I never did care about Jay Leno he's is mean spirited with a nasty attitude that he wraps up in a "I'm a nice guy victim" mask, whatever

Jimmy, however I am loving! I was not on board with him but his unrelenting, confident assertions about late night TV have won me over, I'll give him my attention before I ever look a anything with Jay on it.

It's hoot to read how one millionaire "sucker-punched" another millionaire. Really, we needn't feel bad for any host on any of these shows.

The thing about Conan's rating to remember is that it took jay 2 years to surpass letterman in the ratings (which he only did 1st with the hugh grant interview after grant's run in with divine brown the prostitute).How much lower than Carson's ratings were Leno's ratings at his 7 month point?
So to just give Conan 7 months seems to me rather short.
Plus how much had Conan's ratings dropped BEFORE Leno started his 10 pm show? And then post Leno's new show debut.

Finally i dont recall any affiliates complaining about Conan's rating to the point they wanted to drop NBC

I don't totally buy the whole "Conan's ratings were bad because Leno's were bad."

I might watch a show on NBC at 8 p.m. and switch to Fox at 9 p.m. So, while the news stations probably have a point (because if I'm going to watch the news, I typically stay wherever I watched a 10 p.m. show), it doesn't make sense for the late night TV stuff. I'd watch the show I prefer.

And "building up an audience"? Seven months is a whole helluva lot more time than most TV shows get. Some shows barely get seven episodes. And, yes, I know late night is different, but it's still pretty generous.

(And, in all honesty, I don't really care for Leno or Conan...or even Letterman or Kimmel. Although if I had to pick one, it'd probably be Kimmel. So don't think I'm standing up for Leno.)

If things weren't working as hoped, NBC should have either reduced Leno's days to 2 or 3 days a week, or found a whole new host for the Tonight Show.

Thanks for the info on the fades. My apologies for that.

However, I don't buy that explanation for Conan's ratings. As I've said before, Leno had great ratings for 15 years. You can't say that he had great lead-in shows Monday-Friday for all those years. Maybe seven months wasn't enough to get Conan's ball rolling, But NBC, not Leno, decided that enough was enough. I don't blame Conan for not taking the 12:05am spot, but if he had, he'd still be hosting the Tonight Show. Jay did what anyone else would have done, including Conan if he'd had the opportunity, Leno took his beloved job back. A job he did well for 17 years. Why is Jay being blamed for NBC's decisions? Just don't get that.

"If Jay Leno makes you laugh, chances are I don't care for you as a person." -- Peter Griffin

Joyce: two things. One, TV Squad does not "fade" comments. They are faded by readers who vote down comments.

Two, Conan's ratings were bad because he and the local affiliates had Leno as their lead-in. Leno failed at 10, his ratings affected the local news/Conan, so NBC canceled Leno's show.

Kimmel is an ass. It was a suckerpunch and a cheap shot. The blame for this whole fiasco rests with NBC. Kimmel is only trying to raise his 4th rate ratings. I have no idea what TV Squads excuse is for not letting this go. Nor why they "fade" all opposing comments in Jay's favor here. Conan's ratings stunk. That's why this whole thing happened. Get over it.

Kimmel's keen ability to beautifully point out what an a--hole Leno is continues to astound and amuse me.

jimmy kimmel is jackass