Friday, January 22, 2010

The Tonight Show solution


Tonight is the last night of the Tonight Show as hosted by Conan O'Brien. He was host for seven months before the brass at NBC took it away from him and gave it back to Jay Leno. Now, NBC will say that Conan's ratings were in the dumps and Conan's backers will say they were given a horrible lead in with The Jay Leno Show and seven months is hardly any time to gather an audience and seriously compete with Letterman. Eh, what do I know? Well, here's a solution that gives everyone a show and makes everyone look good. Keep Conan as host of the Tonight Show. He was offered the show 5 years ago and deserves some serious support from the network. Remove The Jay Leno Show and give Jay an opportunity to flex his creative muscles. Give him 6 one-hour primetime shows a year plus an extra one for the holiday season. That's 7 shows over 12 months. He can book all the A-listers he wants, put them in sketches and throw in musical numbers as well as highlight up and coming comedic talent that he is so fond of, ala, Mikey Day, Nick Thune and Garfunkel and Oates. Jay looks like the elegant showman, Conan the marque successor and NBC looks like it knew what it was doing all along. NBC/GE also owns a huge list of cable channels as well. Throw Jay a show about antuque cars where he gets to show off his knowledge as a mechanic and automobile historian and it will elevate his status as a common man, regardless of the fact that he earns over $30 million a year. Everyone looks good. Jay himself said he can't host The Tonight Show into his 60's like Johnny Carson did and Jay is 59 already. Well, those are my thoughts.

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