Leno Moving Back to 11:30

[Zeeboe]

I think the reason why Letterman is pissed is because he is still bitter over losing The Tonight Show. He also knows when Jay comes back, he'll be bringing in the ratings again.

I think in due time, this will all just be a bad memory, but things will go back to the way they use to be. Jay will be making jokes about all this again one day when he finally retires, and another host takes over, but before then, people will forget all this hopefully. NBC wants $$$$, and ratings, and they want it now. They had no other choices back in the 90's when they gave Jay time to make the show a hit, but they had options this time, and waiting two years or more for Conan to get his act together is not doing smart business in my view.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by Zeeboe I think the reason why Letterman is pissed is because he is still bitter over losing The Tonight Show. He also knows when Jay comes back, he'll be bringing in the ratings again. I think in due time, this will all just be a bad memory, but things will go back to the way they use to be. Jay will be making jokes about all this again one day when he finally retires, and another host takes over, but before then, people will forget all this hopefully. NBC wants $$$$, and ratings, and they want it now. They had no other choices back in the 90's when they gave Jay time to make the show a hit, but they had options this time, and waiting two years or more for Conan to get his act together is not doing smart business in my view.

Actually, they did have an option back in the 90's. They were reportedly considering replacing Leno with Letterman just a few months into Leno's stint. Letterman had received a $16 million offer from CBS, and NBC had to decide which horse they wanted to back. NBC eventually chose Leno, but Letterman kicked his ass for a good while. This only changed when Leno did something huge and had the interview with Hugh Grant.

Leno is no longer the brilliant strategist that he was. He got destroyed by Jimmy Kimmel on his own show. He has delusions about himself, as you can infer from his speech about "being no Carson" but then doing the opposite of what he said he would, anyway. Also, Leno has been able to build no momentum in this thing. His ratings are down which are not a good sign right now with all the attention floating around his name.

I'm sure Letterman is still bitter, but why shouldn't he be? He was Johnny Carson's picked replacement. He had served NBC for years before. He gave Leno the platform Leno needed to get himself out there a lot more than what he was. It's easy to perceive how Leno swooping in out of nowhere to take the show would infuriate Letterman.