If you have been living under a rock,you might have missed the hot mess that is the battle for NBC Late Night programming. As we reported last week,NBC has “canceled” Jay Leno’s 10PM show and the rumors began swirling that the chinanator would be returning to the 11:35 PM time slot,currently occupied by The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Jeff Gaspin,chairman of NBC Universal TV,confirmed that Jay Leno will no longer have a place in their primetime programming at the Winter TCA press tour this past Sunday. Gaspin blamed the shift on affiliates,who have been complaining about the poor ratings their local news programs were getting following Leno’s show,and went on to say,“The Tonight Show”in May,would be getting the heave ho. Gaspin said,“My goal right now is to keep Jay [Leno],Conan [O'Brien] and Jimmy [Fallon] as part of our late-night lineup. As much as I’d like to tell you we have a done deal,we know that’s not true.”

For all of us Conan O’Brien fans,we were left wondering,much like O’Brien himself,where his show would end up. Insiders from both teams were implying that NBC wanted to bring back Leno to the 11:35PM time slot,push “The Tonight Show”to 12:05PM (essentially making it the tomorrow show on the east coast) and then pushing the rest of the late night lineup back a half an hour. This time slot shift wouldn’t affect Jimmy Fallon and his show,which is a hit with the younger and DVR loving set,but for Conan it would be a real kick in the face. O’Brien uprooted his staff,crew and family to LA early last year to make the move to “The Tonight Show”and there hasn’t been much thanks from NBC since. Ratings have been a problem for both Leno and O’Brien in their new time slots and Conan poked fun at the late night mess last night with his monologue,discussing other opportunities the late night host can look forward to if he no longer has a home on NBC.

PLEASE CLICK THROUGH FOR UPDATES So who is to blame for this mess? The heads of the network are definitely not owning up to their failures. Jeff Zucker and Gaspin have yet to acknowledge their part in this debacle. Gaspin still believes that if given time,Leno would flourish in his new time slot,but he was “forced”to move him because of affiliates and Zucker won’t admit to having much part in this. So is Leno the problem? During the original “changing of the guard”,Leno seemed pretty pissed that NBC would be holding him to his contract and forcing him to step down from a post he seemed to love,which is why he got his own talk show. And yet,if he had such a strong following,wouldn’t he be doing better in an earlier time slot,with no competition? So is it the new host? Back when the new line up was announced,Jimmy Fallon was quoted as to saying that if he failed at this,there was nothing that he could do after it –that this was that big of a deal. Is it possible to fail at something this big? The late night landscape is literally saturated with programs nowadays so no network program will have the kind of numbers Johnny Carson once brought in. So can O’Brien be blamed for all of this? Did he fail? While O’Brien uprooted his staff,crew and family,it seemed he lost himself in the move. His show changed,became a shell of what it once was so it could appease the masses. Unfortunately,it lost what brought all of us there originally. As a one time fan of O’Brien,his irreverent take on the late night gig was what I loved about the red headed goof. His intelligence shined through his skits,be it masturbating bears,calling into the future or just poking fun at the audience. And with his time slot move came the loss of the Conan we fell in love with. So hopefully this debacle forces him to review what made him who he was to begin with. If forced out of NBC,I will follow Conan to another network and hopefully you will too. NBC needs to learn that bowing to the most common denominator,a self imposed task,does not make quality television. A few other sites think Conan would flourish if he made the move,what do you think?

UPDATED: Check out “Conan Says Bye Bye“ for the latest information on the NBC Late Night Saga.

For more on this story,check out:
NYMag –Vulture –Go Forth to Fox,Young Conan

Television Without Pity –Why NBC’s Late-Night Mess Could Be Great For TV Fans
EW –Letterman Gets Last Laugh?