The other late-night hosts addressed Conan O’Brien’s final Tonight Show each in his own unique way.
Jimmy Fallon and the Roots paid musical tribute to Conan from O’Brien’s old New York City studio:
Jimmy Kimmel proved once again that he’s terrific at the taped-bit stuff. He reedited Jay Leno’s lousy 1989 movie Collision Course, in which Leno played a cop partnered with Pat Morita, to make it look as though Conan was taking his revenge:
David Letterman usually tapes his Friday show earlier in the week, and I assume that was the case this week. He limited himself to a few Leno jokes and then said there was going to be a sequel to the 1996 HBO movie The Late Shift, about Leno winning The Tonight Show over Dave. The new Late Shift 2 looked like this:
Craig Ferguson, too, pre-tapes his Friday editions, and The Late Late Show pretty much avoided the late-night wars last night to devote his show to a salute to MythBusters, a show he loves because “it’s about blowing stuff up, which is awesome!”
Ferguson said this was also NBC’s philosophy: “‘This is working,’” he said, assuming the corporate voice of NBC and referring to Conan’s Tonight Show, “‘so blow it up!’” It was great. I hope you watched it.
Did you see any of these guys last night?
Follow me on Twitter @kentucker
For more:
I love love loved Jimmy’s tribute to Conan!
Jimmy’s embarrassingly bad. I feel sorry for him most of the time.
no one is worse than jimmy fallon
I loved the tribute, but I had to turn him off during the monologue.
Jimmy’s good with guests and taped stuff. 7th Floor West, Robert’s Bothered, and Real Housewives of Late Night is hilarious. It’s his monologue and non-taped stuff that tends to be off. Like last night his thank-you notes. Some were good and some were lame. But, Conan wasn’t that good when he first started, and look at how good he is now.
No one worse than fallon? Have you watched Kimmel?
You’re an idiot. Kimmel’s hilarious.
I never feel bad for Jimmy Fallon, I felt bad for myself having to endure him laughing through every skit on SNL for years.
LOVE craig ferguson. He’s the best and funniest of the bunch.
Jimmy Fallon’s tribute was the best.
TOTALLY agree with you about Craig!
Craig is funny, in an douchey way. His humor makes me cringe. He’s not as smart and witty as Conan and Conan also has superior interview skills, thats why celebs constantly refer to him as their favorite talk show host to talk to!
Ugh. I can’t stand Craig Ferguson. He’s uncomfortable to watch.
Jimmy is super sarcastic. I love his show.
Craig is “not as smart and witty as Conan” ? You’re being sarcastic, surely. The guy is brilliant! He’s well read, can speak with guests on any topic, be it political, historical, geographical, whimsical or, indeed, lame. And insert comedic wit in between. Hilarious and clever.
Kasey…I agree. Craig is brilliant and clever. Anyone who’s read his novel would know that immediately. Is he juvenile at times? Hell, yes! If he wasn’t, he’d be a bore. I loves me my double entendres!
Weird- the guests on Ferguson’s show always look like they are having the time of their lives to me. The women often laugh hysterically at him.
If the UN was doing its job, Leno would be put on trial for crimes against humanity and then drawn and quartered on television as a warning to the children never to be such a jerk.
You must be a staff writer for Conan. Not only was that not funny in the slightest, it’s just full of anger directed at the wrong person. The reason NBC wanted Jay back? Conan wasn’t a good fit and didn’t draw the same audience that Jay did in that time slot.
Right, because nothing’s as funny as headline puns accidentally created by someone else and asking stupid people questions. Wasn’t seventeen years of that shit enough for you? Why don’t you go to bed early and let the next generation have a shot with actual comedy?
Facts:
1. It was Conan who “pushed” Leno off the Tonight Show five years ago by threatening to leave NBC if they didn’t anoint him to the top spot by 2009. Leno didn’t want to leave-particularly since he was beating Letterman.
