[trackercowe]

Am I the only one who doesn't get why Jay Leno is being portrayed as the villain in this debacle?

Sure Jay wants his spot back, but late night tv is a vicious game where only a few spots are up for grabs. The only two networks with real late night talkshows are NBC, and CBS. There is no way Jay would take over for Letterman, so this was his only option.

Sure Jay could of retired, or found different work, but there is huge money (and respect) involved in this situation, and Jay didn't want to just fade into obscurity. Is it his fault that NBC's plan failed misserably in this situation? Is it Jay's fault that many of his fans stopped watching once Conan took his spot?

Sure you can put a lot the blame on NBC, but Conan just wasn't going to work (at least on NBC). The Tonight Show has always been geared towards a different audience then The Late Night Show, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. The older audience that watched when Jay Leno's show was never going to follow Conan, so they started watching Letterman, which was a huge mistake on NBC's part.

Not sure how you can say turning the clock back is a mistake when NBC has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the past seven months alone. Time will tell if the audience comes back, but NBC couldn't stand by as people left in droves to watch Letterman over Conan.

As for my take on Leno/Conan. I find both to be great at certain things. Conan is the much better comedian/writer there is no question there. But, I always found Jay to be the better host, and Jay actually found his guests interesting. Whenever I watched Conan I usually turned the channel once the monologue was finished. You could usally tell the rest was just filler material. I actually find Conan overratted at times to. Some people (my brother for one) act like Conan is God's gift to Late Night Television. But, in my opinion both Jon Stewart and Colbert are much funnier than Conan, and Jay is a better host/interviewer.

Maybe Conan will be better being less restricted on Fox, or HBO. I did love the era when he wrote for Saturday Night Live. I also loved his work on the Simpsons, so there is no question Conan is very creative.

One other thing though, Letterman and all the comics trashing Leno should just go away. Just because Jay isn't all buddy, buddy with the community, and isn't your standard comedian doesn't mean he should not belong. Jay has never done anything wrong, he is just very good at politicing, and knows how to treat people in the know, and his core (older) audience. That is why Jay won the ratings battle over Letterman for over a decade.