Here's an interview with Conan O'Brien who is gracious despite the interviewer hinting he should dump on Jay Leno a bit.
In the intro, the interviewer writes, "…it is hard not to feel a little badly for Conan O'Brien and the way he was set on fire several years ago when Leno grudgingly handed off the Tonight Show torch to him — and then refused to go away. NBC's unwillingness to commit to O'Brien despite his lengthy tenure in the 12:30 slot created the biggest bungle in late-night history." Personally, I and a lot of people think dumping Leno for O'Brien was the biggest bungle…but I still don't see why Leno had any obligation to "go away," which in this case would have meant turning down a huge offer from NBC and putting his staff out of work.
And NBC did "commit" to O'Brien. In fact, they shoved their biggest star aside to give O'Brien the Tonight Show. They just gave up on Conan when his ratings didn't measure up to expectations. That may have been unfair but it is something TV networks have been known to do…like all the time. (Ousting Leno for Conan in the first place was the unusual action on their part.)
Jimmy Fallon's current ratings, which are topping David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel combined, may give us some idea of what the network's expectations were for O'Brien. But Conan even fell short of what the guy he replaced had been achieving in that time period.
I've occasionally tuned in the current shows of Mssrs. Fallon, Letterman, Meyers, Kimmel, Ferguson and O'Brien. I find Letterman and Ferguson semi-watchable when there's a guest on who the host really cares about. The other shows, I haven't enjoyed at all…but maybe I've just watched on the wrong nights. Recently though, I've received the DVDs that these shows send out to Emmy voters (I am one) to show how wonderful their programs are. When I get time, I'm going to watch the DVDs sent for Seth and the two Jimmies. I figure that's what they think was their best work so if I don't like those episodes, there's no point watching other ones.
Well, back to the soup…