Explain the whole Conan-Leno feud to me

It's more Conan-NBC. NBC is just fricking up and kinda fricking him over.

Find his monologue from Tuesday night online. He kinda goes into it. Also, check the threads on the movie board about it.

He wrote a letter in the NY Times explaining things as well.

Screw job #1:
Conan has had other offers but has been waiting patiently for Leno to retire for several years so he could take over his dream job (Tonight Show). Instead of Leno retiring and Conan getting the spotlight, they created something new and frick Conan by watering down late night talk shows. Conan was pissed about it but kept his mouth shut.

Screw job#2:
Leno's ratings has sucked and now NBC wants to move him away from primetime and bump Conan's "tonight show" to 12:05am. Conan is even more pissed and hasn't kept his mouth shut this time.

also... Conan isn't too happy that he moved his entire show (staff & family) to L.A. from new York to take over the Tonight Show. Now 7 months in... NBC is wanting him out.

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Screw job #1:
Conan has had other offers but has been waiting patiently for Leno to retire for several years so he could take over his dream job (Tonight Show). Instead of Leno retiring and Conan getting the spotlight, they created something new and frick Conan by watering down late night talk shows. Conan was pissed about it but kept his mouth shut.

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About 6 years ago Conan forced NBC to put an end date on Leno. When the end date was closing in, Leno really didn't want to retire and would have gone to ABC to create a competing late night show. NBC didn't want this and that's when they came up with the prime time show idea.

This is not Leno's fault. He has every right to work. NBC made some horrible decisions. They should have either let Conan or Leno go and let them compete. Now both brands are tarnished.

Regardless, Conan is starting to sound like a whiney little kid. Just because it's his dream job doesn't mean everyone should just roll over and kiss his arse and give him exactly what he wants.

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I would guess that Leno had some input in the decision to do the 10pm show. He's not innocent in this debacle.

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Everyone (including Conan) has dirty hands in this. However, NBC is the decider and asset owner here and has ultimate responsibility. Conan had some strikes against him, no doubt, but no part of his show was consistently good and that's on him.

I'm so hurt...

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but no part of his show was consistently good and that's on him.

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so NBC limiting what he can do is his fault?

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I'm so hurt...

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You also fail to demonstrate a knowledge of the late night television. NBC has handled every decision horribly since Carson decided to retire. Your assertion that O'Brien somehow held ultimate sway over NBC is not well founded. The execs at NBC were trying to have it both ways.

And O'Brien is not particularly "whiny". He relied, perhaps foolishly, on NBC to give his show a fair shot. He is justifiably upset that he and his staff made a substantial personal investment in order to get the gig, and now 7 months later the whole thing is about to go into the crapper. Seven months is not enough time to judge whether the show will find its audience and produce ratings.

Really, it comes down to the suits once again flip flopping and caving to the whines of a substantial number of affiliates regarding Leno's primtime debacle. But that should be Leno's problem, not O'Brien's. Leno is a safe, middle of the road choice that, frankly, while attracting a fairly reliable audience, will ultimately be an anachronism if not so already.

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Leno knew better than anyone that a prime time Tonight Show would give him first shot at guests and jokes. Didn't matter if the Leno show succeeded or failed. Either way, it would screw over Conan's Tonight Show.

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This. Leno is very, very shrewd and manipulative. He is not totally the nice guy that some seem to think.