Who else watches The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien?

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because what's happening on there is madness.

I used to watch it before I stopped watching television. It's the only show of its type that's actually good.

well it's like a mini fight is going on over there. they're trying to move conan from the tonight and put leno back but he refuses to do so. he might just leave nbc and man is he talking bad about nbc on his show right now.

on monday after the loud raucous applause went down, without even starting his monologue, he said something like "Hello my name is Conan O'Brien and i may soon be available for children's parties!"

I live in Australia and both air here. To be honest, I find Conan's acerbic comedy more to my liking. That said on both shows I do get a bit bored with interview patter.

Anyhow I watched the HBO movie The Late Shift today about the Leno-Letterman battle for the Tonight Show in 92. It gave me a bit of insight into what's happening now:

* Jay Leno said 5 years ago he was quitting and nominated Conan as his replacement
* 2 years ago he started to rethink his retirement plan
* NBC didn't want him going to a rival so they offered what they thought was a good compromise - the 10pm primetime slot - that way both Conan is stepping up and Leno is stepping up. Also it's cheaper
* Jay's new show wasn't getting the anticipated numbers
* Conan also wasn't getting the anticipated numbers - partly because he's a different style to Leno and has a different demographic - but also because of the poor lead in from primetime to Jay's to the news.
* Primetime is dying. NBC want to end the experiment. But they have Leno on contract.
* Leno doesn't want to leave television but he doesn't want to be brushed aside.
* NBC know Conan's show is struggling. Its a good excuse to go back to the old formula, fix primetime and keep Jay happy - one problem - Conan O'Brien is screwed.
* NBC's solution: Leno at 11:30 for 1/2 an hour then Conan
* Conan knows he's being bumped back - it won't be long before 1/2 an hour is 1 hour - he's backed to where he started from.
* Leno knows what's going on. He chooses not to say anything because he doesn't want to hurt his nice guy image but he really wants the Tonight Show back - he knows if Conan starts playing hardball with NBC they'll play hardball back. He just sits back, takes a few slings and slide back in.