It seems like just yesterday Conan O’Brien took over “The Tonight Show” at it’s 11:35 slot, pushing Jay Leno to an earlier time slot. But now it seems like the carpet has been pulled out from under O’Brien as soon as he stepped on it because after a 2-week battle with NBC, a mere eight months later he signed a 45 million dollar deal handing over “The Tonight Show” back to Leno. I can’t help but wonder, what in the world happened?
Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are like sugar and honey: they’re both sweet in their own way and one isn’t superior to the other. Jay Leno is goofy looking and has some decent jokes now and then, but so is O’Brien! So in no way should Jay Leno be allowed to stay with the network and O’Brien be booted to the side like a pathetic step child. Granted the 45 million dollar deal isn’t too shabby, with O’Brien personally leaving the deal with around 33 million with the rest going to his staff of about 200 individuals. That’s a pretty lucrative deal, but besides the money, Conan O’Brien is left jobless, stripped from the show that he had. Meanwhile Leno is let back into the 11:35 slot and I don’t see why O’Brien could have just moved to an earlier time.
Although I wasn’t exactly a big fan of the show, I still feel that he had the right to hold onto it. He obviously enjoyed being the host and to have that ripped away from him so viciously must have come as a shock. I’m sure there was some way that his show could have been saved but at least he got a decent amount of money out of the deal. Who knows, maybe he will have another show somewhere down the line with a network that actually appreciates his quirky talent.
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