Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Conan Vs. Leno

Apparently, because of The Jay Leno Show's less than attractive ratings, NBC has decided to pull the show out of prime time and put Jay Leno back to his old "Tonight Show" time slot.

If you recall 6 years ago, Conan O'Brien signed a contract to take over "The Tonight Show" in that same time slot. It has been reported that if Conan's Show gets pushed back, he will not chose to air his show after Jay again.

If Jay Leno goes back to 11:35pm, that will then push Conan back to his old "Late Night" Time slot at 12;35am. I'm throwing a SSD flag here because if you recall, David Letterman was "screwed over", so to speak, by NBC for Jay Leno as Johnny Carson's replacement to The Tonight Show.

This could be far fetched, but it seems Jay Leno may have some close, very close NBC executives friends in his favor because for whatever reason Jay continues to be put on a pedestal at NBC while everyone else sufferers, even if Jay's ratings are not superior.

What's interesting is, I am fine with making adjustments to find or continue success, but I am NOT fine with making adjustments that may interfere with other people's hard work and success.

First off, in my opinion, Conan O'Brien is funny, has worked up the latter and deserves the accolades that he has received. Jay Leno had his time as the Tonight Show Host and if NBC wanted to keep him, then they should have re-signed him to the time slot 6 years ago.

It's not even about the "Tonight Show", "Late Night" or "Jay Leno Show" its about the deserved 11:35pm time slot that shows who's King, which in this case it seems Conan O'Brien has earned his way into that chair.

In show business and while I was in my college journalism class the old saying was, "you can't get the head anchor news chair until the old man croaks or retires which ever one comes first."

By this new NBC unorthodox decision, everything we have learned about hard work and ethics seems to be thrown out with the trash. I am with team Conan because I feel he worked his way up the corporate media elevator. It takes a lot to be on the executive floor and I truly believe he earned his key card.

Honestly, I have nothing against Jay Leno, but as a photojournalist working my way up my own stairwell hoping to achieve my own access key card, I refuse to have my hard work pushed to the side because someone who retired, quit or died "magically" wanted to come back and take my key. This is my key, go get your own. SSD!

There has been no official decision and it still remains to be seen what will actually happen, but my hope is everything works out for the better...maybe Jay Leno can go into Conan's old slot. We will have to see.

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