NBC Tonight Show: Jay Leno Is Back, Conan O’Brien Is Out

Home - Local - NBC Tonight Show: Jay Leno Is Back, Conan O’Brien Is Out

In this day and age everything is one side or the other. No fence sitting here. You were either Team Jolie or Team Anniston, you are Team Jacob or you are Team Edward. Now you are either Team Coco or Team Leno.  Well, if you were on Team Leno you’ll be happy to hear the news that Conan O’Brien will no longer be hosting the Tonight Show after next week. Once back from the Olympic break Jay Leno will be back hosting The Tonight Show at 11:35ET.

Many sites are reporting right now that Leno has already signed a contract which means that Conan is all but dropped, and his last night hosting the show will be January 22nd. He will get paid out the rest of his contract, but rumor has it that NBC head Jeff Zucker is wanting to put Conan “on ice” for not cooperating with the network.

On the business side of the issue I can understand. When ratings are bad, you cancel. Late night shows like this are a bit different though. It takes a little bit to grow an audience, and Conan needed to find ways to adapt to an new audience. I don’t think anyone thought that NBC would give him way less than a year to get his ratings up.

NBC has made mistake after mistake from the beginning. The first mistake was forcing Leno out while he was still getting ratings. Another mistake was giving Conan a 5 year deal, and not stand behind him after he got beat in the ratings by an established late night host, David Letterman.

I really enjoy Conan, and I check out his show every now and then. I’m not a big late night TV show watcher. While I might check out Conan from time to time, I never watch Leno. I don’t really like his brand of humor, and the man just grates on me. I don’t blame him for the situation though. This is a bungle by NBC and I hope they see their ratings drop heavily because of it.

What does everyone think of this? If you were a Leno watcher before, will you be back? If Conan moves to another network, will you watch? Let us know in the comments!

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11 Comments

  • Reply
    Kelly , January 14, 2010

    I was SO excited when I heard Conan was to take over The Tonight Show, because I usually didn’t stay up THAT late and I was not a Leno watcher because he also grates on me, and seems a bit uncomfortable with his jokes. I did check out his show, but since it was the same, it was just dumb.

    Why wouldn’t JAY say he refused to take Conan’s spot? He has no decency. It was very wrong to do any of this. WHY are so many people for Conan vs. Jay? The move of times was NOT fair to any of them. Having the same show at 10 PM every night was dumb also. I WILL follow Conan and watch him wherever he goes. I have really enjoyed watching Conan. He was AWESOME!!! I’m sad.

  • Reply
    Christie Goodman , January 14, 2010

    Finally someone agrees with me!! I just think NBC is making a decision way too early and they haven’t give conan enough time. I mean he moved from New York to do this show and they just do this to him. I think it’s completely unfair. I hope they actually start thinking straight and straighten this out.

    TEAM CONAN

  • Reply
    Melissa , January 14, 2010

    I’m so upset!! I love Conan and saw him multiple times when he was in NYC. NBC totally screwed him over. Also I hate jay leno. I’m so sad of this decision because I really liked NBC but now its starting to make me hate the network. I will watch conan if he goes to another network because conan is the best.

  • Reply
    JoeB , January 14, 2010

    If this is true, it finally rights a terrible wrong which was done to Jay Leno originally.

    Like Johnny Carson (who also was forced out), Jay never wanted to leave the Tonight Show in the first place. . .and now he will be back where he belongs.

  • Reply
    PK , January 14, 2010

    When Jay announced his retirement way back when and said Conan was going to take over I was elated! I thought it was too good to be true and sure enough it was. He announced he would retire in 6 years!! Who does that in TV? 6 very long years later, Conan gets the spot and what do you know, again its too good to be true because Leno gets a prime time show right before Conan’s. I blame Jay for all of this. Yes, NBC made the final call but Leno obviously had second thoughts over the 6 years he mulled over his retirement decision. I never liked Jay Lame-O and feel terrible for the travesty befallen Conan. Sick and wrong. Conan will land on his feet.

  • Reply
    C , January 14, 2010

    I love Leno. He should never have given up The Tonight Show. Never understood Conan’s or Letterman’s brand of humor. Glad Leno is coming back. Leno is number 1!!!

  • Reply
    Moira , January 14, 2010

    I grew up with Carson. As a comedian I loved Jay and, even though I thought that David Letterman should have inherited the Tonight Show torch, I gave Jay a chance. I seem to recall that when Jay started on the Tonight Show his ratings were nothing to brag about either. But NBC stuck with him and he gained an audience. Personally, I watched Dave on CBS. I found that Jay’s humour changed over the years and I didn’t find him as funny as I once did. I used to watch Dave on CBS and then flip back over to NBC for Conan. When Jay announced that he was leaving and it was reported that Conan was taking his place I was overjoyed. Why didn’t NBC give the same chance to Conan to gain an audience as it did to Jay in the beginning? All of this is reflecting very poorly on Leno’s character. NBC will lose this audience member for good.

  • Reply
    Tim , January 14, 2010

    Just dumb. Side note: Did anyone see Ricky Gervais on Conan last night? awesome

  • Reply
    Vic , January 14, 2010

    Surely no one believes that Jay Leno had anything to do with this. Conan O’Brian knows perfectly well why he is being replaced and that’s because his ratings, if he ever had any, tanked, period! Personally, tonight his monologue was worse than vulger (yes, even for late night), his remarks about Leno were off the wall, and his verbage generally was not fit even for a “porno” show. You certainly turned out not to be the “classy” guy you were supposed to be.

  • Reply
    mwestgranny , January 16, 2010

    I can take about five minutes of Conan. He is too silly and not all that funny. He can not do a decent interview. He turns everything back around to himself. Friday night was terrible. Conan started this whole thing. He wanted his future guaranteed way back six years ago so Jay (gentleman that he is) agreed to leave in 2009 so Conan could take over. Jay lived up to the bargain and NBC decided to put him in prime time to keep him from going to another network. They knew Conan could not compete with Jay. Conan should have come on board with new ideas instead of the same self degrading types of comments he’d used for years.
    Conan will get a huge settlement and I hope we never hear from him again.

  • Reply
    Vic , January 17, 2010

    Again, I salute NBC for coming down on the side of a winner. For me, there’s only one question that’s never been answered in this battle of the late-night people: Why and how did Conan O’Brien ever get to the point that he can’t speak a civil word about ANYBODY. His criticism of Jay Leno is the material of a loser. When Jay was forced out to make way for Conan, there was no controversy from Leno. As for Letterman, we dropped him and his romp with his interns came to light. There are just some things the audience will not tolerate, and Conan and Letterman know what they are. We look forward to Jay’s return.

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