Who'll Boycott a Jay Leno Tonight Show?

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Conan O'Brien's announcement today was like a gust of fresh air cutting through the stench of NBC's classless late night maneuverings of recent days. Now TMZ -- who broke the story initially -- has another update: With Conan apparently out, the network has offered Leno his old time slot back, along with the original name: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That's assuming Leno takes it back. One thing is certain: The simmering distaste for the longtime talk show host will now bubble over into bilious resentment and outright hostility, and the bad publicity is almost certain to bring new levels of booking headaches for the new, old Tonight Show. Here's ten people you can be all but certain you'll never see on the show again.

1. Patton Oswalt

Oswalt made his distaste for Leno fairly official on a blistering takedown on Comedy Death-Ray Radio, where he likened the bechinned one to Richard Nixon.

Chances: 100%

2. Norm MacDonald

A longtime Late Night with Conan O'Brien regular, who started on SNL around the same time Conan started broadcasting from 30 Rock. On his final Late Night appearance, he told some incredibly uncomfortable truths about Leno's decades of outfoxing the kings of late night.

3. Will Ferrell

Ferrell's ties to Conan go back as far as when the two worked at The Groundlings in the late '80s, where Lorne Michaels discovered O'Brien and hired him to write for SNL. Ferrell was Conan's first Tonight Show guest.

4. Jim Gaffigan

A staunch Conan loyalist who used to appear alongside the host in Pale Force, an animated series in which they fought crime with their paleness. Gaffigan tweeted today: "I'm on #teamconan Team Conan Please RT"

5. Amy Poehler

Poehler used to play Stacey Richter - the fictional kid sister of co-host Andy Richter - on Late Night.

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Comments

  • Peon says:

    IMHO the only reason Conan's ratings started to tank was because of the fact that the network put the same guests on Leno who would then show up a day or two later on Conan or Fallon.
    I may be awake at night, but that doesn't mean I'm going to watch the same person get interviewed three times in a week.
    I will however be sure that tomorrow is the last time I watch the Tonight show, just out of principal.

  • t dog says:

    CONAN is undeniably a better interviewer than jay leno EVER was. CONAN interacts with his guests much more sincerely and it shows! leno has always been a corporate puppet. sure, he (leno) has his funny moments but he doesnt possess half the comedic and interpersonal skills that CONAN does in his pinky. AND IT SHOWS! this is the biggest showbiz catastrophe in history.....CONAN will prevail in time and NBC will be sorry they made such a horrible decision.

  • anastashia says:

    Leno was TOLD by NBC in 2004 that he would have to give up the slot because NBC wanted to keep Conan who wouldn't have stayed if he didn't get it. It wasn't Jay's choice, it was the network's.
    " Leno opened with an NBC executive telling him in 2004 that he would have to surrender "Tonight" to O'Brien to keep the gangly, redheaded host of "Late Night" from going to a competitor.
    "I said, 'Well, I've been No. 1 for 12 years.' They said, 'We know that. We don't think you can sustain it,"' Leno recounted the executive telling him. He joked that he asked if he could at least wait until his show fell to No. 2, but agreed to the hand-over plan. "

  • JP says:

    How anyone can sit down and watch Leno a full hour and not get annoyed is a mystery to me. Letterman could be watchable if he were a little funnier and that annoying bald man was not there in the background saying "hah" "hah" "hah" all hour long. Conan was the funnier of all three. Anyone who disagrees with this is just a stupid idiot. See things as I see them or shut just shut the f*ck up.

  • kenny bunkport says:

    NBC: Nobody Bitches (but) Coco

  • Sadie says:

    Well, there's no accounting for taste. Jimmy Fallon is unfunny. Nice guy perhaps, but his delivery as a comedian? It's like a slow death. Perhaps that's why you don't 'get' Conan's humour.

  • Jorge says:

    Jay is a dork, never liked him, and it is no problem to boycott him and his stupid show.

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