Paul Smith – The Corsair
The recent late-night shake-up at NBC has many people wondering who’s to blame. The conventional wisdom seems to suggest neither talk-show host is at fault, but the real culpability lies with the executives of the NBC brass.
However, make no mistake about it; this is all one man’s fault: Jay Leno.
If you’re late to the game, let me quickly bring you up to speed.
Back in September of 2004, NBC announced that Conan O’Brien would be taking over “The Tonight Show” in 2009, with Jay Leno presumably retiring so he could focus on his stand-up career.
But instead of Leno gracefully fading into his autumn years telling jokes to tourists in Las Vegas, in December of 2008, NBC made the peculiar announcement that Leno would be hosting a new show at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) called “The Jay Leno Show.”
For many, this seemed like a strange and probably bad idea. Very rarely had a talk-show ever been attempted in a prime-time slot. Many thought Leno’s new show would be a colossal failure. In fact, there were even some local NBC affiliates that didn’t want to air Leno’s new show for fear of low ratings
And guess what? “The Jay Leno Show” failed massively, consistently placing dead-last in its timeslot.
This resulted in a low audience lead-in to the 11:00 p.m. local news broadcasts of the NBC affiliates across the country. And a bad lead-in to the local news also meant a bad lead-in to “The Tonight Show” with its new host O’Brien.
Jay Leno’s sinking ship brought down the ratings to both the local news broadcasts and O’Brien.
So, how did NBC decide to handle this problem?
Instead of canning Leno, they decided to try and bump “The Tonight Show” back to 12:05 a.m. (which would have technically made it the “tomorrow” show), and give Leno a new half-hour show at 11:35 p.m.
O’Brien took the high road of principle and integrity, saying to move “The Tonight Show” back a half-hour is to destroy one the most respected and legendary franchises in the history of television, and, not to mention, also royally screw over Jimmy Fallon and Carson Daly’s shows.
And now NBC is showing O’Brien the door and letting Leno take back “The Tonight Show.” This ordeal has been infuriating and surreal for anyone who has been paying attention.
There is no question about it; Leno is to blame for this whole bizarre fiasco because he agreed to do a talk show in primetime, which sparked the whole chain reaction.
And only Leno could fix this mess and save the last shred of his dignity by doing the sensible thing – packing up his things and going home, letting O’Brien keep “The Tonight Show.”
However, there is a more important and very simple reason why everyone should be absolutely furious with the big-chinned host. That’s because, let us not forget— Jay Leno sucks.
Leno hasn’t done anything funny since about 1983. His tenure at “The Tonight Show” was one of the most embarrassing, cringe-worthy, horrendously unfunny train wrecks in the history of American pop culture.
Leno is the undisputed king of bland, vapid, safe, family-friendly mediocrity.
He hosts his shows like a carnival barker at Disney World. He’s like your unfunny uncle making wisecracks at the family reunion. He makes Bob Newhart look like George Carlin.
And he should have just retired gently into that good night last year. But instead, like a brain-hungry zombie that can’t be put down, he’ll soon be back on at 11:35 p.m., once again infecting all of us with his brain-dead humor.
Meanwhile, O’Brien is on the cutting-edge of modern comedy. And though his show sometimes had its own bland moments like every other talk show, O’Brien has always run a consistently more interesting and funny show than Leno. And O’Brien certainly wins in the integrity department.
I think it is our duty as patriotic citizens to punish NBC for eschewing creativity by firing O’Brien and rewarding banality by keeping Leno.
So, please join me in boycotting Jay Leno and “The Tonight Show” until Conan O’Brien is reinstalled as its rightful host – and if that doesn’t happen, then tune in to O’Brien’s inevitable new show this fall on Fox.