35pm and result in Conan walking away with a hefty sum of money.

The only thing I can figure from all this is that Leno obviously had a higher penalty figure if he’s removed from 10pm than Conan has if he’s dropped from hosting The Tonight Show, and that Leno must have said that he’d go to another network if he wasn’t given the hosting gig on The Tonight Show.  The difference in penalty money, the chance to improve the ratings of The Tonight Show, and keeping Leno from another network can be the only factors which brought about this decision.  NBC could of kept Conan hosting The Tonight Show at 11:35pm and put Leno on at 12:35am for a half hour but that doesn’t seem to be the course they’ve chosen.  All Conan wants to do is host The Tonight Show at 11:35pm.  That’s it.  I honestly think that all he wants is to keep The Tonight Show exactly where it’s been since 1954 and not mess with Fallon on Late Night too much.  Why’s that so hard for NBC to understand.  If you wanna keep Leno and he’s such a team player, put him on at 1:30am.  They haven’t done any of this and it all points to Leno once again screwing over a more deserving person that himself because of his own selfish attitude.  Fuck I fucking hate him and his lame, boring, vanilla, neutered, unfunny brand of “comedy”.

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Conan should bolt NBC

Jan 12 2010 Published by under Celebrities, TV

What a lovely dramatic weekend NBC had with the whole Leno vs. Conan bullshit.  Time for me to vent.

NBC promised The Tonight Show to Conan back in 2004 because they were afraid to lose him to Fox.  The problem was that Leno wasn’t ready to step down from The Tonight Show then, or in the middle of 2009, and this caused a similar problem for NBC in not wanting Leno to go to another network and kill them in the ratings.  Their screwed up solution was to give Conan The Tonight Show but to create The Jay Leno Show and put it on at 10pm.  Effectively undermining the position of The Tonight Show as the preeminent late night talk show and screwing over Conan.  This led to a whole bunch of complaining by NBC’s affiliates because Leno’s ratings suck and that’s having a torpedo effect on their own news shows.  All this led to the reshuffle that was announced on Sunday with the plan being to put Leno on at 11:30pm for a half hour, Conan at 12:05am and Fallon at 1:05am.

Congratulations Jay, you’ve got what you wanted since 2004, to keep The Tonight Show.  That’s what this basically amounts to.  The actual name of the product doesn’t matter.  It’s the timeslot and the host, and Leno at 11:30pm doing the same old tired and boring comedy is The Tonight Show.  Creating a show for Leno and putting him on ahead of Conan was a slap in the face, but bumping Conan to accommodate Leno is even worse.  If Conan can get out of his contract and head over to Fox he should do it in a heartbeat.  Not only would they throw money at him to entice him to leave NBC but he’d probably be able to shift back to the zanier presentation he had on Late Night.  Everyone is well aware that he’s toned down his personality to fit with the 11:30pm timeslot and the supposed hallowed history of The Tonight Show (which is a bullshit approach to take in 2009), but a move over to Fox would allow Conan to go back to his real self.

All this conjecture is pointless though because it seems pretty obvious that Conan isn’t gonna leave NBC.  He seems like too loyal a guy to bail on the network which gave him his start in late night.  So he’ll probably sit there whilst NBC reshuffles again, and accommodates Leno again, and doubts him again, all because he’s a good guy and because he reveres The Tonight Show so much.

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