2. If Conan’s ratings didn’t suck then guess what? NBC would’ve thrown Leno off the air all together.
3. The Letterman intern scandal gave Conan a wide open shot to steal viewers from CBS. It was Conan’s game to lose and he was blown out.
Tell ya what rolly, we’ll let you pull the knife from Conan’s back and use it to quarter Leno yourself.
I’m sorry, but are you fans of NBC as a business or fans of comedy? I see a lot of people saying “his ratings weren’t good” as if that determines the worth of his program. What makes a program good from a viewer’s perspective is writing, talent, and innovation.
As a television viewer, I don’t look at a TV show and ask myself, “Are a higher percentage of people watching this than programs currently airing on other networks?” to determine if I like something. I’m starting to wonder if Leno’s viewers admire him as a business man.
Nice try, Mr. Ebersol. The reason NBC wanted Leno back was that they gave him a $150 million dollar payment in his contract if they had to cancel The Jay Leno Show. Since they couldn’t pay that, they asked whether he’d take back 11;30 instead. Since that’s what he wanted all along, he said “yes.” He even went on record as saying”I’d go back to 11:30 if they asked me to.” Then he pretended for much of hte next two weeks that he was an innocent pawn. This is why pretty much every media critic calls Leno “disingenuous.” And that’s about the best thing you can say about him.
And, Mr. Ebersol, let’s not forget that this whole event was precipitated not by Conan’s ratings but by affiliate outrage at leno’s 10 PM ratings.
This is why Conan fans and neutral observers and every comedian in Hollywood and New York dislike Leno. Okay, Mr. Ebersol…back to screwing up the Winter Olympics!
Uh how was Conan supposed to have good ratings? He just started doing the show, so he is obviously not going to have the same 11:30 audience that Jay had. And the 10 p.m. programming that is supposed to keep viewers watching NBC at night was who? Oh yeah, Jay, giving the news and Conan the worst lead in the network has ever had.
You’re attempting to attribute this to OBrien’s ratings? Have you been reading news for last six months? Leno’s ratings tanked and took other programming (incl local news that follows) with it. Nice try… what are you, a Leno writer? See:
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) — NBC told Comcast Corp. in November that Jay Leno’s ratings had hurt local stations, one of the factors that weighed on the value of the entertainment company, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
Faced with falling prime-time and late-night ratings, along with viewer losses for local news on affiliate stations, NBC said this month it would move Leno back to late night at 11:35 p.m.
Hey Pabst: Conan didn’t “push” Leno off the Tonight Show. NBC could have let Conan go at the end of his contract & kept Jay where he was. They didn’t have to agree to put him in the Tonight Show to begin with. Jay could have kept the Tonight Show & Conan could have gone off to work somewhere else (which is exactly what WILL happen now).
Davidicus….Leno’s ratings were consistently high when he was at 11:35pm. For the past 10 years or so he was #1.
When the switch happened. 10pm Leno tanked, 11pm news tanked, Conan tanked at 11:35.
No one watched Leno, the News OR Conan. Not even Conan’s old timeslot viewers…they didn’t tune in to him at 11:35. So, for all the whining, it’s the VIEWERS fault for Conan leaving. Cause if we’d had watched his show at 11:35, maybe he wouldn’t be gone now.
I agree with you, mrtoffler, Jaywalking was the stupidest, most insulting, intelligence-wise, crap I have ever seen on late night television–and he did it for years!! There’s a Canadian comic, Rick Mercer, who has been doing it for years, and in his hands it’s goofy and not so mean, and it IS funny!! Headlines was Leno’s only good bit, and that was basically ready-made for him. Creatively, Leno is so far behind all the rest of the late night hosts, (including the newbie, Jimmy Fallon, who is not too bad) I don’t get why or how he got and kept the job for as long as he did. Ratings aside. He had great lead-ins for years. Conan did not. Leno’s time, unfortunately not up yet, will likely be very soon, because most Gen-X and Gen-Yers prefer Conan, and even most Boomers I know (I’m one) do too. Who will NBC have on hand to take over the show when Leno tanks for good after this fiasco??? Conan’s gone, and there’s nobody on deck (as there always has been throughout the show’s history). Unless they want to give Letterman another shot (when Zucker’s gone, that is). Not that he’d take it.
