TMZ: Jay Leno moving back to 11:30, fate of Conan O'Brien unknown

[VThokies]

Originally Posted by Pedro Cerrano

I've held off posting here because Conan has been (and still is) my absolute favorite late night host and I was hoping my thoughts/feelings about this would change, but they haven't.

I gotta call a spade a spade; he's coming off as a spoiled brat. He's going to turn his back on NBC, a network that admittedly made a poor decision by putting Leno at 10 PM, because he doesn't want to air 30 minutes later.

Hey Conan? This same network is the reason you are where you are today, first by employing you at Saturday Night Live as a writer and second by giving you the Late Night show when you were essentially a nobody, and sticking with you through the rocky start. You owe your entire success to them and now you're pissed because things aren't working out the way you want to.

Forget the millions they have paid you, forget the great fame and fortune you've amassed because of them, go ahead and turn your back on them because of 30 measly minutes.

Others in this thread are getting behind him, but I can't. I joined your facebook group because I think it's a funny idea, but I definitely think you're in the wrong here. I'll still watch his show because he cracks me up, but this attitude has rubbed me the wrong way. In the words of Don Henley, "Get Over It!"

Originally Posted by TyCobb

The big problem is NBC didn't see 5 years ago that everyone 18-45 years old owning a DVR. Those viewers aren't counted in the ratings.

I DVR... Stewart, Colbert, and Conan. If you notice Colbert has a lot of in-show advertising.



He isn't saying that at all. I don't think anyone was saying that.

We just don't think Leno backed stabbed Conan.

Great last show, by Conan

Not to get back into the whole arguement again as it seems like everyone has agreed to disagree, but thats exactly what he said.

[TyCobb]

Originally Posted by VThokies

Not to get back into the whole arguement again as it seems like everyone has agreed to disagree, but thats exactly what he said.

I stand corrected.

I don't think Conan is a spoil brat. The Tonight needs to start a 11:35 at the latest. A 12:05am slot would be the Tomorrow show.

[Objectivity]

Originally Posted by Tony-OH

NBC are the big idiots in all of this. They should have never have signed Conan to that contract that gaurenteed him the Tonight Show if they were not fully committed to him taking over for the long haul. Seven months is not fair to build up that audience and I really think in the long run it would have worked out.

Totally agree. There was no question that by June 2010 Conan or Jay would be gone. All of this is because NBC felt Conan wouldn't do well but wanted to hedge its bets in case they were wrong.

The sad thing is, this played out exactly as expected. Conan took a huge drop from Leno's numbers, just like Leno took a huge drop from Carson's numbers. It took Leno three years to return to number one and he stayed there for 15+ years. With time, Conan could have adapted and made a show that a larger portion of the audience found humorous. Of course, we don't know if behind the scenes he was refusing to make those adjustments.

The final show had some great moments, but also some moments that illustrated why a larger audience didn't embrace him.

[TonySoprano]

some captions NSFW

[The Wedge]

I re-watched The Late Shift today (the 96 film based on the book about the first Tonight Show host change debacle) and I gotta say, it's obviously not the exact same, but there are a lot of eerie parallels (both Letterman and Conan didn't want to "push Jay out" to get the Tonight Show, the longevity the two of them had with NBC and how it was repaid, amongst others), and it's pretty obvious that NBC has a serious problem when it comes to the Tonight Show post Carson.

Oh, and if any of that movie is to be believed, Leno is both somewhat of a "wanna please everyone" simpleton AND a guy who will hide in a closet to listen in on a network brass conference call to gain leverage...so in other words, the kind of guy who would pull what he pulled here.

[ChaosLex]

Anyone see the commercial with Jay, Dave and Oprah tonight?

[PaulFolk]

Originally Posted by ChaosLex

Anyone see the commercial with Jay, Dave and Oprah tonight?

Yes-- that was probably my favorite commercial, because it was so unexpected. Now if only they could've shoe-horned Conan in there somehow...

[Mark Carver]

Originally Posted by ChaosLex

Anyone see the commercial with Jay, Dave and Oprah tonight?

How the add came about., including the ad itself in the link..

Mr. Leno was able to get Tuesday free – NBC had rearranged its schedule to pre-empt his 10 p.m. show that night — and took the NBC corporate jet, Mr. Burnett said. There seemed little chance though that Mr. Leno could sneak into Mr. Letterman’s theater unseen, so the idea was hatched to try to sneak him in during a live taping, in disguise.

[The Wedge]

You know that both NBC and Leno know they're under the PR gun when NBC allows Leno to even appear on an ad for his rivals show.

[PaulFolk]

Originally Posted by PaulFolk

Yes-- that was probably my favorite commercial, because it was so unexpected. Now if only they could've shoe-horned Conan in there somehow...

To respond to my own post...apparently they wanted to get Conan, too, but he was still filming the Tonight Show at the time and was unavailable.

[srock]

Originally Posted by Pedro Cerrano

I've held off posting here because Conan has been (and still is) my absolute favorite late night host and I was hoping my thoughts/feelings about this would change, but they haven't.

I gotta call a spade a spade; he's coming off as a spoiled brat. He's going to turn his back on NBC, a network that admittedly made a poor decision by putting Leno at 10 PM, because he doesn't want to air 30 minutes later.

