Upheaval at the Tonight Show

Conan doesn't want to host Tonight following Jay Leno who is expected to host a show at 10:35 Central/11:35 Eastern.

Conan O’Brien released a statement Tuesday saying that he no longer wants to host NBC’s “Tonight Show” and intends to seek a way to end his contract with the network.

The host, who saw his brief run at host of “Tonight” cut short when NBC decided to restore his predecessor Jay Leno to the 11:35 p.m. time period occupied by “Tonight” for decades, has been growing increasingly upset in recent days about how he believes he was treated by NBC’s management.

A representative of the host said Tuesday that the issue came to a head for Mr. O’Brien on Monday and that he had “sat up all night drafting the statement.” NBC declined comment. Mr. O’Brien was scheduled to do “The Tonight Show” on Tuesday night.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Mr. O’Brien said “I sincerely believe that delaying the ‘Tonight Show’ into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. ‘The Tonight Show’ at 12:05 simply isn’t the ‘Tonight Show.’”

It was announced recently that Jay Leno's prime time program would be aired at 11:35 Eastern/10:35 Central. The show will continue to air at 10:00/9:00 Central but will go on hiatus during the Winter Olympics this year. Then arrive at its new timeslot after the games.

To be fair! I'm more of a Conan fan that a Leno fan. I miss Conan at Late Night and ultimately followed him to Tonight. There have been some good moments, but upsetting that he won't likely continue in his present role.

As for Leno, I can't knock his career but if he didn't want to let go last year then why did he. This almost seems like sour grapes and can only bring back memories of when him and David Letterman were vying for Tonight. Ultimately Leno succeeded Johnny Carson and Letterman left for CBS.

This time the successor wants to get his spot back. Or at least someone wants him to get his spot back. At that his current show was a good experiment while it lasted. It didn't work, well I rarely watched it myself so it didn't work for me. It almost felt like Arsenio light.