A Friday Night In

In case you've been living under a rock, or just really didn't care, tonight is the final installment of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on NBC.


In the interest of good journalism I'll let this animated Taiwanese news segment explain the situation. Trust me, you don't have to speak the language to get what's going on here. Skip ahead to the 1 minute mark for the really good stuff.



But if you're not interested in that, here's the point form summary:

• Leno retired from The Tonight show, and was picked up by NBC to do basically the same show at an earlier prime-time slot.

• Conan replaced Leno on the The Tonight show.

• Leno's show sucks, and so does its ratings. Conan is also dropping in ratings, and begins losing viewers to rival CBS host, David Letterman.

• NBC wants to push The Tonight Show with Conan back, and run Leno in his place.

• This is breach of contract, executives start fighting, and the public starts taking sides in the debacle.

• Conan and his crew get paid off in a 45 million dollar settlement, and tonight will be final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

That's not %100 of what happened, but for all intents and purposes, it'll do for the time being.

I've always been a Conan fan, and I'll miss his wacky hijinks and silly sketch routines. This probably won't be the last time we'll see him though, but it's more than likely the last time we'll see him on, or working for, NBC. If you've been watching his show the past two weeks he's practically burned every bridge possible with NBC and CEO Jeff Zucker.

This week's 'Stick It To The Man' pranks have included a new segment where Conan doesn't even try to be funny, he just shows a very very expensive sketch that NBC has to pay for. Wednesday night's segment cost 1.5 million dollars, last night's clocked in at 4.8 million, and tonight's promises to be even more expensive.

This unveiling of the Bugatti Veyron dressed a mouse set to the music of the Rolling Stones cost NBC 1.5 million.

The finale tonight is also guaranteed to have huge guests start to finish, some big routines, and end with a major flourish. I can't even imagine what tonight's expensive segment will be. They kept mentioning the price tag on his 50 million dollar set yesterday, so perhaps he'll trash the living daylights out of it for kicks.

Nobody is coming out of NBC's debacle looking like a hero. Leno looks like a pushy jerk who can't handle low ratings, Jeff Zucker looks like an idiot who doesn't know how to run a successful network, and during a time when poor nations are in serious need of aid, *cough* Haiti *cough* some folks are viewing Conan's expensive routines as jabs that are in extremely poor taste. I can imagine any friendships between network or host have been permanently bruised.


Regardless though, I'm staying in this Friday night to watch television history be made. I'm lucky enough to get the same television networks from different timezones, and I'm going to watch as many opening monologues and talk shows as possible tonight, including, but not limited to:

• The Jay Leno Show

• Late Night with David Letterman

• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (this'll mark the second time I've actually tuned in for this show)

• Jimmy Kimmel Live

and of course, the soon to be retired but not forgotten,

• The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

It was a pleasure watching you these many years Conan. I can honestly say I'm saddened to see that tall, nearly translucent, freakishly slender, ginger-headed, self-deprecating guy being forced off the air.

At least for now.

Silversun Pickups - Substitution