With Leno's reported move back to the Tonight Show, Leno is screwing over his "buddy" Conan just like he once did to David Letterman. Leno could decline this move for Conan's sake and leave NBC. But his ego wont allow it. He wants the spotlight. He wants to show that NBC made a mistake by picking Conan over him. Now he's going to demote Conan to get back in the limelight. Pathetic. Jay Leno is awful and needs to go away though. His show sucked at 10 PM. This guy wont go away. Instead of saying "no, I can't do that to my friend Conan" he just agrees with their decision. He screwed Letterman and he's screwing Conan. Leno is and always will be a snake in the grass.

The fact is Leno needed time to do well in the ratings. Certainly he needed more than 7 months. Lots of Leno's toolish fanbase will say that Conan bombed out but judging rating for a late night show is different than judging a regular prime time show. A late night show should be allowed to grow, especially since Conan was already an established host. It would be a tad bit different if we were talking about Joan Rivers or Chevy Chase.

Jay Leno agreed to hand over the reigns to O'Brien 5 years ago. He expressed his desire to step down in that statement. As time went on, Leno began to whine because he decided he didn't want to leave. He's been playing the victim since then, crying that he was canceled on The Tonight Show and now on The Jay Leno Show. Jay Leno is a pompous, arrogant, egomaniacal big-chinned ahole who had his day in the spotlight. Go away already! The guy hasn't cared about comedy for years. He's a corporate yuppie now who comes in and does the same bland show for a paycheck. He and his laughing black guy sidekick suck and I hope that that they crash and burn on their return to The Tonight Show.

Team Coco!

Its all about the money. If Conan was pulling in better ratings, we wouldnt be having this discussion.

I dont get the Leno hate. I think Conan is funnier, but they're both corny at times. Its not like its a difference between Chris Rock and Carrot top..

sebstar wrote:Damn Lincoln you sound really broken up and emotional about this...

Its all about the money. If Conan was pulling in better ratings, we wouldnt be having this discussion.

I dont get the Leno hate. I think Conan is funnier, but they're both corny at times. Its not like its a difference between Chris Rock and Carrot top..

Actually if Leno was pulling better ratings, we wouldn't be having this discussion. This move was necessitated by the dismal ratings Jay was getting at 10PM. The local affiliates for NBC were complaining because it was a such a bad lead in to their local news programs. They basically forced NBC to pull the plug on Leno. Because the local news programs were getting bad ratings, that hurt the ratings of the Tonight Show as well over the last few months.

VDesai wrote:

sebstar wrote:Damn Lincoln you sound really broken up and emotional about this...

Its all about the money. If Conan was pulling in better ratings, we wouldnt be having this discussion.

I dont get the Leno hate. I think Conan is funnier, but they're both corny at times. Its not like its a difference between Chris Rock and Carrot top..

Actually if Leno was pulling better ratings, we wouldn't be having this discussion. This move was necessitated by the dismal ratings Jay was getting at 10PM. The local affiliates for NBC were complaining because it was a such a bad lead in to their local news programs. They basically forced NBC to pull the plug on Leno. Because the local news programs were getting bad ratings, that hurt the ratings of the Tonight Show as well over the last few months.

was gonna say the same thing des. it all starts with leno's show, if it gets bad ratings every night of the week, all the programming after is going to suffer and it did.

sounds like now according to the huffington post that conan is hosting his last show january 22 and getting a large buyout and there is NO non-compete clause.

The Daily Beast's Kim Masters reports that Conan O'Brien will exit NBC with a large payout and no noncompete clause in a deal negotiated by Universal President Ron Meyer:

According to the outlines of a settlement, Conan O'Brien will leave NBC and the network will make an as-yet unspecified payment. The comedian will be free to appear elsewhere on television well before his contract expires, despite earlier threats from NBC that it would prevent him from working anywhere else.

Masters' report follows Nikki Finke's report Thursday afternoon that Meyer had been negotiating a deal with Team Conan for days:

Universal Studios President/COO Ron Meyer was secretly drafted during this NBC late night crisis to negotiate a settlement between the network and Team Conan after O'Brien and his reps were threatened by NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker (see below). "Ron is a former agent, one of the biggest in Hollywood. He could get this done, so NBC used him," a source just told me. "No one would talk to each other, and they talked to Ron. He got everybody to talk to everybody." The deal as sketched puts Jay Leno back hosting The Tonight Show, and Conan O'Brien exiting with a lot of money. But there are still some terms to be worked out -- which is why there hasn't been any announcement yet. But I'm warned that "anything can happen" now that Meyer did his duty, and NBC is back in charge. I can tell you there are definitely people around NBC Universal boss Jeff Zucker who want to keep Conan in place at The Tonight Show. "But Zucker is digging in his heels because of the bad press. He's being stubborn," a Team Conan insider just told me.

Previously, Zucker had reportedly threatened to enforce O'Brien's contract and keep him off the air for 3.5 years until his contract ran out.

People.com reported Thursday that Conan would likely not host any new "Tonight Show" episodes after January 22.

TMZ reported Thursday that Leno and NBC had struck a deal for him to return as host of the "Tonight Show."