BREAKING: Conan-Leno Mudslinging Continues With Oprah.com Poll Allegations
One of the better moments in Oprah's Leno-spectacular last week occurred when Lady O. drew attention to a recent poll in which a staggering 96 percent of her viewers America aligned themselves with Conan O'Brien after NBC's Tonight Show scuffle. Leno shrugged, agreed that he had a long, hard road ahead of him before he could reclaim his Letterman-trouncing ratings at 11:35 PM, and then delivered a blistering forty minutes worth of blue collar verbiage designed to seduce middle America back into his grease-stained arms. Oprah announced that she would post a new poll immediately after the interview, in which viewers could recast their Leno/Conan ballots based on Leno's testimony. Twenty-four hours passed, Movieline discovered that Leno had only swayed one additional percent of Oprah's voters...and we figured that sounded about right. (After all, he confessed that he did not try to contact Conan throughout the mishandling). But then Oprah.com quietly took down its poll on Friday without announcing results on air as promised, and Movieline received a tip from a source close to Leno's camp alleging that the vote had been rigged.
So how exactly does the source close to NBC figure that Team Coco flooded Oprah's ballot box? By good old-fashioned ballot box stuffing, thanks to software designed by die hard Coco fans and advertised on one of the many Team Coco Facebook pages, in a message like the following:
The source claimed that when Harpo was informed of the ballot stuffing, they immediately removed the post-interview poll from their website. When Movieline asked Harpo about the poll yesterday, a company spokesperson issued the following blanket response:
"We used poll findings from Oprah.com for our initial interview with Jay and after the show aired, it was subsequently taken down."
Movieline followed up with Conan O'Brien's camp, who denied any knowledge of the rumors surrounding Oprah's PollGate.
The water at NBC is might murky these days, with a new suspicion being circulated around Movieline HQ today: "Is NBC sinking to new depths to garner support for Leno by accusing Coco fans of sinking to new depths by rigging Oprah.com polls?" This Tonight Show Ouroboros is exhausting to ponder. But the truth remains, if Oprah.com had really wanted to make their Leno/Conan poll fair in the first place, they would have made allowances for Leno's fans to rotary dial their votes in.
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Comments
If Conan was so great he would have been able to pull up the ratings.
Conan should be very happy with his settlement and be quite. Good post for sharing.
Polls? I don't mind about those polls, the rallies or in blog comments says the truth that we ant Conan rather Leno. I just hope there that Oprah.com is not sabotaging the poll's votes.
That's how we know that most of the world thinks that Robert Pattinson is the greatest actor of the decade.
I turned off my TV, and went to sleep depressed and angry after watching that shite. And I'm not the only one, I'm sure.
This entire fiasco is the result of the NBC brass and it's poor decision making.
Hi Abigail. So fare i can see, Decost has answered your question. I don't see any sense.
Robert Pattinson and his love Kristen Stewart are no longer renting the luxury Bel-Air guest house because "it wasn't as private as they hoped."
he is a great actor i like it
Oprah announced that she would post a new poll immediately after the interview, in which viewers could recast their Leno/Conan ballots based on Leno’s testimony....As for Coco getting a terrible "lead in".. the lead in was the news. People vote with their channel selector and viewers opt'd to skip Coco.
I look at The Tonight Show as a retirement home and I think for Conan to remain relevant he would have to move on anyway.
even i am with him. thanks for sharing. superb post.
It is as plain as a pikestaff that an internet poll is a mere baloney!!!You all very well know why i am saying that!!!!
This entire fiasco is the result of the NBC brass and it's poor decision making.Leno will come back and take the rating back from that loser Letterman who is a gofer for the lefties! Kimmel could not carry Leno's underware so forget him.
is little overlap between people who love Oprah and people who love Conan. Just my two cents.
Yes, because non-scientific, non-reliable, easily-manipulated Internet polls are the smartest way of finding the truth.
I always though Jay was for the old people and I haven't watched The Tonight Show in years....
I always though Jay was for the old people and I haven't watched The Tonight Show in years....
Coco is too funny.
People vote with their channel selector and viewers opt'd to skip Coco. And they have made allowances for Leno’s fans to rotary dial their votes in.
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