According to the venerable New York Times, Jay Leno is tanking at 9:00, so the network is punishing Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon.
The network has a plan in the works to restore Jay Leno to his old spot at 11:35 [10:35 CT] each weeknight for a half-hour, while pushing the man who replaced him, Conan O’Brien, to a starting time of 12:05 a.m. [11:05 p.m. CT] Mr. O’Brien would then have a full hour. […] The third NBC late-night star, Jimmy Fallon, has shown some promising ratings with younger viewers. He would then begin his show at 1:05 a.m. [12:05 a.m. CT], the executives said.
Conan’s show would still be called “The Tonight Show,” thus avoiding a breach-of-contract penalty for NBC. The stupidest thing is their reasoning:
Mr. O’Brien, meanwhile, has had his ratings suffer on “The Tonight Show.” He has trailed the “Late Night With David Letterman” on CBS by about two million viewers a night; Mr. Leno had easily been the winner in that time period previously.
Well, it’s amazing what 15 years does for your ratings. A better comparison would be to see how well Leno did his first year on the job. Answer: third place — behind Letterman and Nightline. This is a knee-jerk reaction to top all knee-jerk reactions, and will result in even more viewers being lost.
Before they switched, Leno had rejuvenated his viewership and was performing strongly in the 11:30ET time slot. He was much stronger than Conan, since Conan took over. I think NBC really didn’t want to move them when the time came but a contract is a contract. They also learned a lesson in not making deals like that 5 years in advance.
Read elsewhere that Leno’s principle competition at 9p was TIVO. People used that time to catch up on shows they missed at other times of the day and just were not ready for a tonight show like show at that time.
…except Conan O’Brien is not funny, is hard to look at and isn’t comfortable for a majority of Americans. He is like watching Howdy Doody on speed.
I agree with both posters above. It was a series of stupid acts. Conan could never come up to Leno’s knees. I remember five years ago thinking “What could they possibly be thinking…?” and I wouldn’t have even charged them for the advice. I have tried to watch the new Leno show though and I’m not sure if they have new writers or what but the show is not even close to as funny as he was on The Tonight Show. Maybe because I’m not as stupidly tired at 9:00 as I am at 10:30. Who knows? It would be nice to have it back the way it was.
This all assuming that Leno was worth watching to begin with. I was hoping all this would just help Letterman.
The following shows are remarkably unfunny:
Jay Leno
Late Show with David Letterman
Tonight Show with Conan Obrien
Late Night with that SNL guy whose name escapes me right now.
Late Late show with Craig Ferguson (used to have a hint of originality, now is a formula)
Anyone of these people could replace the other, doing the same jokes and skits and no one would notice because they are ALL THE SAME.
Leno said last night that NBC means “Never Believe your Contract.”
Billy – Jimmy Fallon?
And I agree with your post.
The obsession with Jay Leno must be a generational thing. As a 20-something female, I can’t stomach to watch him.
Conan has long been a favorite of mine. He appears to be legitmately funny as opposed to Leno who reads cue cards well.
I’ll take Conan over Leno any day.
Leno is the absolute worst, in my opinion, but his show and humor cater to the average person. I am and always will be a Conan fan. It makes sense that Leno should be on after the 10:00 news for only 30 minutes. The people who watch the news will be able to watch him and then go to bed. I know that’s generalizing, but it’s true probably. The younger generation that enjoys Conan are likely to stay up later to watch him closer to his old time slot. This makes sense.
“On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of the show’s premiere, NBC announced that Jay Leno will be succeeded by Tonight Show Tickets Conan O’Brien in 2009. Leno explained that he did not want to see a repeat of the hard feelings and controversy that occurred when he was given the show over David Letterman following Carson’s retirement.”
Sounded rather noble at the time…guess he’s had a change of heart since making that statement. Too bad he’s since turned into a self-serving egomaniac.