CONAN O’BRIEN TO TAKE OVER ‘TONIGHT SHOW’ IN '09 Mon Sep 27 2004 13:25:11 ET From Jeff Zucker, issued to NBC staff via email: Today, we are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of our late night franchise “The Tonight Show.” Today also marks another important milestone in our great late night history. In a few moments, we will be issuing a press release announcing our succession plan for this important television institution. Jay Leno will continue to be at the helm of “The Tonight Show” for another five years, well into 2009, after which time Conan O’Brien will become the host of “The Tonight Show.” Jay will officially make the announcement on his show tonight. After that, it’s back to work as usual for Jay, Conan and their teams, who will continue to provide us laughs for many more years. I canÕt say enough about this late night team and these two men - especially Jay Leno - who worked tirelessly with us to help us find the appropriate time to make this announcement. Thanks to both men we have a very bright future in late night!
Please be true. Letterman deserved to be hosting The Tonight Show in the first place anyway. Leno, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out, and make sure to take Kevin Eubanks and the Stepin Fetchit Band along with you.
Originally Posted by misfit I hope Letterman retires by then. I don’t want to have to choose between them.
I don’t think he will. Unless he wants to spend more time with his son… I don’t think he will go off around the same time as Leno, though. Would probably go a year or two after him.
Looks like this might be true…although it doesn’t say if they are just running off the Drudge story.
**O’Brien to succeed Leno at ‘Tonight Show’ in 2009
Monday, September 27, 2004 Posted: 2:08 PM EDT (1808 GMT)
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) – NBC’s “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno will retire at the end of his current five-year contract in 2009 and be replaced by “Late Night” host Conan O’Brien, the network said Monday.
O’Brien signed a new contract Monday that guarantees he will assume the job as host of America’s top-rated late night talk show, “The Tonight Show,” sometime during the 2009 season. Leno took over the show from Johnny Carson in May 1992. By the time he steps down, he will have hosted the program for more than 17 years.**
I just hope Conan doesn’t water down his humor for the earlier timeslot. I’ve seen some things on there I was really suprised made it past the censors. Of course they were some of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on network TV.
Remember back when Jay Leno actually used to funny? Long time ago, I know, but I think that timeslot is part of the reason why he’s completely lost any edge.
I don’t think that Letterman got neutered when he moved to CBS. Early in his CBS run, his show was very similar to his original Late Night show. I think what changed, was Letterman aged. His tastes changed. At one time, he used to do a man on the street sketch at least 3 times a week. Now, he barely does it at all save for Biff henderson’s america. I still think the stuff letterman does is outrageously absurd and hilarious. He has a great stable of characters, not as huge as it once was 5-6 years ago. The characters are very prevalent on conan now, but Letterman did it first and had quite a stable to choose from.
Anyway, I hate Leno. He is so unfunny and the writing staff is even worse. You can see him cringe at times during a sketch. He is situated in LA so he has access to the stars, and he has a higher rated program because his show “seems” more accessible to the audience, when in reality its just not funny, while Letterman doesnt pander to the audience and does tuff like “will it float” and “stump the band” which seem very awkward to a viewer, but are still hilarious.
Granted, Leno used to be a decent comic. I think he definitely neutered himself to appeal to the masses. Whatever he did to himself, it was a conscious decision to increase ratings. I don’t think Conan will do that, but you never know what will happen. I think this news should be smiled at by Letterman because in essence Conan is this generation’s letterman. Conan’s show is HEAVILY inspired by the stuff that Dave did, and its funny that NBC is now going out of there way to establish a successor rather than having another debacle when Carson left.
Oh, and the show HAS to be in LA. You cant move it to new york. You cant have two competing late night shows in NY.
Jay Leno has the top job in his field. There is nowhere further up for him to go. He’s not old or sick. His ratings are great, so the network is happy with him. So the only possibility for this news to be true is that he wants to retire and relax for the rest of his life. If you know anything about Jay Leno, you know that he’s a workaholic. He loves his job. He hates taking vacations. He goes out and performs on his nights off. There is no way he is going to retire any time soon.
Somehow, someway Leno will screw Conan over in this deal. He robbed Letterman of the job originally and he’ll turn right around and do it again if he thinks handing the show over to Conan will make him look bad. Jay Leno is nothing but unfunny scum in my opinion. The ony reason he’s kept his Tonight Show gig for as long as he has is because he will not hesitate to whore himself and kiss as much corporate NBC/GE ass as he thinks he needs to.
I agree with folks that say Conan will be nuetered. There’s no way they’ll let him get away with hios edgier stuff. Buh-bye Triumph, Masturbating Bear, Camel-toe Annie, etc.
Originally Posted by Diva I agree with folks that say Conan will be nuetered. There’s no way they’ll let him get away with his edgier stuff. Buh-bye Triumph, Masturbating Bear, Camel-toe Annie, etc.
I think he could get away with Triumph, sort of make it his version of “Jay Walking” only much better. But Yeah most if not all of the racier stuff is gone.
Also I think he’ll also be able to trim the fat for lack of a better term.
Because the State Quarters, Foreign Currency and Stamps do get old after a while.
However if they get rid of “Cactus chef playing Don’t fear the Reaper on the Triangle”…I’m done