I used to love NBA on NBC, and now all I watch it on NBC is Conan.

Conan>Leno

Maybe Hiro Nakamura can stop time and fix NBC's situtation.

So basically, Conan O'Brien was threatening to leave unless he gets an earlier show, i.e. The Tonight Show, forcing Zucker to incompetently handle the succession plan. You don't call that forcing Jay out? It was NBC show who gave O'Brien The Late Show making him who he is today. You think O'Brien would be somewhat grateful.

Oh yes, the controversy is giving both shows a boost, despite what kasz claims;

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/01/13/ratings-jay-leno-conan-obrien-controversy/

For talk shows, I'm willing to bet they fluctuate throughout the year as Leno started in September. Not going to prove this so take it however you want.

Kasz,

If the lead ins are the only reason Leno gets the ratings he does, then why did the ratings for The Tonight Show sucked, as you put it, for the first few years? Why bother keeping O'Brien at all if that's how lead ins work. Apparently, people today can't changed the channel to something they want to watch these days. What you're doing to saying vague things that can't and can be proven.

Your also setting up a strawman position-I specific said previously that leno was getting canceled due to the affliates. Leno, however, still has a contract with NBC guaranteeing him a show. If NBC doesn't, then they're are breaching the contract so they moved him back to 11:35. No O'Brien supporter has even bother to mentioned that NBC did not remove O'Brien from The Tonight Show but merely pushed it back half an hour and it was Conan who chose to leave. It was a situation that required everyone to compromise and O'Brien balked at it. He doesn't know that it'll lead to the destruction of The Tonight Show. Why doesn't he want to give it a try and actually see? Oh that's right, he wants to work at an earlier time. Everyone likes to blame Leno for all of this but he's really the only one who's been cooperating and saying yes to proposed solutions. The internet, (where jay isn't popular) who probably hasn't been watching The Tonight Show, resulting in its lower ratings, simply decided to get interested and use Jay Leno as the scapegoat.

Also for those people who point out that O'Brien needs more time to attract more viewers like Jay did, anyone wants to offer a reason how more time would give him more viewers. O'Brien is an establish host for 17 years. He's been consistent in his hosting for the last 7 months and the ratings haven't improved (not since the controversy). What exactly do you expect to happen to increase the ratings?

So Conan doesn't have the right to try and better his career by looking for an earlier time slot, be that on his current network or another? I sure as fuck know I would not stay in the same position at my company for 17 years without trying to further myself and my position. I am quite sure Conan did not have the intention of forcing Leno out, he probably would have been happy going somewhere else. NBC just thought they would kill two birds with one stone by keeping Conan and moving Leno to a prime time slot because it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for shows. It was a Zucker clusterfuck, a Zuckerfuck if you will. Conan has respect for The Tonight Show and would rather it not change. He would rather them give it back to Leno and him find another place for his brand of comedy at a time where he would be happy.

And I agree that Leno really should not be taking the blame. But he really does suck. He is really bland and drab. I don't really care what happens as long as Conan gets to be on TV somewhere and not be banned from the tubes for a year.

It was also Leno that accepted this plan. If he didn't want to go along with it, he should have said no. Instead, he agreed to this mess, even though he apparently didn't want to leave.

Remember this?

Yeah, so much for that. Leno simply decided that he doesn't want to retire, and he isn't going to stand by his word. The fact that he went with the 10 o clock show was a problem in of itself, as it'd obviously damage Conan's show (though he was still nice about it here).

When Leno was willing to move back to his own time slot at the expense of Conan and the Tonight show, there was no defending him. He already passed the torch to Conan, he promised him a clean transition. However, after this move it became clear he doesn't give a shit about anybody but himself. There's a reason virtually everyone is in favor of Conan here, and it isn't because they just think he's the funnier guy. I don't see how anybody can say "it isn't Leno's fault." He's supposed to step the fuck down when he says he will.

Funny clip from a year ago, see :55-2:00

In the end, I guess I don't care that much. I rarely have access to a TV so I don't exactly watch much Conan, anyway. I heard that he had toned his show down since leaving Late Night, hopefully when he's on TV again he's as crazy as he once was (or is currently). If he is, fans might benefit from this ordeal.

Still, it doesn't change the fact that Leno has shown us his true colors (I liked him before this)... And of course, NBC's incompetence.

What i'm saying are things ANY TV insider will tell you.  Everything i've said is true, you can not believe it if you want... but all that proves is, you don't know much about ratings or lead ins.  Afterall why do these affiliates want Jay Leno cancled?  Because they hate him?

Seriously, why do you think the affiliates want Jay canceled?  I'd LOVE to hear it.

They wanted him canceled because of the "Jay Leno Effect".   Aka he KILLED ratings and sucked as a lead in.

Ever wonder why EVERY TV insider is against Jay Leno here?  It's because the whole thing is Leno's fault.

You know what, i'll even provide you with why the affiliates wanted him canceled.

Just how bad was NBC's prime-time experiment with Jay Leno for local stations' newscasts?

If a study released this week by Harmelin Media is to be believed, the answer is more than $22 million bad. That’s how much stations would have lost in three months had the network continued to air a show NBC executives (still) dub financially savvy. "It was working at acceptable levels financially," NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin told reporters on Sunday. "So we were actually making money at 10 o’clock." The same cannot be said for NBC's 10 owned and operated stations. According to the media research firm, with Leno as their lead-in, those stations' newscasts were poised to lose somewhere in the neighborhood of $570,000 per week, or $7.4 million per quarter.

It's small wonder NBC's local stations put pressure on the network: the disgruntled 210 local stations' late news viewership plummeted in the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic by an average of 25% in November, compared to the same period a year earlier, says the report. Still worse, in the major markets of New York and Los Angeles, the ratings free-falls clocked in at 48% and 43%, respectively.

http://blogs.forbes.com/bizblog/2010/01/14/the-leno-effect/

Exactly! NBC sucks.

I have nothing but love for Jay and Conan. They both make me laugh.

So i guess you never heard the story of Jay Leno feeding strike information to comedy club owners back when a bunch of comedians went on strike vs a particular club.

Not until now, no. I didn't know much about the Leno / Letterman deal either, but since I don't like Letterman, I never looked into it, it was before my time. Hell, I couldn't tell you who it was that preceded Jay Leno for the Tonight Show.

Is this something most people my age (22yo) know? I have no idea, but I know more than enough now. This Conan thing got my interest, and so I read...