The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

[Lighthouse]

Oh damn. It just got a little worse. Article from Time magazine disusses TMZ's story, and then there is an update at the bottom.

http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2010/01/07/or-will-nbc-send-conan-walking/?xid=rss-topstories

[Update: Bill Carter of the New York Times, who literally wrote the book on the Tonight Show, reports that NBC "did not deny a report posted by the website TMZ that NBC was considering making the switch." And when you do not deny you're considering that you're replacing your Tonight host to Bill Carter...]

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Oh my. Was Conan filmed before this news broke or would he not be able to comment until tommorrow night?

 

[Matt]

ABC will make an offer, but it's FOX that will win the bidding war. They want it more. Jimmy Kimmel, despite any backlash he gets, has been good for ABC. He's had his moments over the years like that whole "I f--ked Matt Damon" thing a few years back. But, FOX virtually has no late-night block. Or atleast not a successful one. So, this is their chance to join the race. Rupert Murdoch, being the notorious businessman that he is, will make Conan a ridiculous offer that ABC (Disney) couldn't compete with.

Kimmel actually isn't half bad. I remember his post Oscar show when he told Mel Gibson...

"You're a notorious prankster, right?"

And a confused Gibson was like, "Ummm...sure."

And Kimmel responded by saying, "I remember a few months ago, the prank you pulled where you told some cops some things about the Jews."

The look on Gibson's face was priceless. Kimmel earns some points in my book just for having the balls to do that.

And he doesn't have Helen Kushnick to blame this time.

Nope. Leno has always treated Conan like ****. I remember when Leno complained to NBC brass until they forced Conan to end his mini-Jay Leno skit. For a comedian Leno has no sense of humor about himself. I don't buy half the **** Conan says about liking Leno. I think Conan is just classy enough not to be an **** to Leno, Leno should take a few lessons from Conan in that regard.

 

[Matt]

Oh my. Was Conan filmed before this news broke or would he not be able to comment until tommorrow night?

I doubt Conan will comment. He continues to be a class act no matter how poorly NBC treats him, so I expect silence from him

 

[BlackLantern]

most people in Hollywood are worried about what everyone else thinks of them...Conan is probably part of the 2 percent that don't give a **** and just goes to work

 

[enterthemadness]

I will honest watch this show live or DVR it until Leno take it back. Then we can only hope FOX or ABC gets Conan and takes shots at 4th rated NBC.

 

[CELTICPRED]

I am not ****ing happy right now.

 

[Shifty]

http://www.spoilertv.com/2010/01/leno-cancelled-from-primetime-as-of.html

Leno in primetime Canceled. Moved back to his 11:30 slot.

This could mean no more Conan. Or at the very least a shortened version of both shows. ugggh

It works for Stewart and Colbert. The Tonight Show used to be 90 minutes long, it could improve the show as they would only have half the show for comedy.

On the contrary, I think Dave would certainly be more sympathetic to Conan. While awful if this news is true, I look forward to Conan showing up as a guest on the Late Show. That would be an interesting segment.

I wonder if some NBC lawyer didn't work it into Conan's contract that he can't appear on CBS/ABC for X amount of months as a guest. Leno had a non-compete clause in his contract, if he had passed on the 10pm show he would've had to wait at least a year to start a show on ABC/Fox or syndicated with Sony.

ABC will make an offer, but it's FOX that will win the bidding war. They want it more. Jimmy Kimmel, despite any backlash he gets, has been good for ABC. He's had his moments over the years like that whole "I f--ked Matt Damon" thing a few years back. But, FOX virtually has no late-night block. Or atleast not a successful one. So, this is their chance to join the race. Rupert Murdoch, being the notorious businessman that he is, will make Conan a ridiculous offer that ABC (Disney) couldn't compete with.

And he doesn't have Helen Kushnick to blame this time.

Fox offered Conan an insane amount almost ten years ago but Conan stayed with NBC out of loyalty. Pretty ****ed up that he was almost canceled during his first few years and then when he gets The Tonight Show he's turfed after 7 months because he has Leno taking away viewers at 10 and then has to compete with CBS/ABC/Comedy Central.

At least CBS has stability on it's talk shows with Letterman and Craig Ferguson for the next few years. Of course, I did read that when Letterman leaves, Ferguson will leave too.

It will be interesting to see what happens when they lose both as Ferguson doesn't plan on doing a talk show for 20 years and Jon Stewart is quite happy at Comedy Central.

Can someone fill me in on the Leno/Letterman feud? From what I recall, Carson promised the gig to Letterman but was offered to Leno instead? How exactly was he a jerk for accepting a job?

Letterman had hosted Late Night for 10 years while Leno was the permanent guest host for the Tonight Show in the late 80s/early 90s. Carson would take a lot of time off. The NBC executives in NYC wanted Letterman as the replacement and the LA ones wanted Leno. Carson wanted Letterman but his say wasn't enough. Leno's manager played a key role in this.

Highly recommend The Late Shift book for any talk show fan, that details how Jay, Dave and Conan got their shows in the 90s.

Jay started in 1992 and Letterman had to work one more year of his contract and even back then NBC wasn't happy with The Tonight Show host and contemplated having Letterman replace Leno, after Leno had been on the air for a almost a year! It was Letterman's dream, just like Conan's, to host "The Tonight Show" but that show ended when Carson retired. So Letterman went with CBS. Then Lorne Michaels was able to get control of the new Late Night.

