Conan O'Brien will do fine. It's Carson Daly who's the odd man out.
What's this nonsense I'm hearing about Conan O'Brien being the "odd man out" at NBC?
So, let's assume that NBC moves Jay Leno back to 11:35, as seems all but certain. That means Conan O'Brien will either (a) stop getting beaten by Letterman or (b) go to Fox, which will make last year's NBC blitz for "The Tonight Show" seem like an episode of "The Biggest Loser" (which, incidentally, NBC will be if they're dumb enough to let him go).
This morning on KOGO Radio, I explained to LaDona Harvey (sitting in for Chip) how it was that we got to this point, what the various scenarios are and why the odd man out in all of this is Carson Daly, host of the worst show in late night.
Carson seems to know this, which is why he agreed to do this cameo appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live Friday night:
Meanwhile, here is a great letter I got from John Knox, not the reformer, but the guy I met in the 1990s when he was helping Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno get going in "cyberspace." Remember cyberspace? John designed both their websites. He writes,
This whole drama has been riveting to look at from afar (I'm back home in Canada now and working in radio) ... especially as someone who had an inside view of the machinations of both shows.
It pains me to see that NBC has, in an effort to prevent a re-run of the Letterman/Leno/Kushnick debacle, created an even bigger mess. NBC seems to have an unmatched and uncanny ability to put the worst person possible in charge of the Peacock's Entertainment Division and the decisions that flow unchecked from those folks sometimes just defy all logic and reasonable thought. I remarked to a friend who is a retail manager recently that he and I and a monkey could run the NBC Entertainment Division better than the last five or six people in that role, and that would be presuming we both reported to the monkey.
I really feel for both these guys. Both were excellent comedians in their own right and fantastic guys to work with and for. Both Jay and Conan were such gentlemen to this kid who showed up one day with plans to take their comedy and put it on this thing called "the internet'. The executive producers, Debbie Vickers at Tonight and Jeff Ross at Late Night were both amazing people.
I think the smartest move is for Conan to walk. He'll do better elsewhere at this point and has a good shot and helping the late night hours of Fox or ABC. He might be able to singlehandedly create the late night block that Fox has tried and failed to create in the past.
That could create a real horse race in late night and who knows, with the resources of Murdoch or Disney, Conan could possibly give Jay a run for his money.
