I'm not on Team CoCo.
I'm not on Team Leno.
I'm pretty firmly ensconced on Team WTF People It's Just Late Night TV And Doesn't Really Matter.
But I have paid attention to all the hoopla because 1) I don't have a life and 2) Who the hell can even get away from it? It's not even limited to tabloid TV; the entire NBC screw up is being dissected on the national news. People are talking about it on the radio, in newspapers, and blogs. I know way too much about it because we're being beat half to death with it.
People blame Leno; he's selfish and should have just walked away from NBC when his prime time show tanked.
People blame Conan; he couldn't pull the ratings he needed, so he should have just walked away.
People blame NBC affiliates for whining about their lost ratings and revenue that came with having Leno in the 10 p.m. prime time slot.
So let's blame Leno again.
How about we back track and lay the blame at the feet of the person actually responsible for the entire fiasco? All those people upset by Conan leaving and Leno taking back the tonight show, just go find NBC head honcho Jeff Zucker and pull his hair until he cries. Because in reality, it was his idea five years ago to take the late night ratings leader, give him an end date, and move Conan into the slot. It was his move to not let Leno out of his contract, dropping him into the 10 pm slot.
Don't blame Conan for wanting out after they wanted to push him back to 12:05; that wasn't the gig he signed on for. He was given The Tonight Show not Hey Let's Follow Jay. He wasn't given time to rebuild an audience, either.
Don't blame Leno for wanting to take the Tonight Show back; he didn't want to give it up in the first place and he was the ratings leader. If you were a workaholic and had his contract, you'd go back, too.
And if you were on Team CoCo and are super pissed, pull Zucker's hair a little harder, because in the end it was all about money; they got Conan out the door for $45 million; it would have taken $150 million to get Leno out.
When you're done pulling Zucker's hair, you might want to find out why the hell he's still in charge at NBC, because he's made some really stupid choices.
And then get the talking heads on TV to stop making such a big deal about it. Six months from now no one will give a damn. It's not news. It's not remotely news.
14 comments:
I so agree with you! Stop talking bout it amd move on!
YAWN...
I don't watch any of them, so I don't much care, but I do think Leno should have gone gracefully into the sunset. I saw one of his 10pm shows and I was very bored.
Mellow drama, a way to raise ratings for a short time. BTW, Jeff Zucker doesn't have much hair to pull out anyway!
Mum gave up on late night TV long ago, not that funny. Only thing she likes is Leno's headlines. Faster, easier to watch just that segment on line!
Amen...
I am tired of hearing about it, too. I also don't watch either of them and don't care about it at all. The amount of money being thrown around boggles my mind, though.
Thanks for bringing me up to date. I must be living under a rock because I did not understand what the hooplah was all about. My personal late night fave is Craig Ferguson, anyway.
Mom Sue to the Furry Bambinos
P.S. LOVED the chicken in your previous post!!! We have a running joke that the local KFC is so slow because when you place an order, then they go find the chicken ...
My team is the Philadelphia Flyers.
-SSS's Mom
We get limited coverage of the Leno thing over here - the Jonathan Ross thing gets the local attention. Same thing - late night chat show person getting far more attention (and wages) than they deserve.
Personally, take the big wages away from the chat show people (that I have no interest in !) and send it the way of the people who make shows like Defying Gravity ... 13 episodes got made and it was far more entertaining than the extremely Grim Stargate Universe. Yet the fun program got axed (ABC this time)
I'm with you on this one :-) Firmly in the Don't Camp with Leno, CoCo and Ross.
Hmm - that last sentence should have been "Don't Care Camp ..." and I'm wondering if I just committed a Freudian slip ...
Jeff Zucker--that's it! I blame him--eventho I wasn't born yet when he didn't stupid 5 year plan for Leno. Tommy and I did laugh alot at everybody's monologue tho--and the 'quaint' song Robin Williams did on Conan's show Thursday. I wonder if he as a cat... :)
Noir
Blame the executives.
Wait...you mean Kate Plus Eight isn't the hot topic now?
See what happens when you don't have tv service?
You're not missing much, Kris...
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