Wash Post TV titan Tom Shales on the Conan/Leno/NBC imbroglio: The last laugh may be on Leno, but not earned by Leno. He seems genuinely to have been stung by his new reputation as a two-timing back-stabber, and though his post-Conan ratings are not disastrous they aren't what they used to be either. He's down 16 percent in the numbers compared with what he got pre-Conan, and reportedly his rating with the 18-to-49-year-old demographic is just about the same that Conan got. Leno looks wounded now, damaged; he's like a guy who fought his way into a party that the other guests then left in protest or out of boredom.
It won't help Leno that his Saturday night performance at the White House correspondents' annual dinner has been deemed a "bomb" in the bastions of bloggery and within the commentator community. The dinner itself, as televised awkwardly by C-SPAN, was a mess.... When... did this once prestigious event turn into Washington's version of the Golden Globes, replete with "red carpet" arrivals -- among them the very bi-coastal Larry King, who at this point in life bears a striking resemblance to the hood ornament on an old Pontiac: His face arrives half a second before the rest of him... One of Leno's big problems is that his constituency skews old whereas O'Brien's is young, and young is still what sells on Madison Avenue. Older people may find O'Brien silly, but infantile belligerence is adored and admired by his fans, who see Conan as the first clown prince of the 21st century, even though he began to flourish at the end of the 20th... Maybe he was just warming up -- for the great late night comedy wars of the new millennium. Somewhere Johnny is laughing.
I just want him to do better then letterman, I guess I am the only one that does not think he bombed sat. night, I just like him better then letterman, he's a scum, it was ok what he did to his wife, only he could laugh at it and turn it into a ratings plus, and if it had been someone else letterman would have crucified them, look what he does to Palin and her family, I like conan also and one of my shows was cancelled just to put leno in that time slot last year, but shales may be a little harsh on him, I know most of you don't agree with me.I just always feel sorry for people.
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