NBC: Conan Out, Jay Back In

As TMZ and People reported, Jay is back into The Tonight Show and Conan will be leaving. What a joke.

People are actually boycotting The Tonight Show and even all of NBC over Jay coming back. And it's not just a few disgruntled fans either. If I were running NBC I'd really wouldn't mess with what remaining fans the network has, especially considering that a) they're in 4th place and have been for some time and b) there are a lot of Conan followers, and c) many of Conan's fans seem to fit the ever-so-precious young demo that these network big wigs are always chasing after. I’m sure Conan’s fans range in all ages, but networks always strive and have passion for entertaining the masses of the young demos. And the majority of the younger fans seem to like Conan. And how do they know Leno won't just retire again within the next 5 years? What'll happen then? It's obvious they're not even thinking about the future. And it’s a shame, because if Leno had any class he’d have just bowed out.

It’s also awful that Conan wasn’t given a good enough chance to start out. Jay Leno had 3 years before his ratings did decently with The Tonight Show. Not to mention there was a mini chain of bad lead-ins for him, with people tuning out Jay at 10 pm and the news at 11. We all know Jay would not have liked it if 7 months after he first started hosting with bad ratings had Johnny came to NBC and asked for his show back. And I thought David Letterman was screwed over by Jay badly enough in 1992. That’s peanuts to this; and we all know how Dave is having a good old justified laugh.

And again, I think it was respectable for Conan to say no to the 12:05 offer. It could have really damaged the show (and honestly, it’s not even “tonight” by 12:05), and it would have messed with Jimmy Fallon too. Conan was actually thinking of someone other than himself when saying no.

In the past, I’d watch a segment every once in a while for a favorite celebrity, but I was never a fan of Jay before and I really am not one now. The only late night talk show I will ever be watching on NBC after Conan leaves will be Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.