The Tonight Show - NBC (formerly The Jay Leno Show)

[norealityhere]

Ok, I doublechecked with my friend last night.
She's a SR. VP at CBS.
She said, yes, that this is all NBC's doing. Pure and simple.
Jay Leno isn't the bad guy. Conan O'Brien isn't the bad guy. It's NBC.
They're the ones who moved Leno - Leno did not want the 10PM slot. They lied to Conan years ago and told him that he will get Leno's show in 5 yrs. when he retires. They just assumed he was going to do so. Leno never said he was.
And, while I've never been the biggest Leno fan, I will say that he is a very nice man - not at all the a*****e that NBC would lke you now to believe.
So, let's be fair here to Jay - he does not deserve to be skewered. This is a mess that was created by NBC.

[Critical]

And, while I've never been the biggest Leno fan, I will say that he is a very nice man - not at all the a*****e that NBC would lke you now to believe.
So, let's be fair here to Jay - he does not deserve to be skewered. This is a mess that was created by NBC.

I have friends who work in the industry (including one who worked with Leno at NBC) who confirm that he's not as nice as he would like the public to believe. Just sayin'. I don't think it's so very nice to be talking publicly about how you wouldn't mind having your old job back like he's done. Whether or not they were unfair to Jay, they were also terribly unfair to Conan and for Leno to be so vocal about wanting his job back was classless, imo.

[norealityhere]

Again, I'm not Leno's biggest fan.
However, I don't think it's fair for him to be crucified for something he didn't do.

[Krom]

Again, I'm not Leno's biggest fan.
However, I don't think it's fair for him to be crucified for something he didn't do.

What didn't he do?

He campaigned to get Johnny tossed, and Dave bypassed... and both happened.

He dropped all kinds of leading statements, even before his 10PM show started about how he'd be "happy to go back to 11:35 if the network wanted it", thus setting all of this in place to happen.

He went on the air consistently this week playing the victim card and twisting the truth into him "getting fired" so people would feel sorry for him.

Jay did plenty, even if NBC did even more.

[Lucky22]

Ok, I doublechecked with my friend last night.
She's a SR. VP at CBS.
She said, yes, that this is all NBC's doing. Pure and simple.
Jay Leno isn't the bad guy. Conan O'Brien isn't the bad guy. It's NBC.
They're the ones who moved Leno - Leno did not want the 10PM slot. They lied to Conan years ago and told him that he will get Leno's show in 5 yrs. when he retires. They just assumed he was going to do so. Leno never said he was.
And, while I've never been the biggest Leno fan, I will say that he is a very nice man - not at all the a*****e that NBC would lke you now to believe.
So, let's be fair here to Jay - he does not deserve to be skewered. This is a mess that was created by NBC.

I remember in '04 when Leno announced on the show that he was going to leave in '09, because at that point it would be 17 years for him on the show and he would like to do other things, and that O'Brien would take over the Tonight Show at that time. So how is that NBC lying to O'Brien? Not saying Leno was lying, but I don't see that anyone was lying at the time. NBC is just trying to pull itself out of ratings hell with both the 10 p.m. slot and the Tonight Show tanking.

[causingchaos]

Jay comes out looking like a spoiled little kid in all of this. Baby gets what baby wants is how I put it in my real life. Had it been anyone else they wouldn't have given them a prime time contract like they gave him. The offending parties would have promptly been removed from TV with little to no comment about it. Not only does Jay tank his show but he then gets to go back to his old show forcing someone else out. And kudos to Conan for not making a mess out of the tonight show and making it half an hour long.

My mom even commented on it today saying she loved when Johnny was on. Couldn't stand Jay and was really liking having Conan on and will likely not watch it anymore once Jay comes back. And she's in the demographic that typically likes Jay.

[Lucky22]

I'm in the Jay age group, too. I liked him on the Tonight Show, but unlike Johnny who aged like a fine wine, Jay seemed to be getting a bit stale by the time he left. Never thought that nightly 10 p.m. show was going to make it. At the same time, I could not stand Conan in any time slot, and since I dislike Letterman's on-air personality, they both did me a favor by making me go to bed earlier. Don't know if I'll be watching Jay when he goes back, and I wonder if this whole clusterfarcas will affect his ability to get A-list guests, or if they couldn't care less because publicity for their films/shows is all that matters. Seems like NBC is going to have to do something to make Jay come out of this looking better. Really, I think it's just all about saving the longstanding Tonight Show more than it is about Jay.

[Fierce Critter]

I never had anything against Jay, except I can't stand when a comedian laughs at his own jokes. It reeks of desperation and non-professionalism to me.

I remember Johnny. I just don't think anyone can fill his shoes. But I think many of us think along those lines not because we don't like someone in particular, but because we just get used to seeing a certain someone and when you insert someone new, it's just too jarring.

I like Conan a lot. But I didn't see it as still being "The Tonight Show" with him, it was more like "The Conan O'Brien Show" at a different timeslot.

I have to say, though, I don't watch anything but Craig Ferguson anymore. Gimme puppets!!!

[RealityLovesMe]

My understanding is that NBC is not doing very well. The one area they were winning was the late night battle. Leno was the king of late night. Losing Leno at that time slot turned out to be a huge loss for NBC. Things didn't work out for Leno in prime time so Leno needs his old spot back and NBC needs him to save them. Poor Conan is getting lost in the shuffle. He should have tried harder to save his ratings. But the extra insults from NBC executives is just uncalled for!

[Fierce Critter]

I'm not all that sure how Conan could have done anything?

I don't know if (the collective) you remember, but Leno didn't do so hot for a while when he started on TTN. It wasn't until he had Hugh Grant on (who apologized for being arrested with a hooker) that his ratings surpassed Letterman's and stayed that way. Leno got reeeeeeeally lucky with that.