Conan Loses The Tonight Show Because Jay Failed

When NBC announced in 2004 that Conan O'Brien - then host of Late Night With Conan O'Brien - would leave Late Night in 2009 and succeed Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show - this was literally a dream come true for Conan. The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien debuted on June 1, 2009, and though low, ratings are rising. So why are there talks that Conan is leaving The Tonight Show and that Jay Leno is taking it back? Conan has been joking on his show, but it is clear that he is not happy about it.




Let's back up. NBC's decision in 2004 to give Conan the show was because Jay Leno was going to retire in 20009. But when NBC heard rumors that Jay was going to start a competing program on another network, they gave him a new contract for a brand new show -The Jay Leno Show - that would air nightly on NBC at 10:00 p.m. EST. That's prime time, when other networks are airing their ... prime time programming!!!

NBC affiliates were complaining that the show's ratings were so low, when their NBC news programming began there were fewer and fewer people viewing. In other words, The Jay Leno Show was a disastrous failure. As a lead-in to the news and late night programming, the show was doing more harm than good.

So why not retire Leno as previously agreed upon? Seems sensible, but that's not what NBC is doing. NBC has stated that they want to move The Jay Leno Show into the time slot for The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien at 11:35 p.m. EST. Next, they want to move The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien to 12:05 EST. Bottom line, Jay gets his spot back, and Conan has to adjust. It's why Conan has been making jokes like this on his show:



Conan is refusing to make this change, prompting NBC to give Jay his entire show back - The Tonight Show With Jay Leno!! Decisions are still in the works, but it appears that Conan's final show will be on Friday, January 22. NBC basically gave him and a contract, and because someone else has failed to deliver, he has to watch as the person who LEFT the show comes back leaving him in the cold.
In one of his monologue jokes, Conan looked into the camera and said to children everywhere something that I wish weren't funny because it's so true. He said, "You can do anything you want to do ..... unless Jay Leno wants to do it too!"