i'm with coco.

I love Conan O’Brien. I’ve loved him since I was at least eleven. Some pop thing of the time performed on his show in 2001 and I stayed up until 12:37 to see whoever that was. This dorky, lanky, redheaded giant came bouncing onto my screen to a catchy jazz theme playing. He did the string dance. He said something funny. I was flabbergasted. I started watching every night and continued on until that fateful night last summer when Coco ended his run on Late Night.

In 2004, Jay Leno announced his retirement, which he admitted was a lie. He was prompted to do so because Conan’s contract with NBC was coming to a close and he had an ultimatum – he wanted The Tonight Show or he was jumping ship. NBC soiled themselves and told Leno that Conan would be hosting The Tonight Show as of 2009. He would be out of a job and he wasn’t prepared to leave. Leno threatened to jump ship too, which forced NBC to think. They thought long and hard. Their solution?

Give Jay Leno a talk show at 10 o’clock. Five days a week.

This announcement hit Hollywood hard. Five hours of original programming were replaced with five hours of…original programming. I believe that the decision to give Leno an opportunity to continue his show was responsible for the poor ratings of the Tonight Show. NBC hoped that Leno fans would tune into Conan at 11:35, but with Jay doing the exact same show at 10, his fans had no reason to watch Conan.

I can’t think of any other way for this debacle to have unfolded. Conan wanted a guarantee that NBC wouldn’t do to him what they did to David Letterman, and it giving him that guarantee, they screwed over Leno, but then they gave Leno another slot and gave Jimmy Fallon Conan’s slot. Seven months later, Jay wants his slot back and instead of screwing over Jimmy, Conan lets himself be screwed over. Tough break. NBC shouldn’t have pushed Leno out in the first place, but Leno shouldn’t have accepted the 10 o’clock slot, nor should he have publically ridiculed Conan’s ratings. Everyone and their mother knows that Leno wouldn’t be anywhere if Hugh Grant hadn’t picked up a stripper. He got lucky. And now Conan’s screwed.

At least Conan’s funnier.