Veyron on Conan....
 

lol.....


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just saw the last minutes of conans last tonight show.
went out like a very classy guy, and a hell of a guitar player too.

I don't usually watch Conan, although I did catch his last show. I thought his brief speech at the end of the show was on the money. Not knowing the back-story on this train wreck, I think that Leno has really hurt The Tonight Show franchise, although time will tell.

It wasn't Leno behind this. It was a bunch of stupid NBC executives. Leno went through what happened earlier in the week.

6 years ago, while Leno was #1, NBC didn't think he could sustain it forever, and decided to make a succession plan. This was to avoid the provious succession issue, between Leno and Letterman.

Last year, Leno was still #1. NBC went ahead with the plan. I expect this was also pushed by Conan, since it was he who would gain by moving to the "Tonight Show".

Leno had 6 months left on his contract when his run of the Tonight ended. He asked to be released from his contract so he could pursue other things. NBC said no. We think you are too valuable. They came up with the idea of the 10PM Jay Leno show. Leno didn't think it would work, but NBC said they had extensive data showing it would be great.

They even anticipated the drop in ratings. But they thought that when the drama shows went into re-runs, Jay would come out on top.

The local stations bled viewers. And the lead in to the local news and then the 'Conan' Tonight show was diminished. It was the revolt by the affiliates that got this thing started.

A decision was made to move the time slots around. I think this was based on people used to dealing with non-live shows. Moving a drama or comedy show from one night, or time slot to another doesn't affect the people in the show directly.

NBC came to Jay and told him the show wasn't doing what they thought. NBC decided to move Jay back to 11:35 and to move Conan to 12:05.

When they told Jay his show wasn't working at 10, Jay asked if he could be let out of his contract. NBC thought he was too valuable and said no. They wanted to move him back to 11:35. Jay asked if Conan would be OK with it. NBC was "sure" he would.

At this point, NBC springs the idea on Conan. This is where it started becoming public and all of this occured in the past three weeks. Conan, and many other people, get the impression this was started by Jay to get his old timeslot back. Again, it was NBC, under pressure from the local affiliates that instigated this, based on a serious drop in viewership and revenues.

To recap:

NBC made a bad decision 6 years ago
NBC decided carry through with the decision even through they had two #1 shows.
The decision hurt viewership and the local stations revolted
Without consulting either Jay or Conan they decided to change the schedules
Instead of bringing it to them together, they talked to Jay first
Conan didn't want to give up the show

I commend the man for remaining funny under those circumstances. A true professional.

Red-beard:

Thanks for the summary; as if we needed further proof that corporations make dumb-a$$ decisions every day. NBC succeeded in screwing over 2 talents with one decision.

Mike

Very well said, you are so right! Incompetence in Corporate America continues to run this country into the toilet. Its a shame about Conan, and you can tell the guy was upset by it all...

I could go out classy too if you gave me 40 MILLION DOLLARS as severance.

For $42 million bux in severance pay I can be very professional as well. He was not just bowing out on his last show, he was advertising for his NEXT show with another network. Any screwy stunts or "flock NBC" comments would not look good when he goes "hat in hand" looking for a new network.

RB's account is spot on as to what happened. Neither Jay nor Conan wanted this, but NBC has spoken. That said, Conan could not hold up the ratings that Jay achieved, so something had to be done.

you forgot to mention the whole reason this started....

Conan's contract was going to over with NBC and they didnt want to lose him, so they offered him the tonight show to stay.

Thats the key point on why this whole thing started and what makes the whole thing so ironic as the end up losing him in the end anyway..

From what I heard from a TV reviewer/writer, it came down to number of viewers.

Conan = 2 million
Leno = 5 million

Simple, goodbye Conan.

Conan was just never my "cup of tea" so to speak. Guess I AM getting old but I watched him a couple of times and thats it.

Main reason I watch Jay is that he is a car nut like we are. Wish Johnny Carson was still around. He and Ed were entertainment.

Ditto

This is complete bull****, Leno should have walked out like a man and let conan have his time, leno's time was up, and he should have left. Don't tell me there was no way for Leno to leave. If Conan decided to leave, Leno could have easily left or gone to another network.

YouTube - David Letterman - Will Jay Leno Do The Right Thing?

Glad to see that I am not that old after all! :)

Floyd,

That is your opinion Sir!

There are a lot of us who feel that Leno should never have bowed down to NBC's wishes and had stayed right where he was. The ratings now prove who was liked by the viewers and sure supports our train of thought. Conan is the one who was shoved in the spotlight before it was his time, not the other way around.

Let Conan find another network and stop your whining.

Actually it's Leno's dismal ratings at 10pm that was the cause of all this. Not Conan's.

Besides, every new host needed time to gain an audience and ratings. Jay Leno was no different.

Leno never had "dismal" ratings at his old slot, only when forced into this new slot by NBC. Left alone Conan could never have been a threat. This is NBC's fault, no one elses.

For that matter NBC brought Leno back after Conan could not get the numbers working. After six months and very low ratings they called Leno back to save their a$$ets.

Conan is an odd bird and had no hope of winning over the "majority" of average viewers. Leno comes across as a more likable guy and is less politically polarizing than Letterman which is why he will likely beat Letterman again in the ratings. Sure different folks have differing views and likes/dislikes but on average Jay is better liked by more people than the liberal Letterman or the odd bird Conan.

Exactly, pushing Leno at 10 hurt conans ratings, and plus, you have to give Conan time. All the jokes of the day were told by leno before conan, its exactly why the reason the late late nighters arent as well viewed as the late nighters. Leno should have gone for good, not stuck around like a little ***** that he is.

Floyd.... this isn't high school anymore. If Conan can't hack it as the Tonight host it is NOT up to Leno to "let him have" anything. (think "real world")