Sunday, January 17, 2010

Top 3 of the Week: Best Jokes from the Leno-O'Brien Debacle



In light of the disaster that is the late night lineup at NBC, I thought it was fitting to capture the best jokes by all parties involved!


1) "My people are upset. Conan's people are upset. Hey, NBC said it wanted drama at 10:00 -- now they've got it!" –Jay Leno
For those who live under a (30) Rock, NBC thought they were so innovative by tightening their purse strings when they chose to air Leno five times a week at 10pm instead of the costly drama shows that would be in its place instead. Obviously, that did not work out, and with ratings plummeting week by week, they were finally able to admit this idea crashed and burned.


2) "Hosting 'The Tonight Show' has been the fulfillment of a life-long dream for me. And I just want to say to the kids out their watching, you can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too." –Conan O'Brien
Poor Conan. He was stellar in his in previous time slot, as his off-beat humor worked well with the younger crowd. However, it never seemed to pick up steam with the older crowd (he can take SOME solace in that the ratings in the 18-49 demo did slightly improve with him at the helm of The Tonight Show). But Conan was never the same that he was in The Late Show, potentially conforming his humor to please the older crowd. Clearly, it didn't work.



3) "Kev, if we did get canceled, it will give us time to maybe do some traveling. In fact, I understand Fox is beautiful this time of year." -Jay Leno
At this point, Leno isn't going anywhere. In fact, this joke would have worked better for Conan, who is rumored to land at FOX for their 11pm time slot. If NBC learned anything from this debacle, it's to never include a clause in a contract like Conan's that said by year 2009, you WILL be the host of The Tonight Show. For fear of losing their superstar Leno, the 10pm show idea was created. At least in the end, they keep Leno, but it proved to be a costly and embarrassing turn of events in order to do it!

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