Over the past few weeks we’ve been watching the drama at NBC over the Leno-Conan debacle.  It’s kind of funny to see this whole thing play out; yet it’s sad that the Tonight Show, a legendary program, is taking the hit for this mess.

I’ll be honest, I’m old and I usually don’t stay up late enough to watch either show.  I’m in bed by 10:00pm CST so I never watch either show.  I am a fan of Jay though.  Whether you like him or not, he has a squeaky clean reputation in Hollyweird; unlike most of the people he interviews.

However, when they moved him to prime time, his jokes became watered down and bleached out.  I tried a handful of times to stomach the show and just couldn’t.  The humor was bad and no one wants to see that kind of show at that timeslot.

What I find funny is the source of all of this mess.  Conan and Jay are the two in the spotlight.  But they aren’t the problem here.  The problem is incompetent leadership.  What you are seeing play out before you is a team of executives who have no clue what they are doing.  And we’re the ones suffering for their foul-up!

This issue will most likely end with Conan on Fox and Jay back at the desk of the Tonight Show.  To be honest, this is the way it should have been from the very beginning.  Conan has his demographic and Jay has his, and they are vastly different.  I don’t care for Conan’s silly sense of humor.  But he has a huge following among a younger set of viewers.

I can’t quite remember, but I think General Electric owns NBC.  So here’s the way I would play this out if I was in charge.  I would buy out Conan and let him leave.  You’ve already screwed the pooch, cut your loses and let him go.  Re-install Jay at the Tonight Show and let him get a month’s worth of jokes about the NBC executive screwup.  Then, I would walk into the NBC executive suite and fire every single person, including the secretaries.  Wipe the slate clean and start anew.  When you’re 4th in the ratings, you need a fresh start.

But I’m not in charge.  That’s because I don’t know shit about television and broadcasting.  I do know what’s funny though.

And watching a bunch of overpaid suits fuck up one of the greatest shows on television is NOT funny!

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