NBC: Conan to replace Leno in 2009 (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Stachniak]

Conan totally deserves this. I hope, however, that he stays in New York.

 

[Lee Jamilkowski]

I just hope this was Jay's decision. According to him, it was because he promised his wife that he, being a workoholic, would take her to dinner before he turned 60.



But, if this is what he wants, all the power to him. I love the guy and his humor, and will miss him.



I like Conan, too. It will be interesting to see his take on The Tonight Show. But, does this mean the end of any of his current jokes and gags (like Triumph and the Masturbating Bear)?

 

[David Galindo]

The big question: Who will replace Conan for late night?



Im thinking Jon Stewart. That would be interesting- two late night hosts competing with each other, both of whom hosted the Daily Show for a long time.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> Im thinking Jon Stewart. That would be interesting- two late night hosts competing with each other, both of whom hosted the Daily Show for a long time.



Hmmm, who is the second one you are talking about?

 

[Kwang Suh]

Well, I watched the Tonight Show tonight, and Jay said that it was because he didn't want any sort of animosity to occur, and because he wanted Conan to take over, and that he deserved it. He also didn't want Conan to go to a different network.



It was pretty classy of him, actually.

 

[Dave Miller]

I'm excited about Conan too. Jay just never did it for me (although, I love the "Jay Walking" stuff).



Does anybody know if Dave commented on it in his monologue? I was flipping between the Cowboy game and Leno. Man, that was a lame 50th Anniversary Show, but what a great game!



Peace,



DM

 

[Rich Malloy]

quote:I like Conan, but am afraid he's going to get watered down in the earlier time slot, just like Letterman did.

Well, you took the words right outta my mouth.



I don't watch Leno (or Letterman anymore), so I don't know how far they go, but I can't imagine that most of Conan's humor will be considered appropriate for the 11:30 time slot. I'm happy for him (and he hosts the only decent network late night show), but I suspect this will be the end of Conan as we know him.

 

[Todd K]

quote:the response was:



yes 56%



no 44%

I was surprised by this too. It's even lower now, 53% to 47%. I guess the CNN demographic really isn't the Conan demographic. Could be an age difference.

 

[JamesED]

quote:I like Conan, but am afraid he's going to get watered down in the earlier time slot, just like Letterman did.

I love watching Conan, but I have the same uncertain feeling. I've never liked Leno, but he is aiming for a whole different crowd than Conan is. It'll be interesting to see if Conan can hit mainstream and still please his younger crowd.

 

[Steven Sims]

I wonder if Dave has called Conan yet to tell him to watch his back, and don't count on this actually happening.

 

[EricW]

"I wonder if Dave has called Conan yet to tell him to watch his back"

yup - right now Conan's the cat's pjs, but anything can happen. all of a sudden some new guy comes along that is totally annoying to everybody except Jay's demographic (old people) and he pulls in the ratings, so he gets the job

anyways, who's to say Jon Stewart won't replace Dave ~before~ 2009? i can't see Dave wanting to do the host thing too much longer.

 

[Rich Malloy]

I think I'm basically making the same point I made on the last page, but it would shock me to discover that fans of Leno are fans of Conan.



I'm a huge Conan fan, but 5 minutes of Leno's show is enough to induce nausea. And while I used to love Letterman, the 11:30 Dave leaves me just as cold as Leno.



So, do Leno fans hate Conan as much as this Conan-fan hates Leno? If so, what changes? The demographic of the audience (and lower ratings, for sure), or Conan?

 

[Paul McElligott]

I see Letterman quitting well before Leno. Jay doesn't have a kid and he's never had bypass surgery, either.

 

[teapot2001]

I'm a fan of both Leno and Conan.



I saw what Leno had to say on the show last night and it was very classy. Here's a transcript:



About six months ago, I sat down here with the folks at NBC,

and they said we want to re-up.

I said, "okay, what do you want to do?" Because I don't have a manager, an agent.

