VeeshanVault

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 4:17 pm**

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... bc_tonight

Conan to Take Over 'Tonight' in Five Years
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - NBC announced Monday that Conan O'Brien will take over from Jay Leno as host of the "Tonight" show. But he'll have time to write his jokes — the planned succession won't happen until 2009.

The announcement solves a delicate problem for NBC, which realized O'Brien was getting antsy in his "Late Night" time slot (12:35 a.m. Eastern) and wanted to keep him from jumping to another network.

Leno planned to make the announcement on Monday's edition of "Tonight," a special celebration of the talk show's 50th anniversary.

"In 2009, I'll be 59 years old and will have had this dream job for 17 years," Leno said. "When I signed my new contract, I felt that the timing was right to plan for my successor and there is no one more qualified than Conan."

"Plus, I promised Mavis I would take her out for dinner before I turned 60," the notoriously workaholic Leno said about his wife.

Leno took over from Johnny Carson (news) on "Tonight" in 1992 and after a few years of trailing the man he beat out for the job in the ratings — David Letterman — he passed the CBS star and has been dominant in the time slot.

An unknown at the time, O'Brien had the thankless job of taking over from Letterman on "Late Night," and he was nearly fired after several weeks of painful shows. But he recovered and has been a critical and commercial success.

But O'Brien has openly talked about wanting to move on and, in the late-night world, that means an earlier time slot.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 4:30 pm**

They should have let Jim Rome take Leno's job.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 4:36 pm**

Rome sucks.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 4:42 pm**

CROM!

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 4:42 pm**

Mixed feelings here...I like Conan more than Jay I think, but I'm worried about who will take over for Conan.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 4:49 pm**

Kelshara wrote:Rome sucks.

Because he wants you to have a take and not suck? I can see why you wouldn't like him!

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 5:04 pm**

Mixed feelings as well, but as long as they don't sensor him for the Tonight Show.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 5:24 pm**

Jay Leno always fucking sucked compared to Letterman or Conan, and I've always liked Conan the best, other than Jon Stewart of course!

I just hope they don't tone him down, the reason he stands out is because his jokes can be offensive and sometimes raunchy...I hope they stay with the Conan writers though, the Late Night ones are just shit.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 5:26 pm**

As long as Conan is allowed to keep doing what he's been doing, it should be fine.

As far as Rome sucking. Try listening to him for a bit before you make that statement. He says himself that you probably won't like his show when you first hear it. He says it's a different kind of show, and you need to give it about two weeks.

Rome doesn't suck.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 5:52 pm**

Yes, Conan but keep the same format he has right now. Including some crap ass skits that he knows are horrible but he makes them good because of his comments etc.

For anyone that might be upset that Conan will take over in five years I say to you "Settle down my babies!"

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 5:58 pm**

Speaking of bad skits...I hope he keeps that Walker Texas Ranger leaver near him at all times.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 6:43 pm**

Speaking of Rome, I was going to post this but I forgot. Frank Caliendo from Mad TV comes on the local ESPN radio network and does his John Madden impersonation every Monday, but in the clip below he also breaks out into Rome. I'm sure you've all seen/heard his work, but if not here's a taste (it's pretty long, and the Rome part is only in the last couple of minutes)

http://rope.espnradio1000.com/mondaynightjohn091304.wma

I love how he says (as Rome) you just need to give the show 5 years. After that, you'll begin to like it.

My "take" is that Rome isn't too bad...he's not great though...defintely not late show material. Hell, he couldn't even keep his talk show on ESPN TV in a reasonable time slot.

The thing that kills his show are the clowns errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr clones. Every call follows the same scripted formula, and these people try way too fucking hard to be impressive instead of just talking about sports. And if the calls aren't bad enough, he has to read the most idiotic e-mails in response to every little segment. In fact, the only part of the show worth listening to is his opening monologue.

We gave him about a year in Chicago....he's out, and we're not racking him.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 7:02 pm**

Classic Conan..

http://videos.shooshtime.com/vids/f28a3 ... ohome.mpeg

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 9:20 pm**

conan is god

I WILL JINGLE ALL THE WAY TO SACRAMENTO T3 RISE OF THE MACHINES

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 9:43 pm**

murr wrote:conan is god

I WILL JINGLE ALL THE WAY TO SACRAMENTO T3 RISE OF THE MACHINES

LOL, that skit was the best.

Posted: **September 27, 2004, 10:07 pm**

Conan is the best for late night. But I'm also afraid that Conan's act might change for various reasons. One that hasn't been brought up yet is just the mainstream pressure he will have to endure to have well "normal humor".

I hope Conan does get the job tho, he graduated from Harvard for godsakes.

Posted: **September 28, 2004, 12:13 am**

I'm kinda getting the "don't mess with a good thing" vibe off of this

Noone deserves the success more than Conan, but I don't envision him being able to continue some of his more controversial skits (read: bush satire/camel toe annie etc.) which is his bread and butter in a mainstream venue like the Tonight Show

/shrug

Posted: **September 28, 2004, 12:37 am**

Posted: **September 28, 2004, 2:33 am**

As long as Conan brings Max Weinberg and that Joel Godard, I'll be satisfied.

"Isn't that right, Cactus Chef playing 'We Didn't Start the Fire' on a flute?"

Posted: **September 28, 2004, 4:33 pm**

I wonder how his cameltoe skit will go over.

VeeshanVault

Conan to take Tonight Show

Conan to take Tonight Show