In an open letter addressed to "People of Earth," Conan O'Brien announced Tuesday that he refuses to continue as host of NBC's Tonight Show— a position he's held for only seven months — if the network follows through on its plan to bump the program back 30 minutes so the Jay Leno Show can return to late-night. In the statement, O'Brien claims moving The Tonight Show "into the next day to accommodate another comedy program," would lead to the "destruction" of "the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting." How will this tense standoff play out? (Read the FULL TEXT of Conan's self-deprecating but blistering press release.)
The ball is in NBC's court: "NBC executives clearly believe that moving Leno back to 11:35 is in their best interest," says Mark Graham in New York Magazine, "regardless of how it affects Conan." This makes sense, since "Jay Leno was beating David Letterman in the ratings for a solid 15 years." That said, many "Tonight Show viewers quickly switched their allegiance to Letterman once Jay 'retired' and Conan stepped in." So NBC's gamble will only pay if "the American public" will forgive Leno for "his disastrous move to 10 p.m."
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