Image from Mashable.com
Conan O’Brien is done with NBC, so reports are saying. NBC has yet to officially confirm this news, but that’s the word on the street/Internet. Conan’s reign is scheduled to end next Friday, January 22nd. NBC had scheduled a hiatus for the show that was supposed to start the 25th, but in light of all of this crazy bullshit, Conan’s taking off a few days early.
What was the final straw? I guess NBC/Universal president & CEO Jeff Zucker was so cold and nasty throughout the negotiations that Conan became too turned off to consider going back. From Nikki Finke’s blog:
And while Jeff Zucker has not stepped up and taken responsibility for this mess he set in in motion in the first place — by replacing Leno with Conan O’Brien as host of The Tonight Show even though Jay was No. 1 in his time slot at the time — he’s been busy behind the scenes. I’ve already reported how Zucker has been privately blaming Conan for the current debacle, saying “He let me down” because The Tonight Show for the last 7 months since O’Brien took over has been losing out to David Letterman in both eyeballs and advertiser-coveted demographics. (Bullshit, Zucker, you can’t keep blaming others for your Zuck-ups.) Bad enough that Zucker made Conan hear about the planned move in the first place from the media.
…
One rep even compared Zucker to “Darth Vader” because the NBCU chief “has been so evil” about this. His 3 1/2-years threat comes because O’Brien has another 2 1/2 half years left to run on his contract, and NBC could also enforce a clause that keeps Conan off television for a year or more after that.
The backlash from Conan fans all over the Internet (it’s been somewhat of a craze the last few days) probably don’t help the fact that NBC’s ratings have been at an all-time low recently.
I’ll keep you updated as more details (and a confirmation) come in…
Letterman has reportedly invited Conan to be on his show. That would be one hell of an interview. NBC has fucked this whole thing up beyond belief.
This sucks — the way Conan has been summarily disregarded by NBC. Conan himself would likely say that after 16-plus years of being at NBC, there were a lot of positives to the experience, even if his NBC tenure is not destined to end well.
Big Red has a bright future ahead of him, to go along with his bright past. I’m with Coco.
Nice soap-operatic spin on Conan’s last day, but the 22nd is a Friday and Conan doesn’t do weekends. Nobody in this equation would have been silly enough to have scheduled Conan to come back for his last day pre-hiatus to be on Monday the 22nd. The hiatus officially starts on the 25th because that’s the date of the Tonight Show’s next regularly scheduled show after the 22nd.
Now, instead of a scheduled Conan Tonight Show hiatus, we appear to sadly be in the midst of Conan’s NBC swansong.
Even though it’s a money hungry industry that sucks the souls out of decent humans, this should give pause to anyone working with NBC in the future. If I was an advertiser I’d demand my ad rates go down 50% for a long while for staying with such a tainted group of people. This will go down in history as the gold standard for mistreating, and an example of inexcusably bad management to a loyal employee of NBC during this idiots reign of terror. Worst.Programming.Ever. Zucker sucks.
I quit NBC out of complete disgust. Kurt Sutter at sutterink.com called all of this exactly in September.
Yep, I’m washing myself of NBC. Conan O’Brien is one of the greatest late night hosts of all time and they way they’ve treated him is gross. Their ratings are down because it was someone absolute genius idea to have a 10 o’clock comedy hour with someone who isn’t funny, nor relevant, anymore.
Go suck some balls Zucker.
I’ve watched the Tonight Show for 30 years, but that’s over for good. Die NBC, Die….Viva Conando!
To me, what really sucks about this isn’t so much that Conan himself is getting screwed (let’s face it, he’ll find something better), but what about all his people from the Late Show who uprooted themselves from NYC to LA for this show only to have it end in 7 months. What are they supposed to do? It’d be one thing if the show was a complete ratings failure; however, that isn’t the case and I find it completely unjust for the bastardly executives at NBC to yank this show without ever have really given it a shot.
It really sucks for everyone (including us, the viewers) that Jay Leno (who is seriously unfunny) is going back to the Tonight Show. On the bright side, I have greatly enjoyed listening to the viewpoints of late night hosts such as Letterman, Ferguson, and Kimmell.
I feel as if the grinch has come to my house and repeatedly kicked my puppies down the stairs. I guess I can dislike Leno now without Stewie Griffin judging me [if anyone actually gets this I’ll truly be impressed]. Oh and one of my dogs name is actually Coco. ha.
Anyone else kinda assume Leno was in on this whole thing? Aside from being painfully humorless, the guys a snake IMO.
He was totally in on it and he is loving every minute of it. Such a snake. I was always pretty ambivalent about him before but now I just can’t stand to watch him. I would quit NBC all together but I don’t want the other shows and all the people that work on them and depend on them to be hurt by NBC’s mistakes. Luckily most of my NBC shows are only on Thursday so I can narrow it down to pretty much one day a week of supporting NBC.
I remember when I first watched Conan on television and remember feeling he was a breath of fresh air, incredibly talented and likeable. I am sad to see his hard work and devotion pay him back like this. But maybe there is a silver lining. I don’t think his career is over. Just with NBC. Be free Conan….fly birdie….fly…LOL. I wish him all the best. I’ve never cared for Jay Leno. He doesn’t have the funny bone factor that Conan has. Leno was way better in his younger days….way less serious. Oh well.
Conan got fucked! And he did the right thing, telling them to let him keep his show or he’s walking… he’ll end up in another spot. Like him so much better than Leno; Kimmel did a great Leno the other night! Hope NBC’s ratings stay low because of this; how they screwed Letterman, now Conan… it comes around… but Conan, Leno and Letterman still make 10’s of $millions, so I’m not crying.
Conan got what he deserved cause he sucks. I agree that Kimmel did a bad-ass Leno though, now that, is what real comedy is. They should put Kimmel in “The Tonight Show”.
Really. You fuckers really, actually care about this shit. Go up stairs and kill your mom – then kill yourselves.