I like the people I work with, they're nice folks.

And they said -- and this is a a high paying job.

[ Laughter ]

they said, "listen, we would like to do five more years."

I said, "great. I'd love to do five more years."

And that was six months ago. And then time went by.

There's all talk about conan o'brien, "will he go to abc?

Will he go to one of these other networks?"

And they came to me and they said, "we don't want to lose conan o'brien."

I said, "okay, what does that mean?"

[ Light laughter ]

and they said, "well, we think conan would be a good replacement," as i do.

Conan is a gentleman, funny, the hottest late night guy out there. Excellent.

[ Cheers and applause ]

and I said, "you know something?

I don't want to see conan go anywhere else.

I'm 59 -- I'll be 59 years old. Five years from now, that's 1,200 shows.

I'm not going anywhere tomorrow."

And I said, "you know, there's really only one person that could have done this into

his 60s, and that was johnny carson."

I think it's fair to say that I'm no johnny carson.

So i called up my buddy --

[ audience aws ]

no, no, I called my buddy, jerry seinfeld.

And I said, "jerry what do you think, you know?"

And jerry quit his show when it was the most popular.

And I'm proud to say this show has been number one. We will keep it number one.

And that in '09, i'll say, "conan, take it over, it's yours."

Because you know, you can do these things until they carry you out on a stretcher,

or you can get out when you're still --

you know, you're still doing good and thinking -- i'm not quitting show business.

You know, I've -- but I realized i'm not spending enough time with my cars.

No, no, I --

[ laughter ]

anyway, this is not tomorrow. It's five years from today.

And I want to say, i don't think there's a better choice.

Because you know, when i took this show over, boy, there was a lot of animosity between me

and Dave and who is going to get it.

And quite frankly, a lot of, well, good friendships were permanently damaged.

I don't want to see anybody ever have to go through that again.

Because this show is like a a dynasty.

You hold it, then you hand it off to the next person.

And I don't want to see all the fighting and all the "who's better?"

And nasty things back and forth in the press.

So right now, here it is.

Conan, it's yours.

See you in five years, buddy. Okay?

[ Cheers and applause ]

clear enough? Enough said? All right. Let's get on with the show. All right.

[ Applause ]



~T

 

[Carl Johnson]

Assuming that Conan would like an earlier time slot and that he could get one sooner rather than later with another network I'm suprised that he would be patient enough to wait five years.

 

[MickeS]

quote:I think I'm basically making the same point I made on the last page, but it would shock me to discover that fans of Leno are fans of Conan.

I am a fan of both. I've never liked Dave much.



I don't think Conan and Jay are that far apart in their material. Conan is more self-deprecating, but that's about it. He's also a better interviewer, even though the interviews are mostly just silly fluff just like Jay's.



Jay's strong point is the monologue. Conan's strong point is the skits. I think that's the main difference.



/Mike

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> So, do Leno fans hate Conan as much as this Conan-fan hates Leno?



Well, I think replacing Leno with Conan is like replacing your wife's diamond ring with cubic zirconia.

 

[Ted Lee]

i am definitely a leno fan. i like conan too. cannot stand letterman - i think that guy's a bozo.

so there!

leno does work very hard at his job. he spends hours each night going over the next days monologue. he is also, imo, one of the truly "nice guys" in the biz. i never hear any bad stuff about the guy. and he just seems so level-headed about his success and life in general.

and, most importantly, i think he's funny. if he ever does stand-up near me, i will definitely try to attend.

congrats to conan as well. he is a fitting replacement, but i do wonder if his humor will have to be toned down. if it does, that may cause some problems.

 

[teapot2001]

I've never liked Letterman either. So is it safe to say that fans of both Conan and Leno dislike Letterman?



~T

 

[Lew Crippen]

quote:So is it safe to say that fans of both Conan and Leno dislike Letterman?

Both my wife and son like Conan and Letterman and dislike Leno.