Even Oprah Could Not Convince America to Forgive Jay Leno
Like Jay Leno himself, there was nothing shocking about Oprah's Leno-spectacular yesterday. The denim deity greeted Lady O. ("Hello doll, you look wonderful") with his American flag pin squarely on his lapel, sat down and then devoted forty minutes trying to convince viewers at home that he had no choice but to take back the Tonight Show. The only two surprising moments occurred when Oprah flat-out told Leno that his below-the-belt joke about David Letterman last week ("You know the best way to get Letterman to ignore you? Marry him!") was not funny. And the second was when she revealed that 96 percent of her viewers America were Team Coco. Twenty-four hours later, it appears that America still does not believe, despite Jay's protests, that he really is "just a good guy."
At 3 P.M. EST, Movieline took Oprah.com's post-interview poll and found that most of America still is not ready to forgive Jay Leno.
Maybe Joan Rivers was right.
· The Tonight Show Controversy Poll [Oprah.com]
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Comments
Obviously, Conan's fans spend a lot more time on the internet than they did watching The Tonight Show. The poll is meaningless because Leno doesn't have a huge online fanbase Cocoing themselves silly. What Leno does have is an older demographic that likes to watch him after the evening news.
Leno's fan base would have voted but they have all fallen and can't get up.
love the comment, sunny. that made me lol
I dont think that folks remember or know that Conan that started this whole thing 5 years and 7 months ago. At that time Conan aced Jay out of his gig at the tonight show. Jay was happy and had the #1 show and did not want to quit but Conan threatened to leave NBC if he was not promised the Tonight Show and wanted it announced 5 years ahead of the time to insure his position. Jay, being the classy guy that he is, told the nation that he was retiring (which was really not the case) so as to not cast a poor light on Conan and NBC. If at that time Jay had a fit and started making jokes about Conan like Conan did to Jay ( and Jay did NOT steal his job Conan did not have the ratings!) the tables would be turned. The fact is that Conan got fired and refused to move the show one half hour in order to keep it (which I understand but he just could come up with an audiance) Conan should have told the truth about how it all really went down in that he was the one that went to NBC demanding the tonight show or he would quit which started this whole mess. Jay has had tons class through all of this and has earned my respect.
Given that everyone hates him, how can the new Tonight Show with jay Leno survive; he's not exactly bring in a whole new fan base he attracted with the 10 o'clock show and even his own fans must be picking up on the fact that he's not the nicest, and the remainder who don't mind can't sustain the show, can they? He'll surely be a complete unemployable failure before the end of the year. So who will ultimately get the Tonight Show gig?
Or am I just being too naive, and he'll still be there in 20 years?
I am one of those people who are in danger of falling and not being able to get up. Or as one of my grandkids says, I'm older than God's underwear ...
However, I am not now nor have I ever been a fan of Jay Leno. I don't watch anything he's hosting.
I was a sporadic of the Tonight Show after O'Brien took it over. If Leno is going to be on the tonight show, I'll simply watch the weather channel during that time period. It's faster-paced, funnier, more informative and has more interesting people on it.
And no, except for when Tom Hanks was on the last O'Brien show, I'd never heard of Coco so I'm not a Coco-nut.
I manage to do my best and maintain a good heart, and can usually judge peoples personalities, by the way they treat others, in interviews or by there sense of humor whether it's more self centered. Also, beyond being a comedian the topic of being good at interviewing guests is an equal paramount necessity. to be great at both is difficult, before I look at "late night icons" when you look at a day time icon like Oprah, her asset is sincerity and "truly caring" you can see it in her eyes. Now someone exactly opposite (just to overly stress the point such as a contemporary Groucho Marx) could be a very effective day time talk show host, based on humor alone but with an underlying sincerity, perceived kindness etc.
Looking at late night, it relatively safe to say, Johnny Carson was the original king. He gave a we'll prepared interview, was by today's standards only moderately funny. However, Carson the man was not the Carson you saw on TV, and he had a well hidden or so I've read a bit of a mean streak.
Now this is intended to be selfish and self centered, we pay taxes and vote for our politicians based on how they can benefit us personally. The kings, of our generation, (I'm 49) of whom I pay for (almost a tax/political structure) should meet my requirements best suited to me personally and the revenues I pay on a monthly basis and who's products that sponsor them as well benefit from me, the low man on the totem pole.
Let's concentrate for a moment and examine who's the best guy for the job among the 3 biggies, that is a question Let's assume that all people ASIDE from their personal private life's (Bill probably inhaled and Bing probably beat his wife, but I haven't seen an overwhelming interest in boycotting "white Christmas.
