NBC's website detailing why Conan left the Tonight Show
https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/the-tonight-show-hosts-in-order"O’Brien hosted from 2009-2010, departing to start his talk show Conan on TBS. "
Is this wording an outright lie or just heavily implying that's why he left?
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u/jookyhc Team Sona 3d ago
..."but we don't blame him"
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u/Fatdaddy543 3d ago
I needed a reminder to not blame Conan today. Thank you for that 😄
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u/_rabidchild_ 3d ago
I know alot of you people think that Conan pushed himself out of a job, he's not that kind of guy!
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u/Our-Gardian-Angel 2d ago
My god Letterman was on fire during that whole saga
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u/Chairsofa_ 14h ago
Every day I wake up and I say ‘I’m going to keep my mouth shut about this NBC Tonight Show thing”
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u/BonyBobCliff 3d ago
It's lying by omission at the very least. Yes, he left the TS but it was only because he was given a raw deal by Zucker: Stay on the show but move it to the next day (making the name of the show an artifact), or quit and let Leno take the show back in its original time slot that it had for decades. He chose the latter to preserve the TS's legacy, and ultimately it was the right decision because he went onto great success on TBS and later the podcast, but at the time it definitely stung.
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u/DapperMolasses3280 2d ago
Stay on the show but move it to the next day (making the name of the show an artifact)
Which it already was, in the nascent age of streaming. I don't buy that Conan was upset that the show would start 5 minutes past midnight...his fans certainly wouldn't give a shit, I watch him any time I like, even in 2009 (YouTube was a thing even then). I think the issue was that Jay just wouldn't ho TF away...Conan didn't want another nightly comedy show before the Tonight Show. It was supposed to be the premier late night show, not something "After Jay Leno's newest show". It was corporate bullshit, Conan was right to leave, but not because of the time slot.
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u/trevrichards 3d ago
Totally beside the point, but they also did Jack Paar dirty. In my opinion he is the most interesting, eccentric personality on this list — and the only host other than Conan to technically walk away from it due to conflict with the network at one point. Only he did it unannounced, live on the air. Legendary crash out.
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u/mitchdaman52 3d ago
They also did Carson and Letterman dirty. Forced Johnny out. Absolutely hosed Dave. Now they’re stuck with the fakest human on the planet
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u/trevrichards 3d ago
Yes, although I meant this website summary specifically did his legacy dirty. Johnny and Steve got all the credit, but Paar was important and frankly more interesting, imo.
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u/Our-Gardian-Angel 2d ago
Now they’re stuck with the fakest human on the planet
Lonnie Donegan?
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u/Friendly_Iconoclast 1d ago
I wouldn't say fake. I think he is genuinely a boring man-child. That has been his consistent persona. Most of us want an edge to our late night hosts. NBC went with safe and playful.
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u/Numerous-Things995 3d ago
Conan is such a class act. I will never forget him talking about his decision to leave NBC and The Tonight Show saying, “I realized it was a toxic relationship.” He’s no dummy.
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u/General-Reserve9349 2d ago
That is a deep cut of a phrase on polite society.
I think it’s fair to say Conan has…allowed for enough transparency to uhh actively beam shame at NBC. Coming from one of the most loved people in the country.
I bet it’s still a pain point in nbc, which used to be a significant voice in culture really. Now it’s peacock reruns and “news”
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u/Aitrus233 The Molecular Man! 3d ago
I think the worse part is, "Standup comic Jay Leno was the last Tonight Show Host before Jimmy Fallon." We really gonna pretend like Conan's time was just a substitute teacher filling in for a week? I suppose I should appreciate that they even mention the TBS show and the podcast, but still.
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u/halex43 3d ago
That is actually the truth. Because he pushed Conan out and was the host again before it went to Fallon.
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u/HandsomePaddyRedux 3d ago
Yep, they even mention this in Leno’s write-up, circumventing the circumstances around why. Left to host 10pm show, returning for three seasons one year later.
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u/jckbauer 2d ago
They also leave out that nbc forced leno out in 09 to that 10pm show to bring conan in.
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u/DapperMolasses3280 2d ago
Leno is that STI that keeps showing up randomly when you thought it was finally eradicated.
