| | |

Jay Leno moving back to 11:30 Conan O’Brien to midnight or nothing

ByAsa Hawks

NBC late night is about to get a controversial shakeup as Jay Leno will reclaim his 11:30 PM time slot, this according to sources for TMZ. According to the sources, The Jay Leno Show goes on vacation February 1 and Jay will be back in his old 11:30 PM stomping ground after the Olympics. Still up in the air is what will happen to Conan. It’s possible Leno’s show will only be 30 minutes and Conan will just be bumped back a half hour, but it may also be the case that NBC will say goodbye to Conan O’Brien.

UPDATE – TMZ is now reporting that Jay’s show will be a half hour and Conan O’Brien has been given the option of either taking the midnight to 1AM slot or pack his bags. “Our sources say Conan has not decided what he wants. We do know he’s pissed, because he was given no advanced warning this was coming. Conan’s people told NBC they are considering the offer. … We’re told if Conan gets another offer, even though NBC could block the move, they will let him go and give Leno the full hour.” Ouch.

All of this stems from The Tonight Show‘s ratings struggles with O’Brien at the helm. Though he had a great deal of success following The Tonight Show, Conan just hasn’t had much luck maintaining viewership, especially with David Letterman seemingly stirring up some new huge controversy every month – the Sarah Palin fiasco and then the extortion attempt have only helped the CBS late night veteran and hurt O’Brian’s attempts to get an 11:30 PM foothold.

UPDATE – CLICK HERE to see a video clip of Conan making light of all the Leno rumors on The Tonight Show January 8.

Here’s Jay addressing the issue… well, sorta… OK, not really:

Subscribe to Starcasm by Email

Similar Posts

| |

NBC to fire Conan O’Brien from The Tonight Show and replace him with Jerry Seinfeld?

ByStarcasm Staff

PopEater claims that NBC is ready to drop Conan O’Brien after only a few months on The Tonight Show! Not only that, but they also might shopping around for Jerry Seinfeld. “NBC just can’t carry on like this. ‘The Tonight Show’ has lost 52 percent of its viewership in just one year. The November ratings…

| |

VIDEO – What does David Letterman think of the Leno-Conan NBC television debacle?

ByStarcasm Staff

These NBC Late Night wars have everyone stirred up. Tonight Conan let loose on NBC during his monologue, and David Letterman devoted a segment to “coalescing his thoughts on the NBC television debacle.” Letterman is enjoying the NBC mess because he was once caught up in a similar late night war at NBC that ended…

| |

2004 VIDEO: Jay Leno five years ago on future of the ‘The Tonight Show’: “Conan, take it over, it’s yours”

ByStarcasm Staff

In 2004 Jay Leno felt it was necessary to address the then recent disclosure that he would be handing over The Tonight Show reins to Conan O’Brien in 2009. Leno wanted his audience to understand his conviction as it pertained to this important changing of the guards.

Here’s the last thing he says:

“Because you know when I took this show over, boy there was a lot of animosity between me and Dave and who’s gonna get it, and quite frankly, a lot of … good friendships were permanently damaged. And I don’t want to see anybody ever have to go through that again. Cause this show is like a Dynasty. You hold it, and 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 4 years buddy!”

See the video of the full announcement and read the complete transcription!

| |

VIDEO Conan O’Brien 60 Minutes interview preview clip

ByAsa Hawks

60 Minutes has released a preview clip of Steve Kroft’s interview with Conan O’Brien where the late night talk show host and comedian talks openly for the first time about his acrimonious departure from NBC and The Tonight Show. Keep reading to watch the video – the full interview airs Sunday, May 2 on CBS at 7 PM ET/PT.