Conan O'Brien announces microfracture surgery to stop NBC from moving his time slot

So how many of you Conan fans out there are rooting for Brett Favre to whoop the Cowboys today?

Do you hold the same animosity for Favre as you do Leno?
Do you hold the same animosity for Michael Jordan as you do Leno?

 

Leno's abysmal ratings set off a chain reaction...he doesn't have to be a direct lead-in for Conan for it to affect the Tonight Show. Maybe having a traditional lineup of dramas doesn't change a thing, maybe it does. But it would be interesting to see what Conan's numbers would be had they not tried this experiment.

And NBC would have been more than happy to keep a low-cost Leno production on the air had it not been for the affiliates complaints. They HAD to do something.

 

Brett Favre didn't return to Green Bay after a year with the Jets, relegating Aaron Rodgers to the bench again.

 

I bet he would have if the Packers fired their GM and they asked him to come back and be the starter. And would it be his fault for them doing that or would it be the Packers fault?

I understand directing your anger towards NBC (as Packer fans would direct anger towards the Packers in the above situation), but directing it towards Leno is just childish. Leno has no obligation to help Conan in any way.

 

Who's spot did Jordan take on the Bulls? Did he knock off their future franchise player? Horrible analogies my friend, try again.

 

But that's comparing apples to oranges.

Every single local news on NBC affiliates started sucking since Leno went to 10 o'clock without much, if any, changes. Is the local news today on NBC considered a much inferior product compared to last year?

If you say yes, then indeed, Conan has failed in comparison to Leno.

Also, I didn't mention this earlier, but it's pretty difficult to watch two late night shows in a row. Especially with the news in the middle. By the time people hear the same monologue jokes twice, and the story itself 3 times, they're probably just change to something else.

 

He took someones spot who was probably just as Successful as Conan at Tonight ... I think Leno must've banged your girlfriends

 

This is definitely a point with merit. Conan never had a chance because once Leno was on, because even though he was failing, SOME people were watching him. Once you watched Leno tell jokes, you are unlikely to watch Conan crack different jokes on the same subject.

But, why is that Leno's fault? Was he supposed to not work so that Conan could be a success? It was NBC that put Leno in primetime to the detriment of the Tonight Show. Leno left the Tonight Show like he was contractually obligated to do. He wasn't ready to leave the business though and NBC didn't want him on another network. They made the deal they made and it hurt Conan. The people to be angry with here, if anyone, is NBC, who like usual have proven to be idiots.

 

Yes it is Lenos fault also. He originally retired which palced Conan in the tonight show spot. Later on he decided he didn't want to retire so they created that show for him. He knew how this would impact conans show but went ahead with it anyways. He's the Brett Farve of Late night

 

He traded rip because he felt they were in a win now mode. If conan were doing better they would kick leno out.

 

saying that people are saying conan has the worst lead in in history is kind of disingenuous. people, including local nbc affiliates are pointing out that leno is a bad lead-in, but who has said he is the worst in history?

leno didnt have another talk show on right before his. nbc has cannibalized itself - from 9-12:30 its 3 hours of talk shows and a half hour of local news. its just too much for viewers. of course leno is siphoning off viewers from conan. take leno off the air or give him a 1 hour show once a week and i bet conan's ratings go up.

 

i think you want to bang leno.

 

What about the months before Leno's show where Conan's ratings began to free fall? He was already down to a 2.9

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/06/letterman-beats-tonight-show-for-first-time.html

Marking the seventh day of Letterman vs. O'Brien, CBS earned a 3.4 metered-market household rating to NBC's 2.9. "Late Show" was also up 13% from last week and 17% from last year.

 

but he didnt fire rip, he traded him - rip still had a job. trying to compare this situation to farve or jordan is senseless.

furthermore, rip went on to get a ring, so looking back i doubt he minded getting traded..

 

Conan was losing in overall viewers to Letterman repeats back in August a month before the Leno show even debuted.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/08/1...an-repeats-in-viewers-but-wins-the-demo/24717

TOTAL VIEWERS

11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 2.9 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 2.9 million viewers (in encore telecasts)
ABC “Nightline,” 3.3 million viewers

 

I have never understood how they exactly know the types of viewers that watch each show? What do they base their statistics on?

 

from your article...

the way leno supporters act you would think that letterman never had higher ratings than the tonight show until conan took over, but alas, a mere 8 months ago letterman beat leno.

americans think hockey sucks...what else is new. another mitigating factor that helped letterman along later in the year was the whole palin thing and then the sex-scandal - both of those events were temporary ratings booms for letterman that cut into conan's viewership.

conan wins out in his demographic. and its not like he got clobbered by letterman or anything - it was a 3.5 to 3.3 share. when you consider that letterman is an established name and conan was the new guy, those #'s really arent that bad.

 

If your measuring Conan's success or failure I think it's rather pointless to compare his numbers to Leno's before he left Tonight, or comparing it straight to Letterman. Who in their right mind would think Conan would jump right in and do equally well as Leno and top all other late night hosts? That's crazy.

NBC definitely deserves much of the blame for this. They screwed up when they promised Conan the show four years out; they should have let him walk then. They screwed up again when they didn't let Leno just walk and hatched a plan to retain him when everyone knew it would fail. They screwed up again when they created another horrible idea to keep all three hosts by cutting Leno's show to half hour and bumping Tonight to tomorrow. Then they just decide to give Leno his show back and rob Conan. And now all the rumors of freezing Conan...what you're upset at Conan?! For what?! Their biggest mistake was trying to keep both Conan and Leno when really there was only one spot for the two.

But to think Leno is completely innocent in this is extremely naive. He knows full well what he's been doing. If he had second thoughts about retiring he could have gone to another network. No, he created a "primetime" show that was eerily similar to his late night show. When asked if he given the chance would he take his old job back, he could have stayed silent. He could have refused to go back to the Tonight Show and let Conan continue in his capacity, and leave NBC with 80 million in the bank. Not saying he's been slivering his way back into his old gig from the start, but this is the same guy whole stole the Tonight Show from Letterman.

 

Sure he does.
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Leno could have done that, but he has no obligation to help Conan in any way. The only thing he did was get Conan a lot of money for a show he is not even going to do. 5 years ago he said he was going to retire and in that time he changed his mnd. Big deal ... It works out best for him and NBC to have him back at 11:35, and that is both of their choice. Quit acting like Conan is out on the streets.