I agree with Josh. If they were to keep Conan now, imagine how high his ratings would be? He JUST started 7 months ago, he’s only been host of the Tonight Show for 7 months! Besides, you know who’s more classier because Conan opted to leave when Jay could’ve said no, and left himself instead of undirectly kicking Conan off (even though Conan left). Conan just is a great guy, and it sucks that this is happening. Besides everyone is talking about Conan’s bad ratings in the first 7 months, but no one seems to be mentioning that Jay’s ratings were horrible. So if he’s so funny, and you agree with Leno, were you watching every Leno episode? You can’t say Conan was horrible and no one was watching if Jay moved to a time where more people would be awake and he still didn’t get good ratings. He is the whole reason this switch up is happening, not Conan’s ratings. (& when I say “you” im speaking in general to the Leno fans)
Cat – I watch them all. But I didn’t watch Leno at 10p – cause I was watching other shows. But in defense of Leno show, NO ONE was watching Conan either. His ratings at 11:35pm were lower than his ratings at 12:35pm.
So where did all Conan’s viewers go? You can’t blame all of Conan’s bad numbers completely on his lead-ins. Cause he already had a show, and was moving an hour earlier to an established time-slot with the #1 rated show at 11:35 when Jay left.
So, in my opinion, Conan was funnier and better at 12:35am (until the last 2 weeks). He was neutered a bit when he took over 11:35.
I think the biggest devil in this is NBC.
Yes I agree, NBC is. And Im not saying that Conan did way better than Jay on ratings (honestly I don’t know the small details), I just don’t understand when Leno fans say, “well the ratings don’t lie, it’s Conan’s fault” when they don’t talk about Leno’s ratings. i’m just sure if the situation were in reverse, they wouldn’t have the same opinion. But for Conan, Im not going to be cynical
I think i’ve spent enough time on the subject, can’t wait to see Conan when he returns!
& I meant to put my comment under “Rolly”
Ferguson is a class act–silly when silly is appropriate but crystal clear perspective on more serious issues
Ferguson has his moments, the puppets being the better part of his act. Watching Ferguson is like watching a bi-polar crack addict who can’t focus on one topic for more than a minute. His interviews are exhaustive and mentally tiresome.
Exhaustive??? So sorry you’re not able to keep up with him…You are really missing out on a lot.
Apparently his legion of YouTube fans beg to differ. 99.9% of the views get 5 star ratings. I watch them over and over on the weekends when there isn’t anything but crap on TV. Maybe you should try that, you can hit the pause to freeze it until you can figure out what he meant, and then resume.
I love Craig, and I love his humor, it’s quick, quirky and original, and it doesn’t insult the intelligence. His interviews are different than most, though. Rather than being informational, they are seat-of-the-pants informal chitchat done for comedy rather than information, and I like his style, except when I think he’s going to ask something I really want to know, and the whole interview is just an exercise in silliness. But that’s what makes Craig Craig, and different from the pack. One of the sharpest comic minds out there, up there with Letterman and Conan. Love him. Letterman is different from Craig, very sharp as well, and he can pull up facts like nobody else. They all have their unique qualities which make them great to watch. Except Leno, that is, IMHO.
Craig is the best. Yes, his interviews are different…because he refuses to allow his guests to just sit there and plug their product. He insists on an actual conversation (imagine that). As he has said before…”If I ask them what it was like to work with __ actor, then I’ll get a boring answer. If I ask them if they’ve ever had sex with a midget…I’m liable to get an interesting answer.” I’ll take interesting over rote any day of the week.
