Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Team Coco, always!


Conan O'Brien's finale as host of the Tonight Show was a perfect example of why people love him: silly humor, intelligence, and, finally, complete sincerity.  His speech at the end of the episode was a great example of taking the high road.  It might have been easy or tempting to succumb to bitterness there, but Conan made a very elegant and mature farewell. (Sorry, embedding isn't permitted on that one.)  The very end of his speech is worth taking as a personal motto.  I look forward to seeing what he does next, even if it is in the parking lot of a 7-11.

Interesting side note: hours after appearing in the final musical act as a singer and his very pregnant hippie lady friend, Will Ferrell and his wife, Viveca Paulin, had their third son.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Jay Leno, you're not doing yourself any favors!

According to this story from Entertainment Weekly, the Tonight Show situation could be resolved by this weekend, with Conan likely to leave NBC for greener pastures and Leno back in his old digs.  Even if Leno is getting what he wants, ultimately, he's really getting pummeled in the press and by the other late night hosts.  He invited Jimmy Kimmel on his program last night, but it didn't exactly make him look good.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Late Night Wars

NBC's decision to create a primetime platform for Jay Leno was observed with rabid speculation last summer, and after only a few months the outcome is clear: the show is a failure, and NBC is has decided to change their late night lineup again.  Leno gets his own show at 11:35, the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien gets moved to 12:05 (which technically means it doesn't air "tonight") and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is on at 1:05.  Apparently, no one's too bothered about the fate of Last Call with Carson Daly.

Earlier this evening, Conan released this statement wherein (no surprise here) he reveals that he does not want to see the Tonight Show's timeslot changed.  I think he's right.  NBC needs to give Conan time to develop his show and audience, and seven months just isn't long enough.  And Leno is starting to seem like a jerk.  It's time for him to move on, perhaps to another network.

Maybe Conan won't get the same numbers Leno did, but he has lowered the age of Tonight Show viewers, which is supposedly what advertisers all want, and he waited patiently to get this gig.  He has behaved honorably, and that should be returned.