Oh yes! I’m with Coco.
Lately, the news has been filled with two things: the travesty and horror caused by the earthquake in Haiti (which is terrible) and the NBC/Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien feud. Now not to take away from the victims of the earthquake in Haiti, but the TV network feud is much more interesting (and funny). What I can’t understand is why Jay Leno just doesn’t retire.
If you haven’t been following the story, here it is in a quick rundown. In June 2009, Leno handed the Tonight Show reins over to Conan and Jay moved to a new timeslot at 10:00pm in primetime to a newly created show by NBC called the Jay Leno show. Seven months later, the Jay Leno Show ratings were in the tank. NBC hastily decided to move Jay back to 11:35pm and push Conan (and the famous Tonight Show) to 12:05am timeslot.
Now, I watched the Jay Leno show a couple of times (well I didn’t watch, it was more of a “I’ll give it to shot). It was terrible. Same format, same jokes, same lame sketches. Why has the idiot executives at NBC pushed Jay Leno back to his old slot. Jay is awful. Conan is clearly the favorite here. It doesn’t make since to move the Tonight Show to 12:05am and make the Tomorrow Show. Conan has basically said he’s not going to host the show at 12:05pm. I think he basically issued an ultimatium to NBC. Put up or shut up.
Now Conan is a really smart guy. In his contract, it says he hosts the Tonight Show at 11:35pm or 12:05am (in a nutshell). So basically NBC either has to let him continue the show at the current timeslot or breach the contract and pay out upwards of $40 million to Conan. Either way Conan comes out on top. Plus if they break the contract, he could go to FOX or ABC.
I think NBC should do the right thing and let Conan continue with the Tonight Show at the current time. GIVE JAY LENO THE BOOT.
You can read Conan recently press release that addresses the topic here. I like how he addresses it with “People of Earth”.
