Jay Leno Returns To Late Night, Conan O’Brien In Limbo : Comedy News

Any comedy fan worth their weight in salt (is that even a saying?It isn’t? Well, it should be) falls on the “Conan & Letterman” side of the argument when it comes to the US Late Show wars. Sure Jay Leno is one of the most popular and watched Tonight Show hosts in history… but so is Daryl Somers. [Case Closed].

Earlier last year, the historic Tonight Show baton was passed over to Conan O’Brien (who had traditionally followed Leno’s 11:30pm slot) only to have the rug pulled from under him when it was announced that The Jay Leno Show (currently airing on 7 Two in the afternoons) would commence at 10:30pm. However, ratings for both programs have struggled in recent months and it was only a matter of time before a change was made… but never did I think NBC would screw Conan O’Brien again (just like they did to Letterman back in the mid-90s… check out The Late Shift movie to get the full story on that little saga).

Conan vs Jay : Showbiz Is A Cruel Mistress

Anyhew – news coming from the States today via TMZ is that “Jay Leno is going back to his 11:30 PM time slot, and it is looking like Conan O’Brien is the odd man out“. It seems that “Jay’s 10:00 PM show will go on hiatus February 1. After the Olympics, Jay will take back his 11:30 PM time slot. What has not been decided – whether Jay’s show will be a half hour, followed by Conan, or whether Jay’s show will be an hour and NBC says sayonara to Mr. O’Brien”.

Both Leno and O’Brien have both been told of the changes, so it will be interesting to see how this one pans out (especially considering Jay never wanted to change slots in the first place, with NBC desperate to keep both Conan and Leno at the station).

If I were a betting man – I would put good money on Leno returning to The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien & Co taking the next two years off and then taking over from Letterman on CBS (whose previous contract ran out in August of 2010 – but recently signed a deal with CBS at a cut salary to keep the show running until “at least August of 2012″). The question is – who will get screwed over here… Conan or CBS’ “Conan” Craig Ferguson?

UPDATE – LENO HITS BACK…

Have just been alerted to Leno’s on-air response to the rumours – you can watch it here, or if you’re in Australia and can’t watch it – here is a summary to what he said – including ripping off his own joke from The Late Shift movie:

* Happy Birthday to Katie Couric, It’s her birthday today. She Left NBC for another network. I have to give her a call to see how that is working out.
* As you may have heard, there is a rumour floating around that we were cancelled. I heard it coming in this morning on the radio. So far no one has said anything to me. But Kev, if we did get cancelled it will give us time to do some travelling. I understand that Fox is beautiful this time of year.
* I don’t think there is any truth to the rumours… See, it’s always been my experience that NBC only cancels you when you’re in first place. So we are fine.
* The justice department announced they will conduct an anti-trust review of Comcast’s proposed deal to merge with NBC. An anti-trust review. Which is the relationship I have with NBC. Anti-trust…
* Hey Kev, what does NBC stand for? Never Believe Your Contract.

WATCH OUT FOR | COMEDY will keep a close eye on this one… until then, let’s re-live some of the more classic late night TV moments! First up, some classic Conan “In The Year 2000″. For the latest on Conan’s depature, check this out.

And now for some classic David Letterman in prime dead-pan mode… he is honestly the only man who I need to see before I go to sleep.

And we can forget “Mr Wick”… who is actually kicking everyone’s butt in the Late Late show ratings…