You sound like you get tired mentally rather easily. Btw, I think the word you were looking for was “exhausting” and not “exhaustive”.
I think that Craig Ferguson is the best comedian on late night television at this time. Before going to sleep ,, it is great to feel fine and laughing a great deal considering the news of the day. He is absolutely hilarious at times and says it as it is. He also has a great empathy for people.
craig’s the best late night show host ever :p they should cancel the rest and have him on every network
Yeah, Craig’s awesome. I loved watching Conan’s last show last night and it nearly brought tears to my eyes seeing how heartfelt he was in his final words.
Talk for yourself. I don`t care for Craig. I like letterman.
Totally agree that Craig is the best of the lot!
Wouldn’t have missed Conan’s last. His enthusiasm will certainly leave a void at 11:30. As much as I love Letterman, he and Leno are sleeping through their shows. Conan has maintained his vigor and it’s just plain fun to watch him have such a good time putting on a show. Only Craig Ferguson is halfway doing something different (and Ken, Craig’s been dropping hints over the last few days that he’s actually been taping a couple weeks ahead of time). So in the end, the fogies get their guy back at 11:30 and fresh funny will have to wait until Conan lands on his feet somewhere on Sept. 1.
I couldn’t care less about Conan and frankly I’m glad I won’t be hearing about him for a while. Where’s my 32 million? I would have failed as host of The Tonight Show too.
Yeah but you sound like a much worse human being than Conan, so no dough for you.
Conan has entitlement on his side. He’s also the poster boy for all the spoiled little douches of America who live with a sense of entitlement — the same people who elected Obama, who has a massive sense of entitlement as well. It’s all a big circle jerk.
Conan took over a tough slot at Late Night and worked his ass off for 16 years making a fantastic and innovative show while Jay was rehashing the same garbage. Fuck your generation’s self righteousness, selfishness and resistance to change.
If you’re going to make a comparison, you need to make sure that all significant factors are comparable. Leno, for example, had 15 years of hit prime time dramas as lead ins. Conan had Leno awkwardly asking questions to a guest via satellite. Leno was getting bested by Letterman initially but had the backing of NBC. Conan had the brass at NBC placing Leno at an earlier time slot to raid the guest pool. Leno is the pinacle of mediocre garbage and if you don’t understand that then you’ll never understand why he is an awful person because you obviously lack a soul.
I am fairly sure this guy doesn’t even know what entitlement actually means.
To Conan = Entitlement: It’s obvious you just have something against Conan, or are probably a rude Jay fan, because at least make a logical point. Saying that about Conan is not even true, did you see his last show? He didn’t get mad at anybody, he thanked NBC!!! I’ve never seen Conan act like he had a sense of entitlement , at all. I may not like Jay, but I wouldn’t say that about him. That was just immature. Conan is the best late night host period. I couldn’t imagine he’d do the same thing as Jay if he was in his place. If he had the option to take back “The Late Show” (Jimmy Fallon), I bet he wouldn’t do it
Right wingers are not funny. Look at their posts. Sad.
Since when did expecting corporations to honor their contracts become an entitlement?
What does Obama have to do with anything related to Conan? Wasn’t he on Jsy’s show, anyway?
I’m pro-capitalist, and I’m pro-Conan. Work hard, make money. People are on different pay scales, depending on skill and industry. If contracts are broken, there is a penalty. How is that entitlement?
You’re a female – females can’t host late night, and Wanda Sykes sucks!
Not quite; she licks.
you two are absolutely disgusting.
I believe she also spits.
Conan didn’t fail of course the tonight show’s ratings dipped they did when carson left to if carson pulled that crap on leno that would have been wrong jay shouldn’t have retired in the first place who wants to watch a talk show at 10pm conans ratings would have went back up due to his fan base and eventually the real tonight show fans would have come back thats like the original snl cast wanting their jobs back and nbc firing the new cast jay left his mark on the legacy of the show like carson did and conan deserved his right…..i like jay but just like athletes when the time is up the time is up reinvent yourself find new mediums and challenges to conquer this is the perfect example of how people get stagnated and hate change not to mention jays ratings at ten tnked as well i respect your opinion but conan got shafted to soon
I gotta dime for ya…the value of your failure at life.
