I'm with L-oco

So here I am, a couple of days removed from the final broadcast of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, and it's still a sad situation.

Kudos for Conan for a great final show and his positive spin on things, I especially enjoyed his remarks on cynicism. There's a fine line between sarcasm and cynicism, and cynicism continually crosses that line these days, or at least blurs it.

I started a blog, just to get things off my chest, whether anyone reads it or not isn't the point really, but everyone's got something to say, it's just nice to keep a record of our thoughts.

I will say though, speaking of having something to say, that I have mixed feelings about the "I'm with Coco" campaign that has taken the internet and media by storm these past couple of weeks.

It started out as a show of support for Conan, and you can tell when he speaks of it that it really is overwhelming to him.

Now, in light of Conan's remarks on cynicism, I can't help but wonder what Conan thinks of a portion of his supporters now. With his tenure now over, it has given fans time to reflect-and bash Jay Leno.

Sure, that was always going on, but this is the kinda stuff that Conan doesn't want, and certainly doesn't condone.

You're free to think how you want, but come on, Conan has got new things in the works, how about everyone else?

The subject of my first blog concerns this situation and now, it's more of the same stuff.

We have had enough problems over the years getting along, whether it's disagreements with others over race, religion, sexual preference, politics, etc.

Now we have moved past some of these issues (somewhat) it's 2010 and we're dividing ourselves on the issues of late night talk show hosts.

Do I really have to choose?

Do I really have to be a Leno supporter, or a Conan-ite?

Do I automatically support EVERYONE except Leno if I like Conan?

Bottom line is I'm really starting to get annoyed with some of these "supporters" who are the cynics that Conan isn't.

In September, Conan will be on another network, no one's sure where just yet, I'll check him out, just as I will Leno, Letterman and whoever else I feel like, but to cut one or two people out of the picture out of some show of "support" is a dumb ass move in my book.

There's not much enjoyable television these days, enjoy what you can, and only after you truly move on, should you follow Conan wherever he moves.

More To Come

Leno, Conan etc.

Ok, I wanted to write this and get this all out-my thoughts on this situation with Late Night programming. A lot of people are down on Jay Leno for what appears to be him taking back The Tonight Show from Conan O'Brien. But there's more here than meets the eye.

Let's go back a few years to the decision NBC made to give the Tonight Show to Conan. Now Conan has been loyal to NBC and put in a lot of work and after a shaky start, made his version of "Late Night" a hit, and kudos to him for that.

Here's the thing most of us forget though, Jay was enjoying doing the Tonight Show-who wouldn't?
And Jay didn't want to just give up and retire, so he received offers from other networks that would be thrilled to have him.

NBC, not wanting to lose Jay to another network, made him an offer: A 10 p.m. slot. Make no mistake about it, this was a VERY bold move. This way, Conan gets the Tonight Show, Jay gets a show, and NBC not only keeps them both, but they also have a program that's cheaper to produce than a scripted show 5 nights a week.

NBC also offered Jay 2 years-regardless of ratings. Now, suddenly NBC is worried about poor ratings and claims that their affiliates aren't happy.

Now think about this for a minute: You're a newscaster at a small station(I don't care if you're in California, everyone is small time compared to a major network like NBC) Are you seriously going to go to NBC and complain about one of their biggest names dragging down your ratings? maybe you're ratings suck because you're on NBC-just an idea.

Anyway, I really don't think anyone has balls(or an ego) big enough to go running to NBC to complain, but that's NBC's excuse. So suddenly Jay's 2 year deal is off.

Whose fault is that? Certainly not Jay's, he's just doing his show, which NBC had him take, because they were afraid Conan might get impatient waiting for Jay to retire so he can host The Tonight Show.

Did Conan get a raw deal? Yes. Did Leno? Yes. I really don't care for this belly aching David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel are dishing out, Dave has been pissed ever since he got passed over nearly 18 years ago, and frankly I've always felt Jay should have gotten the show, he was the permanent guest host after all, and conceivably Garry Shandling was next in line after him, and if you really want to get down to it, had Joan Rivers not walked away from her permanent guest host gig subbing for Johnny Carson, she could be hosting the show at this very moment.

When you get right down to it, this was probably a move done by NBC so they didn't have another situation like back in 1993, when Letterman jumped to CBS. I'm just sayin'

Jimmy Kimmel, really doesn't come into play here, besides him throwing his 2 cents in, he's really inconsequential in this whole deal.


So what we have here is a mess started by NBC and the facts are these:

They tried to push Jay Leno out of a job he wasn't willing to leave.

They offered him a show with a 2 year contract and changed their minds.

They never gave Conan a chance and quite frankly you'd have a hard time convincing me they really care about Conan at this point.

So, I suppose jay will return to the Tonight Show, since Conan is walking away from it, and Conan might go to Fox, and we'll have 3 channels to flip through somewhere down the line, but for the record, this comes down to NBC, not Jay Leno and if you can't understand why Jay won't retire, then you my friend, have never had a job you actually enjoyed.

And we'll be right back......