Though not everyone here at the Boles Blogs Network is fond of Conan O’Brien, I do agree that it was a poor decision for Jay Leno to have been moved to a different show at ten o’clock. Rather, Jay should have retired so that NBC could continue showing dramatic television and Conan and Jimmy should have been put where they tenuously exist at the moment. Instead, the ridiculousness of the last few months took place and now NBC wants to push The Tonight Show to 12:05am.


A couple of days after NBC made its decision to reverse course, Conan O’Brien released a statement explaining that pushing off The Tonight Show to 12:05am would completely ruin the essence of the show — not to mention break sixty years of history in the name of a desperate hope to raise ratings.

Somehow, I don’t see that network television has really fully grasped the real power of community building online. It hasn’t even been a full week since all of this has happened, and there has been a tremendous response from a great number of web sites and forums. A simple search for “I’m with Coco” brings up millions of results. This includes an official Facebook group with the same name that has, as of this writing, nearly fifty thousand fans.

There are extremely heated debates going on link sites like Reddit — not just in support of Conan, mind you. However, I have not been able to find anywhere near as much support for Leno as I have seen for Conan online. I certainly haven’t seen any images like the “I’m with Coco” image that has very quickly spread all over what seems like every corner of the Internet.

The one thing I’m not exactly thrilled to see is the extent to which people are coming down on Jay Leno. It’s one thing to say that he should have retired years ago or to say that he should not persist in ruining late night — but some of the things that have been said and written should not be expressed about any human being.

As with all excited internet trends from the last decade, t-shirts are already being made. Rest assured I will be wearing mine proudly.

11 Comments

  1. This all went wrong in 2004 when NBC told Jay Leno he had 5 more years on The Tonight Show and then he’s out even though he was number one in that timeslot.
    Instead of giving up, or sabotaging the slot, Jay actually increased viewership and then — in less than 7 months — Conan lost half of Jay’s audience in the “traditional” Tonight Show timeslot.
    I’m sure NBC is wondering why all the new online hoopla over Conan never translated into ratings… perhaps they’re seeing the vapidity of ginned up internet rage.
    Moving the time of the Tonight Show is a red herring. The show used to run 90 minutes when Carson ran the gig and TV shows change timeslots and days, so moving the show isn’t “damaging” it in any way as Conan tries to claim.
    For some unfathomable reason, NBC was scared of losing Conan 5 years ago, and they have now ticked off both Jay and Conan with their unending indecision and leadership weakness. I hope both guys leave the network and start their own shows somewhere else.

  3. That article you quote is from June of 2009 when Conan first made his debut.

  5. That’s an expected bump because of the hubbub. NBC knows Conan isn’t that popular, for if he were, they just would’ve cancelled Jay’s show and left the Tonight Show alone.

  8. Just my own personal experience — but I find that I tend to remember ads I have seen on hulu much more than television ads. 🙂

  9. There’s no way this will end well for Conan:

    But I’ve learned O’Brien’s reps now believe that Zucker wants to jettison Conan altogether and put Jay back at The Tonight Show at its usual starting time. So, to prevent O’Brien competing at NBC or elsewhere with Leno’s attempt to lure back his late night audience, NBCU’s Zucker has come up with this plot to “ice” Conan for the length of his NBC Tonight Show contract. It’s dastardly, it’s cowardly, and it could be damn effective. But there’s no way Team Conan says they’re going to let that happen.

    http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/jeff-zucker-threatens-to-ice-conan-ill-keep-you-off-the-air-for-3-12-years/

  10. How very sad, if Conan really does get the boot in favor of Leno.
    Looks like I’ll be looking very silly with my Coco shirt.

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