“Good evening. My name is Conan O’Brien, and I may soon be available for children’s parties.”And with that, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien-post NBC/Jay Leno scandal-began with absolutely no regard for job security, probably because there is no job security for Conan O’Brien.
Admittedly, I wasn’t impressed with O’Brien’s Tonight Show debut, but I never dreamed NBC would pull something so shitty as pulling the plug on him seven months into his tenure.
I mean, didn’t they have seven years to work out this transition?
And if it was about the ratings, didn’t one of those highly compensated executives at NBC notice that O’Brien wasn’t pulling good ratings at his Late Night time slot?
It was almost like NBC was trying to assure everyone that they had learned a lesson from the Leno/Letterman fiasco by securing a plan for the future of one of the most recognizable brands on their network: the Tonight Show. On the surface it looked like Leno was ready to retire as King of the Late Night mountain, but there apparently something bigger than Jay’s chin at play here: his ego.
It was obvious when NBC wiped the entire M-F schedule for a prime time Leno monologue. And when that failed, the network spun it with “It makes us money.” And when the ratings tanked further, the local affiliates bitched because it didn’t make them money.
Rather than chalking it up to experience and admitting defeat, Leno sidestepped any accountability and went after his replacement. In a word: Leno threw Conan under the bus and took his wallet in the process. Leno is betting that the TV babies have a short memory being a witness to his shittiness and Conan is left with the “Kick Me Hard” sign taped to his back.
The unbelievable thing to me is how people who make a lot more money than you and I still have a job after creating this public relations nightmare. At the end of it all, this fiasco will ultimately ruin Conan’s career, tarnish Leno’s legacy, completely gut the Tonight Show brand and ultimately have no impact to NBC’s overall viewership.
2 comments:
Who cooked up the idea of having Jay Leno coming back to a ridiculously conceived, nightly 10 PM slot rehash of The Tonight Show? That person needs to be fired, immediately. So Conan, after being blatantly disrespected, will quit and Jay will host the Tonight Show...again? Heads need to roll.
But they won't. And if they do, they will end up at the same or not very dissimilar positions at other networks.
As I've learned from observing the workings of the upper echelons of the entertainment industry (especially the music biz, RIP), once you breathe that rarified air, you're practically guaranteed a part in musical chairs-like circus that is the hiring and firing of executive "talent".
This has got to go down as one of the most colossal blunders in network TV history.
Amen, brother. Fuck-ups don't come much bigger than this. Can we even hope that a) someone (who deserves it) gets shitcanned for this fiasco, and b) when all is said and done, someone at NBC feels even a twinge of remorse for what went down?
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