Is Conan O’Brien a Victim of His Own Ambition?
It’s a fair question and one that doesn’t seem to be addressed in the “blame Leno” hysteria that’s seemingly spread across the Internet.
Back in 2004, NBC didn’t want to lose Conan O’Brien to another network. Conan’s ambition was to host The Tonight Show. So, NBC gave him a new contract for five years, at the end of which he’d be named the new host of The Tonight Show.
And, they gave Jay Leno a contract that basically ushered him out in five years to pave way for Conan.
Instead of letting Jay Leno retire whenever he wanted to retire, they set an artificial deadline for him to retire. And, there is a big difference between being ready to retire and feeling like you might be ready to retire in a few more years.
Those years come and go, and you realize that you love what you do and you’re not really ready to retire just yet.
So, you start looking at job options.
Then, your boss gets worried you may go to a competitor and gets you to stay.
And, we all know how that turned out.
But, you look back to what set it all in motion and it was Conan O’Brien wanting to host The Tonight Show.
Had he stayed where he was as host of Late Night until Jay—not NBC or Conan—was ready for Jay to retire, then he could have taken over the show then.
All he had to do was be patient.
Instead, a deadline was set. An artificial deadline.
And that’s what set this whole thing in motion.
To that extent, O’Brien is a victim of his own ambitions.
Nobody learns from history, apparently. After all, it’s not like this is the first time that someone who was forced out of their job got it back. Ever heard of a guy named “Steve Jobs”?
I get the point, but it wasn’t as Conan wasn’t willing to move to another network. You can’t blame Conan for wanting to advance. Does anybody buy that if Leno was fully against the move five years ago, would NBC have forced him out?
There is a difference between “ready to retire” and thinking you may be ready to retire in 5 years, but most of us don’t have contracts for our jobs. If I’m at that age where I can retire now, or 5 years for now, I don’t need to make that decision because I’m not contracted. You can’t have a “we’ll see” attitude towards it when your employment is based on a contract.
But, I do think Leno gets too much blame. I think he didn’t act smartly 5 years ago, and he isn’t acting smartly now. But the execs at NBC really dropped the ball. Not only did they pretty much force Conan out, and give him loads of sympathy. They basically took Leno off the Tonight Show for a year, saddling him with a damaged public perception, and gave Letterman a year to hook in some of Leno’s audience. Leno may not be able to win them back, and now NBC may be getting the same ratings they were with Conan, with a guy who won’t have the longevity (from here on) as Conan would. And now many people think your Tonight Show host is a dbag.
What about the ION network? I like that one
Hey, am I caught in a cue?