“Goodbye O’Brien. Welcome back Leno”

January 22 was the last official appearance of Conan O’Brien on NBC late night television. It recently has been rumored he accepted a 33 million dollar contract to walk away from the station, allowing Jay Leno to reclaim his 11:35 time slot for ‘The Tonight Show.’ In addition to that loss, NBC is also paying O’Brien’s staff 12 million dollars in severance pay. In order for NBC to recover from this poor financial transaction, they must have a massive increase in ratings when Leno returns to his original spot.


NBC promised O’Brien five years earlier he would be taking over Leno 17 year run at the 11:35pm time spot. He has publically vocalized his anger toward NBC for going back on their word. The networks decision was a slap in the face and some feel he did not receive the valid opportunity he deserved. The network was quick to act when they noticed the poor ratings coming in from both hosts after the time slot switch. O’Brien’s ratings were less than half the 5.4 million viewers Leno was originally averaging. Long time fan Junior Kirk Hansen says, “I’m mad about what NBC did. I support Conon O’Brien and refuse to watch Jay Leno. He’s old news and doesn’t appeal to audiences in my age group.”An outpour of support for both hosts has increasing intensified this conflict throughout the media.

Many O’Brien fans are eager to see which station will pick him up, so they can readjust their late-night television schedules. Fox has shown interest, but due to the contract negotiations NBC has in place, they may have control over O’Brien’s rights to work with other networks until September 1, 2010. Also being set in the contract is forbidding O’Brien from trash talking the network. If his actions contradict with the negotiations it will lead to reevaluations of his exit deal.

Not all viewers are mad about the recent time slot changes. “Jay Leno should have never been moved in the first place. He’s always had the highest nighttime TV rating,” says Senior Stephanie Wheel. “I personally don’t care about the situation,” UT Junior Derek Sell expressed. “I really don’t understand why Leno is getting flack, when really he is just making a smart business move.”

Some now are wondering if NBC has put themselves in a no win situation. Not only have they produced chaos throughout their network, but they have also angered O’Brien’s 2.2 million viewers. They will be losing tens of millions of dollars with the contract change. In addition they run the possibility of losing even more money, because they may have split their audience.

March 1 Leno is officially taking back over his position. Until then you can catch O’Brien’s late night reruns on every weeknight.