In my opinion by observation, Conan is a decent man, an adequate interviewer (remember this is ONE mans opinion), Conan has a good heart, but is barely competent as a comedian. If you disagree, than please submit, in your opinions his 1/2 dozen funniest moments, which would mean quick wit,jokes/comebacks which are funnier than we might have come up with. Conan in my opinion in his capacity is pretty obviously NOT funny.
Letterman, IS funny, but too often at the expense of his interviewee, to simply exemplify, his natural brilliance and his natural comedic genius, but it can detract from kindness and his skills as a guest HOST.
Leno, on the other hand has my (once again PERSONAL vote). He's up to date on the issues regarding his guests. He continually demonstrates the ability through experience, on the job relaxation, while always "at least" appearing to have a very kind heart and be legitimately concerned, bringing out the BEST of his subject ( he's a great listener, asks appropriate questions not by virtue of 'set ups' to get personal chuckles. In my opinion, regardless of recent boo boo's, he is the most naturally for the job. And naturally, I'll enjoy the funnyman who attempts, to challenge me with wit, I'll read up on the current applicable news, so I am well prepared (as Leno would be) to discuss any topic of the moment, using a natural sense of humor but for real with out trying to build myself up. Who knows, if I hear enough convincing anti-Leno info, I may have to jump sides, but it would be painful, what after almost 2 decades later could you convince me that he's not the best man for the gig of HIS choosing.
Thanks
Joe Delaney,
Boston,
joedelaney@email you know the rest, specifically the .com, I don't want my address to be electronically deleted.
Money doesn't mean you have the answer to every question and millionaires nor billionaires are immortal. Jay Leno doesn't need anyone's forgiveness because this was not his fault and if he is to be faulted for anything it would be that he allowed himself to be used like a chess piece when Johnny Carson chose him to replace him.
The problem is that greed is what caused this entire fiasco along with inexperience and a lack of business knowledge and it was not Jay or Conan's fault so go figure. What I blame Conan for is accepting the proposal in the first place or at least he could have sat down with a fellow union/Talk Show Host and worked things out on a more amicable venue. Conversation, Negotiation, and Mediation are always in order plus diplomacy. None of us should allow ourselves to be used as pawn on anyone's program no matter how much it costs or pays.
I do fault Jay for going on oprah's show to talk about it and having the finger point at him. I remember in the 90s when she faced a situation ansd no one offered her to be the "brassiere" for the barbecue and another thing...WE NEED TO MIND OUR OWN BUSINESS..straighten out our own personal messes...charity begins at home and spreads abroad...CLEAN UP YOUR HOUSE FIRST and then you can clean someone else's.
These are tough times and there is no time to bicker or meddle because people are leaving her so fast it reminds me of the In'N'Out Burger Drive...We need to call the powers that be at NBC on the Carpet not Jay, NOT Conan and at least Jay was very humble about it.
The jealousy somehow still holds from when Johnny Carson passed over the others and chose Jay to replace him. We talk about the children, but my God! Look at who they take after...other than their moms and dads. Let's all keep the peace in this situation because we know not what we'll face later and how we'll ALL need each other.
What the hell does Jay have to apologize for... He got better ratings than O'Brien... He got offered his old job back, and he said yes... How hard is that to understand... And Coco gets $33 million after he pays out to his staff... And the publicity all THREE late night guys got out of it is worth another $33 mil
VS Letterman : Misogynistic, Only mocks the republican party & Conservatives ( he wears his liberal bias on his sleeve ), and Wifecheater ( Yet he thinks he's better then Tiger Woods ).
Yeah, I'll talk Leno ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. Irregardless of how Leno Votes, he doesn't let it influence his Comedy. Letterman fashions his "comedy" around his liberal biases.
Watching David Letterman is like watching MSNBC comedy hour. You're just waiting for an anti-conservative / republican zinger or top ten, but if for some reason you'd see one aimed at the Other side of the Tent, It'd be almost SHOCKING. As David Letterman LOVES the democratic party / progressives, and rarely can bring himself to mock them.
Bleh. Who let you people in here?
OMG! Come on ... what do Oprah fans have to do with this topic?
Conan had NO ratings, his show was failing - miserably!
Whether you like Leno or not, he is a qualified host, comedian and honest guy! He was asked to take his spot back and he accepted! He took NOTHING from Connan ... Connan couldn't cut it.
Quit being haters and embrace the facts -- the truth!
A few things:
1) By all credible accounts, Jay got the Tonight Show very much against Johnny Carson's wishes (not to mention the whole hiding-in-a-closet-spying-executive-phone-calls-on-the-phone episode. Look it up, Jay happily admits to it).