Ha! If she is going to fail, she could at least be funny while she’s at it to expect the millions.
Ummmm…their comedians (and multi-millionaires) people…does your passion run as deep for *real* issues I wonder?
JP:
It sure does, but this is a TV site. People talk about TV stuff here. Please condescend elsewhere.
Ummmm… “they’re” comedians.
Yes, I care very deeply about people using the word “their” instead of “they’re” when they are trying to say “they are”. It’s a contraction, it uses an apostrophe. Learn it.
Tom, will you be my new BFF? LOL That was great!
Hey JP, Why are you looking for “real” issues on an entertainment website? Go bury your face in a newspaper.
Great clip of Craig Ferguson NOT paying tribute to Conan last night.
ALL clips of Craig are great!
Craig taped this entire week’s worth of shows last week.
i miss Conan already
I dont feel bad for Conan. He has till september to have fun spending 45 million bucks. boohooo for Conan! yea right.
Conan said over a week ago not to feel bad for him and that he’s fine… He’s rich, and we all know that, but he also got screwed by NBC and that creep Leno. Anyhow, more than a quarter of that $45 million is being paid directly to Conan’s staff (which Conan had to negotiate for since NBC didn’t want to pay the staff severance) and it’s been widely reported that Conan’s paying his staff even more out of his own pocket while he’s off the air. The plan is to have them back (or as many as possible) when he finally lands somewhere. This is the same Conan that paid his staffers himself during the writers strike a few years ago, while Leno was a total scab and crossed the picket lines.
Leno is a jerk and I detest him. HE is the Grinch who hang around to ruin the 2010! He is machiavelic because he had the plan all along as he knew how hard it is to build the viewership to No. 1. So, he was probably working against Conan from day 1 and by him taking the 10 p.m. show it meant the audience was either confused and split. Evil, evil, evil and I hope people just turn him off.
Lola – (or someone) please explain to me why Leno is the jerk here? I see the only jerk as NBC. NBC wouldn’t let Jay out of his contract. Frankly, I think all the Jay bashing is kinda misplaced. It should solely be NBC bashing.
I dont feel bad for Conan. He has till september to have fun spending 45 million bucks. boohooo for Conan! yea right.
He is my favorite on late night, with ferguson a close second.
Not sure why people feel sorry for Conan when he’s paid 35 Million just to quit. Other comedians are making fun of Jay just because they feel threatened or to get revenge. Jay and Conan are both good. NBC decided to stay for Jay because he has better ratings. U go Jay!
“U go Jay,” to hell in a handbasket… Raymond, I could take sevenra paragraphs to explain how ratings aren’t as simple as you make it out to be. Leno BOMBED in prime-time and that’s what created this mess. It killed prime-time for NBC, seriously hurt late local news, and that in turn hurt Conan’s ratings. Also, Conan’s audience is a much younger, and more lucrative with advertisers, audience than Leno pulls. Conan was having to compete for that same relatively younger crowd vs. Letterman now (who also pulls younger than Leno). Finally, most of NBC’s promotion went to Leno’s dud of a show and not Conan’s “Tonight.” Leno’s audience is aging, even dying, and this stunt is only going to damage Leno’s likability with viewers AND guests, Conan needed time to establish his show, just like Leno needed when he started. Conan was a good long-term investment, and NBC is being short-sighted. Leno won’t stay much longer.
Sorry for the mistake in spelling “several.”
You go Shaun! Great post. Leno bombed so bad that they had to kill his show, but they couldn’t pay the $150M contract penalty due to him, so they (Leno and NBC) backstabbed Conan.
