Admittedly, I watched about 10 minutes of late night television in the past year, but I've caught parts of Conan's show since the mess started. It helps comedy when there's an edge to it, and it especially helps the absurdity factor when the person can spout against his own bosses and the network ('What're they gonna do, fire me!?!'), and it'll still be aired.
In the time he's been there, Conan struggled to find his audience. Then again, Leno's 10 p.m. show was a complete flop, and had NBC affiliates steamed at the low lead-in numbers for their 11 p.m. newscasts. Now, as it turns out, Conan has gotten big viewership ratings on "Tonight" during this period of limbo. NBC has handled their late night programming badly since Johnny Carson retired. No need to go into the Leno-Letterman fiasco here. The switch from Leno to Conan worked out on paper in 2005 was equally as ill-conceived. Come the time of the transition, NBC refused to accept that it would be losing one of the two to a rival network. They delayed it as long as they could.
Who's the bad guy here? Certainly NBC's executives play a big part. By the numbers, Conan couldn't keep or attract the audience, but to yank him off-stage so soon wasn't right. Especially when his predecessor usurped the late night milieu and put it on over an hour earlier on the same network. Not cool, NBC! Wherever Conan lands next --- likely FOX or even ABC in September when the terms of his settlement with NBC allow him --- he will bring a significant amount of viewer goodwill.
Leno isn't going to come out of all this as rosy as he'd like. He and NBC are surmising that his previous "Tonight Show" numbers will jump right back up to where they were prior to his so-called retirement. I highly doubt this happens. Leno has lost a lot of the goodwill he had; many celebrities on whom he relies to appear with him aren't taking a favorable tack to his scheming. "Tonight" to an extent, will be blackballed. Leno should have done the honorable thing and declined NBC's offers --- both to create the 10 p.m. show and to take back "Tonight." He should not have been the third wheel when his contract expired. As it was, Leno was the guy who got his gold watch and retirement party, then hung around in the lobby shaking hands and filling orders like nothing had changed. Leno is the common denominator in the late night feuds. Vouchsafe there's a lot of scheming going on behind the stale laughs.
(Photo illustration (c) Mike Mitchell)
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