2) Likewise, The Tonight Show was offered to Conan (rightly so) because it was the end of Conan's contract and he was being wooed by other networks. NBC (in one of the few sensible decisions they made) realized that Jay's Tonight Show audience, while massive, wasn't the most desirable demographic (that'd be 18-24 year olds) for advertisers, so they decided to phase out the old horse and bring in their younger, be-pompadoured stallion. This is how advertising works. It's not about having the biggest numbers, it's about having the right numbers.
3) The question of whether Conan's ratings were low is quickly negated by four facts that are simply indisputable if you know anything about television:
a) Jay's Tonight Show didn't find its solid #1 audience until it got a penitent Hugh Grant on the guest seat. This was in 1995. Jay got the Tonight Show in 1992. Maybe my math isn't so hot, but I am 99% positive this means Jay got a lot more than seven months to find his ratings.
b) During most of O'Brien's short-lived tenure, he either had summer re-runs as a lead in (notorious rating-killers) or the abysmal Jay Leno Show (which undoubtedly shit the bed in its timeslot, leading to its cancellation. It bears clarification that this is the ONLY show in this debacle to have been cancelled for ratings. If you'll recall, the affiliates' problem was strictly with Leno, not with Conan.
c) Added to that, the Nielsen ratings are also a terribly outdated (and thus, myopic) way of making programming decisions, and in the case of Conan's Tonight Show specifically, they are nearly irrelevant because they don't reflect the bulk of where his audience watched him (Hulu, DVR, Nbc.com, etc). By design, the Nielsens skew heavily toward older audiences that still like to watch their tv on their tv.
d) Conan did not EVER get fired for low ratings. NBC did not have a big issue with Conan's ratings until it became a PR talking point because they understood that, much like Jay, a fresh Tonight Show host always sees a dip in numbers at the beginning and slowly builds an audience back up. The ONLY reason NBC had for trying to move Conan's show for a half an hour is because they stupidly thought he'd go for it. I can't blame them for assuming so, since the previous Tonight Show host was such a consummate company man that he even agreed to that insulting offer of a half-hour spot. You may find spineless submission to be a virtue. I do not.
5) "Irregardless" isn't a word.
Conan will bounce back, there is no doubt about it. NBC has made a tremendous mistake in letting him go because young people who do not generally watch network television to begin with will have even less reason to do so now. Whether NBC realizes it or not, this short-sighted decisions will shrink their market share even further, and in the process, create yet another direct late-night competitor that will split Jay's audience even more.
What is impossible to deny is that Jay's decision to do whatever NBC tells him to do with no scruples involved has certainly tarnished the Tonight Show brand. Ultimately,it is clear to me that Conan cared far more about the show than he did, because he had the balls to quit it rather than see it cheapened. Jay had no such trepidation. If your idea of courage and class is to roll over when the network says you should, regardless of how many people you trample in the process (the thousands that got fired when Jay's show hijacked the 10pm slot, for example) then yes, Jay is brimming with it.
That said, I leave you with one question: If everyone has a problem with Jay, haven't you stopped to consider that maybe Jay is the problem?
BWAHAHAAAAAAAA!! Lovin' Mikey...
COCO IS THE ANTICHRIST!!!!! THE NUMERIC VALUE FOR HIS FULL NAME IS EQUIVALENT TO 666 WHICH ALL INFORMED PEOPLE KNOW IS THE SIGN OF THE DEVIL. HIS RED HAIR IS A CLEAR SIGN OF HIS EVIL. LETTERMAN IS IN LEAGUE WITH SATAN HIS RECENT SINS OF THE FLESH HAVING BEEN EXPOSED. HE MADE A DEAL WITH SATAN TO KEEP HIS JOB. HOW ELSE COULD A NETWORK LIKE CBS WITH SUCH OTHERWISE WHOLESOME TELEVISION CONTINUE TO EMPLOY HIM. THIS IS THE SAME STATION THAT USED TO AIR TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL AND WALKER TEXAS RANGER AND NOW THEY HAVE AN ADULTERER ON EVERY NIGHT. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT JOHN STEWART IS PART OF THE ZIONIST AGENDA AND LISTENING TO HIM WILL DAMN YOUR SOUL FOR ALL ETERNITY. LENO IS THE ONLY LATE NIGHT OPTION FOR GOD FEARING AMERICANS. WE LOOK FORARD TO WATCHING HIM UNTIL THE RAPTURE.
LOL, me too!
Carson was NOT the original "king." Before him was Steve Allen who did insane stunts and gags (who Letterman seems to imitate) and Jack Paar. Jack Paar only had one or two guests a night and they weren't there to promote anything. They came on to talk. Now they stay for 15 minutes just to promote their latest film or CD. And all the late night shows were 90 minutes.
"I dont think that folks remember or know that Conan that started this whole thing 5 years and 7 months ago"
Wrong.
