NBC Late Night Talk Show Wars Over!

Jay Leno v.s. Conan: The Battle Royale over the Tonight Show

The battle is over and the dust has settled. The result: Conan is out. He will receive 42 million and will stay off the air until September 2010. Leno will return to the Tonight Show at its original time of 11:30 PM. Jay appeared on Oprah a few days ago trying to undo some of the bad feelings voiced by some Conan fans and others who felt that Jay should have been the one to leave.

Team Coco stayed outside in the rain for hours for Conan's last show but to no avail. However, this squabble resulted in some of the best opening monologues for Conan. I only wished that he had done this well before and his ratings would have prevented the entire problem.

I prefer Jay's style of humor over Conan's but kudos to Conan for fighting back! He fought for his staff and got a great severance deal for his staff, who had all relocated from NYC for the show. He also showed a lot of class in how he handled the whole mess and for fighting for the integrity of the Tonight Show when NBC offered the 12:05 am time slot. I personally felt that the 11:30 pm slot at NBC was a bad fit for Conan anyway and Fox or ABC may be better fit for him anyway.

Personally, I'm glad that everything is settled so that I can wear my Tonight Show t-shirt in peace. It is one of my favorite t-shirts but every time I wore it it sparked strong debate with 20 something Conan fans vying against 40 plus Leno fans. I am hoping that out of this controversy comes more opportunities for late night comics/comedians to host other late night shows including Christian comics.