Hey Conan? This same network is the reason you are where you are today, first by employing you at Saturday Night Live as a writer and second by giving you the Late Night show when you were essentially a nobody, and sticking with you through the rocky start. You owe your entire success to them and now you're pissed because things aren't working out the way you want to.

Forget the millions they have paid you, forget the great fame and fortune you've amassed because of them, go ahead and turn your back on them because of 30 measly minutes.

Others in this thread are getting behind him, but I can't. I joined your facebook group because I think it's a funny idea, but I definitely think you're in the wrong here. I'll still watch his show because he cracks me up, but this attitude has rubbed me the wrong way. In the words of Don Henley, "Get Over It!"

I'm calling shenanigans on this. A nobody? He was the head writer and a producer for the Simpson's in the hey day. A much bigger show then anything late night. He is credited with writing these episodes on his own:

Conan O'Brien:
[9F06] New Kid on the Block
[9F10] Marge vs. the Monorail
[1F02] Homer Goes to College
[1F04] Treehouse of Horror IV (wraparounds)

[Pedro Cerrano]

Originally Posted by srock

I'm calling shenanigans on this. A nobody? He was the head writer and a producer for the Simpson's in the hey day. A much bigger show then anything late night. He is credited with writing these episodes on his own:

Conan O'Brien:
[9F06] New Kid on the Block
[9F10] Marge vs. the Monorail
[1F02] Homer Goes to College
[1F04] Treehouse of Horror IV (wraparounds)

Please. Nobody in the general public knew who Conan O'Brien was when he got his show. This is well documented.

[The Wedge]

Originally Posted by Pedro Cerrano

Please. Nobody in the general public knew who Conan O'Brien was when he got his show. This is well documented.

Nobody in the general public knew who David Letterman was when he was given Late Night way back when. It was kinda, you know, fitting, to replace him in similar fashion. But he wasn't a nobody in the business, having been a comedy writer, just like Conan. And Conan was well known in the business as well.

[BaltimoreTerp]

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/...-restrictions/

It’s obviously water under the bridge now, but the Hollywood Reporter’s ESQ column makes a provocative argument that Conan O’Brien may have triumphed in court over NBC’s decision to force him out of the 11:30 p.m. timeslot. Legal blogger Matthew Belloni appears to have seen the actual deal – one that’s been amended several times since O’Brien first came to NBC in 1993. In a 2002 amendment, Belloni writes, the specifics of when and where he’ll appear are apparently spelled out in black and white: if Jay Leno ever left, O’Brien would be installed as host of Tonight, which was described as the “series that airs at 11:35 p.m.” What’s more, his original deal to host Late Night was described as the “second network series after the end of primetime.”

Yet in the 2004 amendment – in which O’Brien was specifically given the Tonight Show after a five-year waiting period – there is no mention of the timeslot. This is surely why a key insider told EW that timeslot restrictions didn’t exist and why NBC/Universal Chairman Jeff Zucker echoed as much to PBS’ Charlie Rose. Argues Belloni, “You’ve got to read an amended contract in the context of all other prenegotiated elements. O’Brien’s 2004 deal incorporated by reference and ratified all the terms of his prior deals — including the Tonight Show definition — and says any conflicts between NBC’s standard terms and the negotiated terms are governed by what’s been negotiated.”

Interesting...

[ChaosLex]

After the Late Night Wars toppled Conan O’Brien from The Tonight Show and reinstalled Jay Leno in his place, it seemed as though the battle lines had been drawn: on one side, there was Team Coco, on the other, Team Leno, and never the twain should meet. That’s what makes the news we’re about to reveal all the more surprising.

Sources tell Movieline that Conan O’Brien’s longtime bandleader Max Weinberg recently made overtures to Leno about joining the new Tonight Show as Leno’s bandleader. He’d be replacing Kevin Eubanks, who announced in February that he had plans to leave the show.

It’s a post that Weinberg has long coveted, though he only held it briefly during O’Brien’s truncated tenure. “I think one of the biggest thrills in my life was seeing my name in the same sentence as Doc Severinsen, who, in my view, is the gold standard for Tonight Show bandleaders,” Weinberg told Inside Jersey last August after assuming the gig. “There’s never been anyone who did it quite near the class and the brilliance of Doc Severinsen in the original Tonight Show Band. I used to think when I was a kid what a great job that must be — you know, same place, every time, everyday. Lo and behold, here I am 40 years later, doing it. That sounds deep, deep, deep, deep, deeply satisfying to me.”

In some ways, the news comes as a shock: even entering into discussions with Leno would mark Weinberg as a high-profile defector from the Conan camp, and could spark another round of backlash against Leno just as he’s settling into the Tonight Show.

Still, we hear that despite his long association with O’Brien, Weinberg was less than beloved by staffers. When O’Brien’s show was still located in New York, Weinberg would send interns to do gardening work at his house on the New Jersey shore, and would involve staffers in his pay disputes with the network — at one point, even enlisting an intern to tabulate every minute of screen time Weinberg had racked up over two years in an argument for a salary raise. Though several members of Weinberg’s band will be joining O’Brien during his live summer tour, Weinberg himself is conspicuously absent from the list.

When asked to address the matter, an NBC spokeswoman said only, “We are not commenting.” Reps for Leno and Weinberg have yet to get back to us.

http://www.movieline.com/2010/04/exc...bandleader.php