Conan said that he wanted something. He said in order to keep him, they'd have to give him something. Again, nobody told Leno he HAD to do this, nobody held a gun to his head, Leno said YES. He CHOSE to retire
"Jay Leno doesn't need anyone's forgiveness because this was not his fault"
Incorrect:
Did someone hold a gun to his head and force him to take the 10pm slot?
Did someone hold a gun to his head and force him to say "I want my 11:35 slot back"?
Did someone hold a gun to his head and force him to retire over 5 years ago?
The answer to all of the above is the most common two letter word in the U.S. language: NO
"Conan had NO ratings, his show was failing - miserably!"
I'm not sure WHERE you got that information from, but here's the actual facts:
Conan started out #1 in viewers, and in his brief 7 month run ended up on top with the desirable demographics (18-49 year olds). Obviously the older crowd is going to stick with who they've been watching for years.
Leno has done nothing but his usual garbage here. He undercut Conan on the 10pm show, he said he wanted his show back, he acted like a total selfish child, and deserves to tank in the ratings like he WILL when he comes back to the Tonight Show.
If you soft-headed Right-Wingers can't take Letterman, why don't you just switch back to your precious Fox News? Oh, It's OK to have a whole NETWORK devoted to inflammatory, ill-informed invective posing as fact- but one late night talk show host starts telling jokes with a viewpoint that differs from yours and you start crying like the little babies that you are. Pathetic.
Anyone who blames Leno for the current snafu is an idiot.
All this rubbish about "America hates Jay Leno" is just that. A bunch of crap. They took a POLL. How many people did they ask? Certainly not more than a few thousand. Perhaps a few tens of thousands.
That is hardly an accurate representation of what "America" thinks about Leno.
Network brass has been (at all three big networks) and always will be
a bunch of morons who can't find their own ass with either hand.
Leno was doing a fine job with The Tonight Show.
Conan was not given enough time to gain a loyal Tonight Show following, but, I personally find him annoying as hell, and think that many Tonight Show fans feel the same way.
It is NOT a case of Jay Leno "taking back" The Tonight Show.
Again, anyone who thinks he is actually doing that is a moron. Jay has no say in the matter. He is NOT the Head Of Programming at NBC, and the network brass are the only people who can decide who is to host THEIR TELEVISION PROPERTY "THE TONIGHT SHOW".
NBC screwed up with Conan, paid him off, and that is that.
They had only two choices....go find some other person besides Leno to host The Tonight Show, or get a known person with a proven track record to host it, i.e. Jay Leno.
Since it is quite impossible to dig Johnny Carson up and sit his corpse at his desk with pencil in hand, bringing Jay Leno back is the only logical answer.
This is all much ado about nothing.
Conan and NBC brought it all on themselves, though bringing 45 million dollars on one's self (in Conan's case) to LEAVE The Tonight Show is not such a bad thing.
I hope Conan finds a new gig. I hope Jay is happy.
I hope Oprah shuts her big fat mouth.
Some of you people are taking this too seriously. And some of you people,(Blah), are just Corky's. But, Life Goes On. One thing people fail to mention, is that Conan's ratings started out high. But, his lead in show,(Jay Leno Show),was horrible, and not pulling any viewers. Leno basically watered Conan's viewers down to his core of loyal follewers. And, some of us were too bored by Leno to remember to turn the channel back to Conan sometimes.
I really can't get with Leno's humor. I'm going to split it down the middle, and say it is an east coast/west coast humor thing. I have been watching Conan for years. But, only after turning to NBC after watching Letterman. But when Conan went to 11:30, I would watch Conan 2-3 days per week, and Letterman 2-3 days per week.
And, to defend Letterman, he makes fun of Democrats too. It's just that Republicans are alot funnier. They wrap themselves in conservatism, family, religion, and the flag. BUT, have gay daliances, extra-marital affairs, abuse drugs(RX or not), and soliciting sex from young House of Rep. pages. If you constantly hear some say that Twinkies are wrong and bad for your health. Then, catch them in a hotel room with thier schlong in a Twinkie, THAT'S FUNNY! No matter what political party you align yourself with. And any comedian that pays attention will catch it and make fun of it.
Leno sucks! Go CoCo! Un til Conan comes back, I have Letterman, and Jimmy Falon.
Well I can see that most of those who watch Oprah and read this site are a bunch of libgressives. Unfortunately, they are the minority in this country and their opinions mean little in the scheme of things. Conan was not and is not funny. The name of the game is money. If you can not draw the viewers then no one wants to advertise during the show. Bottom line -- Leno draws more viewers and therefore makes more money for the network. So go ahead and weep... Love it! The best part is he is going to kick Letterman back to the curb again. Go riddance to both Conan and David!
surely you can't be serious
Irregardless is not a word
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