Conan Slams NBC — Again — And, This Time, Leno

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by Rachel Sklar | 1:49 am, January 14th, 2010

» 8 comments

It’s official: Conan’s bitter.

Tonight, again, his monologue was laced with jokes sticking it to NBC — plus the first salvos that seemed intentionally aimed at Jay Leno. Until tonight, Conan’s mentions of Leno himself were benign, instead focusing on NBC’s plans with respect to both their shows — which Leno has echoed emphatically on his own show. Tonight, that ended.

Said Conan: “Hosting the Tonight Show has been the fulfilment of a lifelong dream for me. And I just want to say to the kids out there watching: ‘You can do anything you want.’ Yeah. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too.”

Then he imitated Leno, not entirely kindly. It was the first time that Conan had seemed direclty bitter toward Leno, or implicated Leno for having any real agency in the matter. Previously, both comedians had characterized the the NBC mess as having been a “solution” devised exclusively by NBC.

Conan also joked about NBC’s upcoming coverage of the Winter Olympics, suggestion they’d make changes like “move the Winter Olympics to summer but still call them the Winter Olympics” “reserve the right to cancel ski-jumps mid jump” and this doozy: “Replace the flags on the giant slalom course with breached NBC contracts.” Ouch.

Perhaps in a bit of pushback to Leno’s frequent comments about how he was #1 when he left the Tonight Show, Conan also offered this one: “Move the bronze up to gold’s place, silver stays where it is and add a new medal for fourth place called the NBC.” Ouch again.

Then yet another NBC star came by to show solidarity with Team Conan: Jack McBrayer, aka 30 Rock‘s Kenneth the Page, leading a tour group through the studio: “This is the former home of the “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien…”

It’s no secret of course that Conan isn’t happy — yesterday’s letter and last night’s show made that pretty clear — but this is the first time he’s really unloaded on Leno, who a “Tonight Show” insider told me has been blamed “in equal measures” with NBC for this whole mess. Even so, Conan only has so many shows left where he can do this. Either he’s staying, or going. This is showbiz. There’s gotta be an arc.

I’m with my colleague, Steve Krakauer, who wrote this tonight: ” I’d say one more night of this, then maybe a goodbye show Fri if it’s really his last.” I hope it’s not his last, but watching the video below, I can’t see how it could be anything but:

Conan, Conan Jay NBC, Conan Kenneth, Conan NBC, Conan O'Brien, Conan Tonight Show, Jay Leno, Late-Night Wars, O Brien, Team Conan, The Tonight Show

m

At the top of his game!
http://www.karlspensen.blogspot.com Karl Spensen

My goodness, I love this man.
timzank

While both Conan and Leno are talented guys, I find it hard to get worked up about either one getting “screwed” when either one can walkaway a multi-multi-millionaire when I’m trying to find gas at less than $3 a gallon.

It’s a perspective kind of thing.
personwhomakescomments

You have a good point there, tim. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t really a big deal and everyone will be well taken care of.

That being said, I wonder how people can still call Conan “classy” when he’s bashing Leno by name now…pretty shameful.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

Conan calling Leno out by name could be a shrewd move.

I think it’s been pretty well decided that a Leno-hosted Tonight would be a ratings disaster. Sure, he may find an audience down the road or after Dave retires, but initially, the show is going to tank and all of the negative press (if Leno is installed) could wipe away much of the goodwill the franchise still holds.

Unfortunately for NBC, if they can’t have Leno, then that may only leave Conan. After all, there really aren’t a lot (or any) players experienced enough or with enough stature to take over the Tonight Show. It’s not a starter gig and among the few names which come to mind, pretty much all are under contract to someone else.

The NBC execs are human. If Conan kept bashing them exclusively, then they might be willing to tank the whole thing, but by publicly transferring some his ire toward Leno, Conan not only “damages” an already damaged property, but the execs are somewhat cushioned from his barbs.
SWWT

I’m just totally disgusted that Jimmy Fallon somehow has his own show.
nwjw

Conan can whine as much as he wants to, but the point many are missing is that even though Leno’s ratings were dismal at 10, he was still pulling more viewers than any of the late night shows and had a better demo. I find it funny that guys like Kimmel try to slice and dice Leno, when it was clearly an NBC screw up. I seem to recall Kimmel sucking up to Leno when it looked like Leno may go to ABC. I could’ve taken Kimmel’s Leno bit for the opening monologue, but the entire show? NO class on his part.
And as for Letterman going on a tirade, I guess he would know better than anyone that you don’t f*** those that work for you as it can come back to haunt you…but how soon he forgets…
mediaiter

If Conan looked like he had or ever would have a show that beat Letterman and Nightline in the ratings, he wouldn’t be in this situation.