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As I understand it...the reason the Tonight Show hasn't done well is because of the horrible ratings that The Jay Leno Show was getting in the 10 p.m. time slot. It was so bad that NBC affiliates were threatening to not air it.
They always relied on shows doing well in prime-time to lead in to their local late night news.
So if you have a hit show from 10 to 11, you have a big audience for your local news...and then that audience carries over to The Tonight Show.
The problem wasn't with Conan...it's with Jay. His show had to be yanked. It took up all 5 days of the week in primetime and destroyed NBC's ratings overall.
Frankly I kinda like both guys. I hated Jay when he beat out Letterman for The Tonight Show, and I hated Conan when he replaced Dave. But they kinda grew on me over the last 10 + years.
The whole thing is NBC's fault. Putting Jay Leno on 5 nights a week in prime time was a miserable mistake.
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