 

[Charlie The Red]

Eeesh. If Conan moves to another station, NBC keeps the rights to his old material, don't they?

 

[Dr. Evil]

And to think....Leno and Letterman were once close friends at one point.

 

[Shifty]

Eeesh. If Conan moves to another station, NBC keeps the rights to his old material, don't they?

The NBC lawyers would pick apart all the elements Conan would want to use on another show just like they did with Letterman. Letterman changed the names of recurring segments/characters.

 

[Charlie The Red]

So now NBC is saying that Leno is going to have a 30 minute show at 11:35, then Conan will begin his hour long show at 12:05 (Fallon following at 1:05).

This ****s everything up. Viewers will tune into Letterman during his opening monologue, then when his interviews start they'll tune into Conan's opening skits. Then when Conan's interviews start, they'll tune into Ferguson's opening, etc. etc.

This changes the shape of the battlefield completely. I'm not sure if it's genius or absurd. Not sure if Leno is worth all of this trouble...

 

[Kane52630]

the world's reaction at NBC

 

[Gold Samurai]

Meanwhile, David Letterman shows of a goofy grin upon reading this news.

David- HaHa!

Paul- ahhhahaha

David- uh....you want some gum?

Paul-ahahahaha

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

[YT]ROPEICInVPY[/YT]

 

[Dr. Evil]

This is one of the reasons that CBS is America's Most Watched Network: They have stability at Late night. Letterman and Ferguson. I believe sometime in the next year or so, CBS and Letterman will announce his successor and it won't become a jumbled mess that NBC had with their succession plans.

 

[Catman]

So now NBC is saying that Leno is going to have a 30 minute show at 11:35, then Conan will begin his hour long show at 12:05 (Fallon following at 1:05).

This ****s everything up. Viewers will tune into Letterman during his opening monologue, then when his interviews start they'll tune into Conan's opening skits. Then when Conan's interviews start, they'll tune into Ferguson's opening, etc. etc.

This changes the shape of the battlefield completely. I'm not sure if it's genius or absurd. Not sure if Leno is worth all of this trouble...

I look at it this way. The old folks will return to NBC at 11:35am. Then at 12:05am they'll switch to Letterman. And the young people who were watching Colbert will switch to Conan at 12:05am.

So, Leno will be considered a winner (again), Letterman's ratings will drop (again), and Conan will be getting the same exact audience he had during Late Night (again). In other words, we're back to square one. What a waste of everyones time.

 

[Gold Samurai]

If they must:

Leno 11:30 to 12
Conan 12 to 1
Fallon 1 to 2

DUMP CARSON! I don't know how that *****ebag can keep going "interviewing" celebrities.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Why must Leno stick around? Really, what was the point of him leaving as Tonight Show host really?

 

[Lighthouse]

Leno took some big digs at NBC in his monologue today.

http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/nbc-indicates-changes-coming-to-jay-leno-show-due-to-affiliate-issues/

Happy birthday to Katie Couric, it's her birthday today. She left NBC for another network. I have to give her call to see how that is working out. As you may have heard, there is a rumor floating around that we were cancelled. I heard it coming in this morning on the radio. So far no one has said anything to me. But, Kev, if we did get cancelled, it will give us time to do some traveling. I understand that Fox is beautiful this time of year.

I don’t think there is any truth to the rumors. See, it’s always been my experience that NBC only cancels you when you're in first place. So we are fine. We are OK...

[Later, Leno inserted this comment after a joke.] You know what happened? NBC found four guns in my locker. I was suspended. [Kevin says, “I’m glad they didn’t find them in my locker.”] We will keep following this story....

[Later, Leno returns to NBC yet again.] The Justice Department announced they will conduct an anti-trust review of Comcast's proposed deal to merge with NBC. An anti-trust review. Which is the relationship i have with NBC. Anti-trust. Hey Kev, what does NBC stand for? Never believe your contract."

Is it just me, or is the 80's funny Leno peaking his head in a little?

 

[Shifty]

11:00PM
The Daily Show (Mon-Thur)
Chelsea Lately
Lopez Tonight
Real Time with Maher (encore) (Fridays)


11:35PM
The Colbert Report (Mon-Thur)
The Jay Leno Show
Late Show with Letterman
Nightline
Real Time with Maher (encore) (Fridays)

12:05
Late Show with Letterman
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Tonight Show with O'Brien

12:35
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Tonight Show with O'Brien
Late Late Show with Craig

1:05
Late Late Show with Craig
Late Night with Fallon

SOL
Last Call with Carson Daly

 

[Charlie The Red]

Damn, it takes a hell of a lot of nerve to make jabs like that when they're basically bending over backwards for this unfunny sack of suds.

 

[Asgard]

The NBC lawyers would pick apart all the elements Conan would want to use on another show just like they did with Letterman. Letterman changed the names of recurring segments/characters.

Can you or anyone explain why they could do this?

 

[Shifty]

Can you or anyone explain why they could do this?

Deals with intellectual property laws as NBC owned his show. Letterman became the competition and left a hole in their programing so they weren't going to make it easy for him but the Late Show found ways around it.

The World's Most Dangerous Band became the CBS Orchestra, etc.

 

[Charlie The Red]

Their channel. Their affiliates. They paid for the set, the cameras, the film. The old episodes are stored in their vaults. All of that is theirs.

They pay the talent too. So if they want, they can claim ownership of what they paid the talent to create...