Call it the start of the slow destruction of Nightline or the unwavering confidence the network has in Jimmy Kimmel. Either way, someone is getting bumped and someone is getting dumped.

It's the high school prom all over again.

The New York Times reports that ABC is considering switching Jimmy Kimmel Live with Nightline's time slot sometime before or after Conan O'Brien makes his move from Late Night to The Tonight Show. That means Kimmel would no longer be messing with the natural order of late night television. He would be a direct competitor to Conan's new show when it hits the air later this year.

Of course, nothing is definite and no one except a few unnamed sources who claim to have "knowledge of meetings" are saying that the network is considering the change-up. No one is talking, which is ironic since all of this is over a lousy "talk" show.

Let's say for the sake of discussion that it's true. If the network does embrace Kimmel over Nightline, it will mark the beginning of the end for network television news as we know it. Nightline is a rare gem in this news-fatigued day and age where a simple broadcast consists of throwing as much news at you as possible until (a) you're too tired to process it all and pass out, or (b) you have processed it all, realized the doomsday scenarios the stories are setting up, and then pass out.

Kimmel deserves a chance to compete with the big boys, and if the network does decide to move him up the ranks, he should weather the storms just fine. But Kimmel's gain will become Nightline's pagan sacrifice. It will mark the beginning of the end for the fabled news program that has weathered a lot stronger storms than Kimmel will ever face. And who knows what repercussions it could cause through the television news community? Networks could replace their Sunday news roundtable shows with animated Sham-Wow! infomercials. The network would break into regularly scheduled programming to announce the "awesome primetime lineup." The evening news broadcasts would go dark and CBS might finally get the ratings they have been hoping for since Katie Couric joined their news division.