For six decades, ‘The Tonight Show’ has aired immediately following the local news in the 11:35 p.m. time slot on NBC. For the last seven months, Conan O’Brien has been its host, but starting March 1, 2010, both the celebrated talk show and its famous comedian will face changes that threaten to cripple the legacy of the program.
The network announced formal plans to remove former ‘Tonight Show’ host Jay Leno from his current 10 p.m. prime time slot, back to his old start time. The plans, however, include his new show, ‘The Jay Leno Show,’ thus bumping O’Brien into the next day, with a 12:05 a.m. start time. The rearranging would then trickle down into delaying the airing of ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,’ a program previously hosted by O’Brien and before him, David Letterman, also bumping the show’s long-held time slot back a half hour, compromising the longstanding traditions of two of NBC’s most notable franchises.
The network’s decision bodes well for Leno, whose ratings will undoubtedly improve when not competing against prime-time drama favorites on other networks, and even some earlier local new programs. The announcement, however, rightfully disappointed O’Brien,’ whose 16 years with the network on ‘Late Night’ unfortunately pale in comparison when faced with NBC’s shining star. It’s a slap in the face to the witty O’Brien, who has branded himself as a brainy act whose laughs are laced with intellect, rather than cheap shots and gossip.
Tuesday night, O’Brien announced he would not move with ‘The Tonight Show’ into a delayed airing of the program. Fearing that the adjustment would compromise the show’s legacy and upset tradition, O’Brien noted he also did not wish to cause damage over at his previous gig. The move, O’Brien said, would ‘hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy [Fallon].’ Last night, O’Brien made a hard decision but the right one.
With The New York Times reporting O’Brien had the Internet on his side ‘-‘- the hashtag ‘#TeamConan’ trending on Twitter, Facebook’s newsfeed exploding with supportive statuses for the Brookline native and the blogosphere screaming his praises for being a class act in his address ‘-‘- NBC might want to rethink its proposal.
The announcement has been made with plenty of time for NBC to revamp, for network executives to reconsider and for O’Brien to look elsewhere for work. Meanwhile, the tentative plans have accomplished something for the network by generating buzz. Surely, NBC has realized that bad publicity is better than no publicity, especially when there is potential to drive up both O’Brien’s and Leno’s ratings.
‘NBC said they wanted drama,’ Leno joked on his show Monday night. ‘Now they’ve got it.’
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