Jay sucks!
Conan was great. He was funny and not mean spirited like Letterman.
NBC made a grave error in pushing Conan out.
He also was screwing with NBC at the end, the song he had Tom Hanks walk out to on his last night was the Beatles song “Lovely Rita” in honor of Tom’s wife Rita Wilson. Cute gesture that cost NBC half a million dollars.
And it also cost them alot of cash when he played the Rolling Stones on another night.
Leno already was the second coming of Carson. He projected the same sort shtick, with some small allowance for changing taste, for example, JAY WALKING as replacement for Carson’s goofball skits. It was really as nearly perfect as anyone could hope for, and NBC ruined everything by replacing Leno with Conan. Of course, you can’t go back, even though they’re trying to.
I’ve always been a Conan fan, BTW, and FWIW, but he just fit better with the conventions of the LATE LATE SHOW concept. LATE vs. LATE LATE sets up some very specific requirements. Whatever the reason may be, they are easily discernible.
I still don’t get it, to me, Conan is many things but funny isn’t one of them. Ridiculous is more like it!
Conan had a brief flirt with being amusing back in the early 90s.... and quickly faded. The only younger guy out there that would bring in crowds would be Stewart but A) you’d have to lure him away from CC, and B) He’d have to transition to making interviews about the interviewee, not so much the sarcastic jab.
I don’t know if he could do B, but if he could, he definitely could take over late night.