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")

Why is it Jay's fault that he was asked to walk out on a contract that still had time on it?

That $40 M that Conan just got is what he would've been owed if Jay had not left before his contract term.

NBC made a deal with Conan that overlapped a contract that was already in place.

Jay put the most on the table from the start.

He has every right to take some of it back.

Thats pretty funny right there. ;):D

Could not put my finger on it but this is it. He just is not someone that I would hang with or go out for a beer with. Maybe the people on the left or right coast like him but not me...

Why Jay Leno and David Letterman Hate Each Other | PopEater.com

leno's always been a hack, johnny carson didn't even respect him

my wife has been on Letterman & Leno ....1) letterman has a bodyguard everywhere he goes won't talk to you, she says she didn't like him at all(arrogant) big ego 2)Leno, comes in talks to everybody, very warm , nice, even gives rides in his cars on the back lot( she got to ride in his Duesenberg).... still I liked Johnny Carson(youtube has a lot of his stuff)

And don't forget that Letterman has turned his studio into a "hostile work environment"/harem for decades.

Everyone has their own opinion. Glad that A LOT of people do not share the same feelings that you have.

I have more respect for a single lugnut on my 911 when compared to Letterman.

Conan? Just not my cup of tea. He could not pull in the ratings, period. NBC was losing money and market share.

Leno was still there, still under contract and still pulling people in. Not a difficult decision IMHO, even if Conan is unhappy.

i'll second that. I've worked with musical acts on letterman 3 times, and leno 5. letterman clears the studio when he's there,never seen him in the building. Jay is the total opposite, even with a 7:30 am load in Jay was already there, shakes your hand even though your not "talent" and even recognizes you and says "welcome back, good to see ya".Not to mention the cars. when i was there he drove a jag xk 120, a green hudson hornet, the 1000 hp toronado and the only regular car a new vette. And his producer had a nice 997 as well.

Did the old Conan show twice, fairly loose atmosphere, he enjoys chatting with the musos, good guitar player, seems like a nice guy.

I just read an article which showed that Jay lost only a small amount of viewership from 11:35PM to 10PM, 5.3 to 5.2 million.

The problem wasn't his "loss" of viewership, it was that viewership is supposed to be much higher in that timeslot. His original audience moved with him, and he picked up no one.

This created a problem with the 11PM news and the lead in for Conan. This problem here is non Jay vs. Conan, but of a bunch of stupid NBC executives that created this mess in the first place. NBC stated that they knew that Jay wasn't going to do as well as the dramas, but that they could accept lower ratings, and lower ad revenues, since the cost of the show was much much less. Again, this shows that the NBC executives were not focused on the big picture, only at these couple of shows.

Personally, I think that NBC should have worked to come up with a different show for Jay, and let Conan run. Or let Jay go. This whole thing shows what a bunch of idiots that Zucker and company are.

If Conan goes head to head with Jay and Dave at 11:30, will I watch? I'm sure I'll try it out. In the Central time zone, the FOX affiliate runs the late news an hour before the others. If Conan starts at 11PM, he might do well. I usually watch the local news, and my wife watches E!

were Conan and Leno friends?

Jay got Conan the late night gig. Conan had no experience in front of a camera. He was a writer for the Simpsons and an occasional voice. His first time live on TV was on the Leno show, when he was announced.

Not true, he was also a writer for SNL and had backround on-camera roles for years, sometimes even speaking roles...

I think you're right about SNL writer. But they re-ran the "Conan late night announcement/Coana appearence" during the transition last year. At the time, Jay even said/asked him about this being the first time on national TV.

Here ya go...

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I guess this was pulled from a recent Conan, with the info at the end. But they do talk about the fact that this is his first appearence on TV.