Column: Don't cry for Conan

By Justin Prochaska

Published Jan. 26, 2010

It seems the entire blogosphere and other news Web sites have almost hourly updates about the seemingly endless NBC late night saga between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is voicing his or her opinion on the matter, be they celebrities, news analysts, bloggers or social networkers.

Since the commotion started, I have been getting seemingly daily requests via Facebook to join a "Team Conan" or "I'm With Coco" group.

Is everything being overblown? Probably. I just can't believe a dispute over the time of a talk show has produced more drama than the break up of The Plastics.

Leno has the seniority, and as we have seen in situations like this, seniority rules. He stepped down from "The Tonight Show" to make way for O'Brien, but because NBC didn't want its long-time late night host to leave, it offered him a chance to have a show air in primetime five nights a week.

The show was a disaster from the start. Ratings were down, and the affiliates were upset because of poor lead-ins. Leno, of course, wanted back into late night, and the network obliged.

I do feel like O'Brien is getting the short end of the stick here. After all, he has waited patiently at the kids' table for years and years for his spot on "The Tonight Show" and has not done anything wrong, so he shouldn't be forced to relinquish his spot. After all, Leno did say he would retire after his last contract ended. Most importantly, O'Brien is light years funnier than Leno. The only funny thing about Leno's shtick is "Jaywalking," which isn't even Leno being funny. It's more of poking fun at other people.

Despite all this, I don't feel bad for O'Brien at all. NBC executives offered him a chance to stay as the host of "The Tonight Show" 30 minutes later, but he did not agree. Another reason I just can't feel bad for Conan is that he is a multi-millionaire. His contract at NBC was in the range of $10 to 20 million a year. It's not like Leno is taking O'Brien's money. When O'Brien leaves NBC, he'll get a lucrative payday of approximately $32 million. NBC is paying O'Brien these millions to not work. Where do I sign up for a job like that? It's also not like Conan's career is over, either. Another network will pick him up (probably Fox or Comedy Central), and in a few years all of this will be water under the bridge.

O'Brien will still have a huge following, no matter where he ends up. Leno still has fans, and people will still watch "The Tonight Show" regardless of who the host is, so there is good for Leno as well. But let's face it: NBC doesn't exactly have a murderer's row of must-see TV anymore, and the ratings for most of its shows reflect it. NBC is now the fourth watched network, behind ABC, CBS and even Fox. Long gone are the days of "Friends," "Seinfeld," "ER" and "SNL" with Tracy Morgan and Will Ferrell. O'Brien might be better off where the grass is greener, where he can be the star and not the red-headed stepchild. He even said it himself on his show, "If they don't want people to see me, put me on NBC!"