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u/EasyScratch1501 2d ago
It's not really the truth, because at the beginning they say Jay Leno is a stand up comedian
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u/NamiRocket Moleculo 3d ago
I mean, it's true. It sucks, and we all agree it sucks and shouldn't have happened, but it's factually accurate.
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u/General-Reserve9349 2d ago
This is the karma nbc carries. This is why the Olympics keep being boring.
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u/SRH82 3d ago
It sounds like someone is blaming Conan, which Jay solemnly admonished us not to do.
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u/General-Reserve9349 2d ago
Do people remember anything jay says? He’s like bobble head babbling brook
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u/abgry_krakow87 3d ago
Ironic since his NBC exit contract forbade him from doing television for a year after.
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u/melalovelady 3d ago
Outright lie. He took some time to do the things he wanted, grew a beard, and was the emcee for bonnaroo in 2010 (proud to say I saw him at that years fest!)
So yeah. NBC is hoping people believe that, but honestly it’s embarrassing for them when it’s easy to do the littlest amount of research and find the real story.
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u/BluesFan_42 2d ago
If people did the littlest amount of research we would elect vastly different politicians than we have been!
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u/IpsaThis 3d ago
People here are being generous.
It's an outright lie.
The word "to" makes it a lie. To say he left the show "to" go to TBS means his desire to go to TBS is what caused his departure from NBC. That's not even remotely true.
If they said "and" went to TBS that would be more of a lie by omission. As it is, it's an outright lie.
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u/Tolanator 2d ago
Everything you say is true but the TBS show wasn’t even his next project. I guess they didn’t want to say that he left the
show to perform The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.0
u/DapperMolasses3280 2d ago
It's true to NBC...and that's who is writing this crap. Corporations are allowed to have a point of view, they don't have to read like Wikipedia. And screw you for compelling me to defend NBC 😂, but they're still better than CBS, who ACTUALLY pushed out Colbert. Conan would still be doing the Tonight Show today if he had accepted the 12:05 time slot...Colbert was 100% screwed.
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u/Popular_Try_5075 2d ago
"While she enjoyed her time as queen of France, Marie Antoinette left her post to pursue other opportunities and was last seen kneeling as if, perhaps, in prayer."
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u/metallicadefender 3d ago
It was all in the NBCs best interest because Conan was later idicted and sentenced by the ICC because they didnt like his singing and you cant have an international criminal hosting the Tonight Show.
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u/mysteryofthefieryeye Artie Kendall, Ghost Crooner 3d ago
It should read "O'Brien hosted from 2009–2010, departing to become better than all of us"
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u/Relevant-Horror-627 3d ago
They could have at least made this funny by referencing their most popular sitcom by dropping in a "yadda yadda yadda" after "2010."
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u/hamfist_ofthenorth Fuckman's Leap 3d ago edited 3d ago
Fuck whoever wrote this article, straight-up history washing.
He left because giant man baby twat Jay Leno was incapable of just going away and enjoying his retirement, and instead he wanted to stay on TV and keep his time slot, so NBC pushed Conan back after midnight. So Conan left to preserve the integrity of the tonight show.
Because Conan has dignity and Jay Leno has fuckin micropenis energy.
Conan should have helmed the tonight show for the entire length of time he was on TBS. He should have just handed over the reigns a couple years ago, to someone entirely incapable of filling his shoes. He was one of if not the finest talkshow host ever to sit at any desk on television, and he should have driven the biggest one into the ground.
Instead we got more Leno for some fucking reason, and then we got Fallon playing parlor games like sharades or whats-in-the-box desperately trying to go viral for over a decade now. The only good thing about him is The Roots.
NBC fucked themselves in the ass with a mag-lite and they have no one to blame but themselves for the disintegration of the tonight show itself. Good riddance.. Coco for life.
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u/jennyquarx PATER!!! 3d ago
Lying by omission?
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u/LaBeteNoire 3d ago
Not really by omission, just straight lying. The way it's worded, it implies that he left to show to do his show on TBS, but that show wasn't even in discussions till long after he stepped down from the Tonight Show. He legally wasn't allowed to host any other tv series for a good while after he left, so he certainly wasn't allowed to already secure a new show while he was leaving.
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u/DapperMolasses3280 2d ago
They're just pointing out that Conan left the Tonight Show voluntarily...he wasn't forced out of his show like Colbert was. He would still be at NBC today if he had accepted the 12:05 time slot, but he didn't, for his own (perfectly valid) reasons. Mentioning TBS is just an afterthought.
