With its sale to Comcast, NBC has clearly been desperate for a good, long while. Now, this business with shuffling late-night hosts and line-ups has made it even worse. Moving Jay Leno to a talk show slot before the 11'o'clock news was a mistake and not simply because of the time slot; Jay may have been funny once, but he should move along and make room for some fresh minds -- oh, wait...but he already did!
In light of all this, should Conan O'Brien, who has earned his comedic reputation and his new 11:35 pm spot with years of hilarity, have to step aside for the leader of the old guard who, for whatever reason, couldn't make it work in primetime?
If anyone at the network had any vision whatsoever, someone in charge would realize that Conan O'Brien is the single biggest talent in their stable followed closely by Tina Fey. Is there a trend developing? Good comedy and quality entertainment on the National Broadcasting Company comes straight out of the Saturday Night Live comedy finishing school / farm team / college for the performing arts. Why not let Lorne Michaels run the entire network!
Most of the chatter indicates that this will be the end of O'Brien's remarkably short run as Tonight Show host. In his own words, Conan was hardly given a chance to get the historical show back into the late night mix with his inimitable brand of comedy, one heavy on humility and self-deprication. He's a star and a favorite personality of most people my age and to let him go because of what are essentially logisitcal difficulties is short-sighted and just more evidence that NBC is a sinking ship operating with a braindead, skeleton crew.
If Conan O'Brien can find another network to support his efforts to entertain us, then we'll get to smile again and I sincerely hope he does just that.