Shaun,
Conan’s ratings began to tank way before the Jay Leno Show began to air. Yes, even the key demographics.
And one last thing, older people are also human beings with the same rights. They are NOT second class citizens regardless of what the advertisers think.
Oh, and btw, “Go Jay!” : D
I hope in 20 years when I’m watching Conan on whatever late night show he’s on, no one calls me old and dying. If they try and replace Conan with some young whippersnapper then, I might get pretty angry and take it out on those neighborhood hooligans that keep messing up my roses. But it’s inevitable I suppose. Damn Fallon fans…
I also forgot to mention that a lot of Conan’s viewers weren’t watching the show on TV. They were watching online on Hulu or the “Tonight” website. I usually saw the show, aside from these past two weeks, online myself. I know several people who never watched on TV and watched online at their own convenience. Those folks aren’t getting counted in the ratings either, but there’s revenue to be made online as well. Again, incredible short-sightedness on the part of NBC to damage “Tonight,” and to go back to a tired show/host that will likely do well in the short run, but will create more problems for NBC in the long run. Of course, I hope Letterman’s ratings beat Leno’s after all of this.
Read Conan’s parting words and you will see what a class act his is. Jay is a baby and should have moved on and once again, NBC has really showed ignorant they are. What goes around, comes around!
Oh please. Leno ratings don`t mean he is funnier or better? He is the worst late night host ever. My grandmother watches Leno because she said Letterman is too edgy for her but Leno is an instant sleeping pill so she watches him.
See to me, it’s not just about the money. They took away his dream job without even giving him a fair shot at hosting it. What were they expecting in 7 months??? I have a feeling that even if Conan was doing fairly well at 11:35, NBC would still try and do the push just to keep Leno with them. Maybe I’m a little overly compassionate for someone I’ve never met, but when I see a guy like Conan who’s been called everything from “Genuine” to “Classy” lately by many media outlets and fans alike, it’s hard to see something like this happen to him. It just isn’t right.
Okay, yeah this posted in the totally wrong place. Sorry XD
Forty-five million pay out or not, this never should have happened. I like Conan’s enthusiasm too, but I like his physical humor even more. Still and all, he was just too edgy for the 11:35 p.m. time slot. NBC and Jay Leno should have known better.
David Letterman tapes his Friday show on *Monday*, not Thursday. (And that was the case this week as well.)
I liked Conan better than Leno, but there were more interesting things to TiVo at 10 pm. But frankly, the problem I saw was that Leno was the major screwup for ratings. The local stations were all POd.
At 11:35 who cares? If I ever want to watch any of them, it’ll be recorded on my TiVo and viewed when I want to watch.
Don’t most “target audience age” people have TiVos or DVRs?
Yes they do but the truth is that the ONLY people who think “record now, watch later” ratings are important are fans. The people who pay for television programming, advertisers, know that people who watch recorded shows almost always skip over the commercials and they ONLY care about the ratings that reflect how many people might be watching their commercials.
Hey, I was a nielsen rater for a time. Didn’t have a box, but we had to fill out forms on what shows we watched live, what shows we tivo’d and the tivo’d shows only counted if we watched them within a week of initial airing.
Also, the fact that most people in the target range have DVRs can also be affecting the late night ratings. A lot of people might be using that time to finish watching shows they recorded earlier in the night.
Well, Conan’s audience at 12:35 did NOT follow him to 11:35. Why is that? Did they suddenly all overnight start watching via hulu or dvr? And don’t most people dvr everything now anyway? I do. I rarely watch anything live anymore.
I actually recorded Conan on DVR because the Tonight Show is too early for late night television (in my opinion). I loved Conan at Late Night in New York and wish he never left. NBC made a bad business decision that started years ago when they offered Conan the job at the Tonight Show if the felt Leno was doing well enough. I think NBC needs to do some shifting around of executives before they do anymore programming decisions.