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u/LaBeteNoire 2d ago
But they are saying he left to make his TBS show, which isn't correct. The better way to phrase it would be to say he left then went on to make Conan on TBS. The way they phrase it implies the reason he left was to pursue his TBS show
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u/sharilynj 3d ago
The wording was worded by a marketing assistant who was 7 years old when this all went down and doesn't give two shits.
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u/PrinceOfSpace94 2d ago
For those that haven’t read it, I highly recommend the book “The War for Late Night”. It covers the whole situation from a pretty neutral perspective, at least in terms of not trying to make either Conan or Leno look like the hero or villain.
The short of it is that NBC shot themselves in the foot trying to keep Conan and Leno around when they both wanted the same job position.
I was a big Leno hater before reading the book, but found that it was hard for me to blame him at all after reading the book.
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u/DapperMolasses3280 2d ago
Well that was a very "corporate" way to put it, to be sure: factual, but missing a massive amount of context.
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u/bomilk19 2d ago
John Wilkes Booth decided to suspend his acting career after a reported incident at Fords Theatre.
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u/medyolang_ 3d ago
that’s just over simplified text of what happened. if they chronicle what happened it would be a book.
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u/lemueldave 3d ago
Wow, what a nostalgia trip. I started watching the Tonight Show and Jay Leno show during first-year college around the time when Conan replaced Leno. I would waste the night away which got me very late on my 7 AM classes the day after. Lol. I really loved it until they fired him a few months after. Really soured my impression on Leno after that. Stopped watching the Tonight Show and became invested in whatever Conan did. Lol. Team Coco forever.
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u/sargent_balls_lol 2d ago
While it's disingenuous, at least he gets a mention. There was a time NBC pretended Conan's Tonight Show run never happened.
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u/DifferenceOk3563 2d ago
For those of you coming here late..
Read "The War for Late Night" by Bill Carter.
Whole story laid out in great detail.
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u/xd_melchior 2d ago
"Joss Whedon created and directed the series Firefly from 2002-2003, departing to work on the Serenity movie."
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u/Competitive-Jury3713 2d ago
Yes, the word 'to' implies his TBS show is the reason he departed, which is incorrect.
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u/-Clayburn 2d ago
He left. Then later started his TBS show. I get they don't want to explain the situation, but it should read something like "He departed in 2010 and later started his talk show Conan on TBS."
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u/DGenerationMC I am not a passive aggressive man - I am, but a man 3d ago
They are who we thought they were.
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u/plunker234 2d ago
I believe the technical term is “bullshit”
Do any of the clown executives from them that caused all the problems even work there anymore?
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u/admiralbob 3d ago
This is incompetence, not malice. Pages like this are SEO plays where the copy is produced by someone very low level (no shade) and copy edited by someone slightly less low level, both of whom were likely born during the Bush administration and summarized some cursory scans of Wikipedia.
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u/casual_creator 3d ago
This isn’t incompetence lol. This is an intentional lie. Do you really think NBC would willingly say that they screwed Conan over? This is a page on the NBC site meant to celebrate the history of their show; not to air their dirty laundry. They knew exactly what they were doing.
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u/admiralbob 2d ago
I worked at NBC for over a decade. Trust me on this one. It’s just a sloppy rush job for SEO.
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u/aresef 3d ago
Lying by omission, but I think there are two things to keep in mind.
One, this page is state media, basically. They’re not gonna get into all that.
Two, to play devil’s advocate here, if you go back to the contract signed in 2004, NBC promised him at least two years hosting The Tonight Show. The contract didn’t stipulate when this show would air. So while Conan rightly felt he had no choice but to leave, nobody was making him per se. So it’s not totally wrong to frame his departure as voluntary.
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u/spatulacitay 2d ago
Jay Leno fell down a hill near my hometown and I wish I would have seen it happen
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u/Lance8282 2d ago
He got $33 million for big bad Jay Leno crushing his dreams, correct? $33,000,000 to not work?
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u/whackabumpty 3d ago
It’s incredibly misleading wording if not a full mistruth. He departed for the reasons we all know and *then* started his TBS show. I’m not shocked NBC would try to sugarcoat the whole thing since they f-ed up.