This article confirms the Leno-11:35 / Conan-12:05 plan. It also discusses some of the network’s reasons for the changes and exposes some of the brass’s delusions and hand-waving in the process. (Warning: It’s a New York Times article. It’s there as of this posting, but at some point it may want you to register. I hate that about them.)
Question: does all this hurt Leno’s image with the American public? He’s long had the reputation of the “nice guy” of late night, but I wonder if people will start to see him as pushy or power-hungry… And frankly, they may put him back at 11:35, but he might not be able to reclaim the #1 slot - a) if his image is hurt, and b) since he’ll have no guests to hype in the promos (assuming it’s the half hour show).
What did Leno do wrong? He got forced out of a job with high ratings so he took another job that did not work out.
It’s strange some people say Leno should retire because he’s 59 and has a lot of money. Letterman is 62, should he have retired 3 years ago? Should other actors/directors/etc. retire when they hit 59 to make way for younger people?
I started out using Gillette when I was a kid, but now think they’re way overpriced.
So I just use Bic disposables nowadays.
Two comments on that article.
One, I like how Jeff Gaspin is trying to spin it into a positive that Zucker left his ass waving in the wind if this blow up.
Yeah, Gaspin, I am sure Zucker was more than thrilled to let you pull the trigger on this CF.
Second, when did Carson Daly get a show? He is getting screwed most of all because they cannot move his show back and no one even cares. 
There were some good elements to Jay’s new show. I liked the sit down interviews without the desk. The stage was better. I liked seeing the format shaken up.
Still, they couldn’t over come the bad time slot. They didn’t have as many interesting guests. The show obviously couldn’t last. I hope they keep the best new stuff and use it in Jay’s newest late night show.
Jerry Seinfeld’s comments are interesting.
Love Conan, but just watch him on DVR, so I couuld care les what time his show is. Don’t really care for Leno so much.
Daly started doing his show on NBC eight years ago! :eek: He should go back to MTV.
Carson Daly’s show is something that especially puzzles me. First of all, who that is up at 1:30AM is gonna be watching a talk show? Secondly, I’ve seen his show a couple times mainly out of curiosity, and it is BORING. Who actually watched it??
I think part of it is that Leno is seen as the mainstream, watered down guy. He’s fine, but the other hosts have a lot more die-hard fans. So in conversations like this, you won’t get a lot of people making an effort to defend Leno, but you’ll get fans of all the other guys attacking him.
There’s also the perception that Leno is somehow screwing over the other hosts. IIRC Carson wanted Letterman to succeed him; Letterman himself obviously wanted the Tonight Show (and had apprenticed for it on the Late Show); and now Conan is getting pushed to accommodate Leno as well. It’s not clear how much of this is actually Leno’s doing, but it does create an impression.
Also there is the continuing impression that network executives have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. 
If anyone is screwing people it’s NBC. Leno is just taking jobs that he was offered.
Maybe Carson knew something…he already had another job lined up:
Starting prime time at 5 PM wouldn’t do a lot for the ratings, and we have enough people out here to make a difference.
Doubly odd is when you have satellite, and can get programs 3 hours early. I DVR the Daily Show at 8 PM every night, which is great. The best thing about the West in this regard, as a native New Yorker, is that the Oscar telecast doesn’t end in the middle of the night here.
I can’t believe I’m defending Carson Daly and Conan O’Brien in the same thread, but…
I catch Daly’s show roughly 3 times a year, and about a year ago, he switched from doing a typical live-on-tape talk show, to doing a heavily post-produced interview show with 24p video and kind of an avant-garde style. I’ll admit I found the subjects boring, but it was creatively edited and completely different from the rest of the nightly talk shows.
Wow, Leno has really been ripping the network a new one.
In his monologue tonight?
I am planning on watching and hoping it’s going to be good, as he has plenty to work with right now…
Maybe he’s trying to buy back his everyday nice guy cred- because he’s kind of looking like a douchenozzle who doesn’t know when to go away in this situation.
SEE? I HATE NBC, TOO! RAWWWWR!
So what did he say in the monologue?
I thought Conan had some good jokes, such as moving to Fox and following 24 in a show called 24:05.
Not his fault for getting forced out. But no on forced him to take the 10:00 spot. And he wasn’t forced to put on a crappy show at that time.
And doing a piss poor job of it.