Why it’s hard not to be on Team Leno

On the heels of the announcement that NBC and O’Brien have reached a $45 million severance deal perhaps some of the anti-Leno buzz will die.

As an entertainer, like most 15 to 30 year olds, I prefer the stylings of Conan O’Brien to that of the more formulaic Jay Leno, though I find both men funny and likable. However, while I’m naturally inclined to protest in the name of Team Coco, I can’t bring myself to it when it’s framed in the context of hating Jay Leno. During this whole controversy with the Late Night shuffling at NBC, I have never understood the hate directed at such a nice guy/possible evil genius like Leno. The dude is either a supervillian level manipulator who covers his tracks so well that he should be ruling a race of mutants somewhere or he’s the nice guy he appears to be and this isn’t his fault…

Watch this and tell me which you think is more likely…

In what scenario could Jay be the bad guy in all this? Clearly he has to be lying about something if he is so ruthless in his mad drive to boot all who dare oppose him so I’m really asking all you Leno haters: what do you think happened? and based on what? What makes you think that any events took place that were at all different than how Leno describes?

NBC booted Jay when he was at the top so they wouldn’t lose Conan, Conan failed to do nearly as well as Jay, Jays show goes on the air and also does poorly in the ratings, the affiliates complain and something has to be done. So what could have been done? Cut Leno loose from his NBC contract so he can go over to Fox opposite Conan and beat him in the ratings? that would be a blunder. Cut Conan from his NBC contract so he can go to Fox? that would be needlessly problematic too. So the suits came up with a plan to make the affiliates happy by killing the Jay Leno show, still keep Jay Leno at NBC by putting him back at his old time slot and still keep Conan both at NBC and at the Tonight Show and move it a half hour later. Sucky situation that NBC put itself into, but that was really their best option and there’s no way that can be pinned negatively on Leno, as just like he said: going from an hour show to a half hour is a demotion that he accepted because when you don’t perform well at a job, you need to be humbled a little.

The problem was that Conan gave a big “fuck that” to moving the Tonight show from 11:30pm to midnight, as it would then be “the Tomorrow Show”, and Conan is morally against that because of his Tonight Show idealism – or so he claims (more likely, it’s just that he would rather spill his white Irish blood with a rusty Italian fork before going back to the after-midnight wasteland he worked so hard to get OUT of for 17 years.

So now NBC is going to let Conan go and put Jay, the proven ratings winner, back at his old spot in the Tonight Show.

Seriously… what else should they have done? I’m really asking…

Seth Meyers explains it this way:

The 2nd question is that: if Leno isn’t the power hungry manipulator that he’s being falsely painted as, why would people who know better still dislike him so much? The answer is that he’s the Sean Hannity of late night: he’s a squeaky clean family man who is really nice both personally and professionally, he’s incredibly successful at what he does, and there are at least 3 others in his field who are viewed to have more talent and thus be more deserving of that success level. Nathan Rabin sums that sentiment up perfectly with the following:

He’s been married to the same woman for decades. He has amassed a vast fortune working nonstop yet never spends his money on anything other than his overflowing collection of sports cars. He seems devoid of angst.

He suffers from a terrible dearth of personal demons. Leno is so normal and functional that he’s practically a freak. That creeps out comedy writers who would rather have their heroes stagger into the gutter, penniless and filled with contempt for a world that has shunned them, than play yet another Indian casino to pay for that 32nd Maserati.

Bitterness is an almost universal trait among funny people. They hate it when their friends become successful. They grow positively apoplectic when success comes to someone they consider unworthy. The bigger the success, the bigger the resentment and Leno has attained a level of fame most comics can only dream about. Even more unforgivably, that success came at the expense of more worthy souls: first Letterman and now O’Brien.

As for Conans future, it’s pretty obvious Fox is his only option, and I think will be a good fit for him:

“In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket,” his manager, Gavin Polone, told The Wall Street Journal. “Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.”

O’Brien will be free to begin another TV job as soon as September, NBC said. There has been speculation on where he might go next. ABC (which airs “Nightline” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) has said it wasn’t interested, while Fox, which lacks a network late-night show, expressed appreciation for his show — but nothing more.