Come on, Co-Co, don't go-go!

I'll miss Conan O'Brien. I know not everybody agrees with me, but as you know, I'm never wrong on this blog.

I don't blame Jay Leno for this little debacle--he took what looked like a better opportunity, knowing his loyal fans were getting too old to stay up much later than the end of their 6 p.m. bingo game. It's not Jay Leno's fault he's not very funny, but he is pretty smart.

NBC screwed this up, just like they're methodically screwing everything else up these days (except for The Office, Community, and 30 Rock). They tried to put a nightly show on Prime Time, and showed that the majority of American's don't like change. I can remember when Johnny Carson retired and Leno took over. I don't know what the ratings were, but I do know that most people thought Leno was horrible. Eventually we all warmed up to him, even though we were all laughing at him, not with him. I know some people thought he was funny, but then again, there are still plenty of people who think it's funny to say "Git 'er done", so I take it with a grain of salt.

The Tonight Show's ratings dropped not long after Conan took over, and Leno's ratings never were good with his new show. That just proves nobody cares that much about Leno, they just want their old routine back. So NBC had to get rid of Leno's prime time show, because all the local affiliates were threatening to put other programming on in that time slot. I'm sure they were all wondering how they could get something more interesting that Leno's show, like Antiques Roadshow or a Snuggie infomercial. NBC had the option to buy Leno out of his contract and just tell him to walk, or buy out Conan and move Leno back to his old show. The buyout clause in Conan's contract was $32.5 million and they paid it without hesitation, because the same clause in Leno's contract was for $150 million. So don't tell me Leno is better because he got the better job--he just had the better contract.

Occasionally I would watch Leno so I could see "Headlines" and "Jay-walking", but I wouldn't sit through his miserable monologue any longer than I had to. I still think Letterman is funny, but I'm a little annoyed by his arrogance after his little scandal, so I don't care to watch. Why, by the way, doesn't anybody care that he was screwing around on his wife with interns, but Tiger Woods is Public Enemy #1? Not that Tiger didn't screw up, but why do we treat Letterman (or Charlie Sheen) any different? I digress, sorry (get used to it). So you have to think Fox knows there are more people like me out there (God help us all), and will give Conan a show on their network. Competition is good for everybody.

Eventually, Leno's fans will all die, because that's what old people do. Then, NBC will devote that time slot to the Jonas Brothers reunion tour or something brilliant like that. And we'll all reminisce about the good old days of Seinfeld, The Office, and Tom Brokaw on the news, and tell our grandkids that people used to actually watch that channel. But then we'll die. It's all part of nature's plan.