Conan Out Friday

You had better enjoy Conan O'Brien's monologues while you can.  It appears Friday is his last day as host of the "Tonight" show.  USA TODAY reports NBC will pay Conan $25 mil and spend $15 mil to "shut down the show."

It's a rather fast end to a long promise that was sealed in 2004 when Jay Leno agreed to hand off "Tonight" to Conan in 2009.  Seven months later Conan's outta there and Jay's back in.  NYT's Bill Carter reports Conan could be back on another network by September.  Maybe Fox?

Ironically NBC ratings are up as a result of the two-week old imbroglio between NBC and Conan.  USA TODAY's Robert Bianco's opening shot:  "Finally, something from NBC people want to watch.... you can't help wondering how NBC thought its original announced plan — giving Leno a half-hour show at 11:35 leading in to a delayed Tonight — could work. Either NBC's executives had some sick desire to watch yet another part of its schedule implode or they're even more incompetent than a decade of failure had told us they were."

"For O'Brien, this is less a victory than a well-executed, lucrative retreat."

"As for Leno, it may not have been his idea to move to prime time or back to Tonight, but no one forced him to say yes to either proposition. Nor did anyone tell him to make that prime-time show so uninspired and insipid, it had the unprecedented trifecta effect of sinking ratings for prime time, local news and late night."

"Returned to more comfortable pastures, Leno may provide a short-term ratings boost for Tonight, but at what cost? His reputation as a big-time TV draw has vanished (no matter the time slot, his fan base seems set at 5 million), and his image as a nice guy is in tatters. Though viewers may rally around him if Hollywood keeps kicking him, for now he comes across as a petty, petulant bully. In comedy and TV terms he has become irrelevant, and he seems set to turn Tonight into an aging backwater."

"Still, when it comes to this NBC biggest-loser competition, neither can compare to Zucker, whose decade-long mastery of failing upward may finally, thankfully be coming to a Comcast-inspired end. Yes, he has a new contract. So did Leno and O'Brien."

NBC stars at Sunday's Golden Globes were biting the hand that feeds them.  "30 Rock" wondergirl Tina Fey snarked the LA rain was "God crying for NBC."  Globes host Rick Gervais:  "Let's get on with it before NBC replaces me with Jay Leno."  Julia Roberts:  NBC is "in the toilet."  Tom Hanks:  "NBC had scheduled the rain for 10 but moved it back to 11:30."  Even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger took a well-place shot:  Avator director James Cameron could make more dough only if he were "fired by NBC."

Hollywood's TV script writers are clapping their hands in glee over Jay's 10p demise.  Writers griped that NBC was cutting into their turf and pay by putting Jay into the prime-time slot.  CBS czar Les Moonves got a Globes shout-out from a winning actress for "believing in the 10 o'clock drama."