The Late Night Scandal

With late night television becoming less popular among young people, especially young males, the late night TV rates were slipping, and some believe the latest scandal will not help improve ratings.

Major TV network, NBC, made a decision not long ago that Conan O’brien’s time slot (host of the Tonight Show) would be pushed back to 12:05 p.m. This would be to make room for Jay Leno’s show, which was unsuccessful in prime time.

The situation has caused a great scandal among the public. It has gone so far as to be turned into a battle between Conan O’brien and Jay Leno. Celebrities are being deemed “Team Leno” or “Team Conan” by which late night show they choose to appear on. T-Shirts have been made with a logo that Conan O’brien came up with so fans could show their support by wearing the shirts. “I’m with Coco” has become the slogan for O’brien’s fans.

With NBC standing their ground on their decision for the host’s designated new TV slots, O’brien has chosen to leave NBC. Although his contract is not up until September, the public is questioning O’brien’s next move. There has been buzz that he will move to FOX network, where people are hoping that he will be put head-to-head with Leno on late night TV.

The Tonight Show scandal has caused an uproar among students at the University of Tampa. Carli Todd, a junior at The University of Tampa says, “ I think Jay Leno is old and boring and Conan O’brien is going to have a show in 7 months that is going to be way better than Leno’s.” This statement stands true to many of the student’s feelings about the scandal. People are wondering why NBC wouldn’t keep O’brien instead of Leno? Todd goes on to say that she thinks, “Conan got shafted.”

            In the weeks leading up to O’brien’s departure from late night television, his show became a feeding frenzy for jokes geared toward NBC. O’brien was not shy to express his feelings on the scandal, as a matter of fact, some people believe that he may have been a little too hard on NBC, blowing the matter way out of proportion,

            Brittany Winebrenner, a sophomore at The University of Tampa says, “I don’t watch the late shows a lot, but I think that the situation got out of hand. Although its sad to see what happened to Conan, he was feeding the public with reasons to keep the scandal alive and make it a bigger deal than it should have been, which, I believe, was his intention.” She goes on to say, ”the matter got extremely annoying after a while.”

            A proclaimed fan of Conan O’Brien, Dan Minkow, a junior at The University of Tampa says, “I think its extremely unfair what they did to Conan because Leno walked away and retired and then came back saying that he wants his spot back. Conan appeals to a much younger audience and he would have been better for the network.”

            It is not sure whether or not O’brien will join FOX network’s late night line-up in September, but FOX has expressed their interest publicly, and O’brien fans are hoping for the deal to happen.