Leno returned to 11:30pm time slot

those people were crazy!! it was cold and rainy here today.

' I thought maybe I should address this. At least give you my view of what has been going on here at NBC.

Oh, let's start in 2004 — 2004, I'm sitting in my office, an NBC executive comes in and says to me, "Listen, Conan O'Brien has gotten offers from other networks. We don't want him to go, so we're going to give him 'The Tonight Show.' " I said, "Well, I've been number one for 12 years." They said, "We know that, but we don't think you can sustain that." I said, "OK. How about until I fall to number two, then you fire me?" "No, we made this decision." I said, "That's fine."

Don't blame Conan O'Brien. Nice guy, good family guy, great guy. He and I have talked and not a problem since then. That's what managers and people do, they try to get something for their clients. I said, "I'll retire just to avoid what happened the last time." OK.

So time goes by, and we stay number one up until the day we leave. We hand — [applause] — no, no. OK, but I'm leaving before my contract is out. About six to eight months early. So before I could go anywhere else, it would be at least a year or 18 months before I could go and do a show somewhere else.

I said to NBC, "Would you release me from my contract?" They said, "We want to keep you here." OK.

"What are your ideas?" They said, "How about prime time?" I said, "That will never work." "No, no, we want to put you on at 10. We have done focus groups. People will love you at 10." . . . Four months go by, we don't make it. Meanwhile, Conan's show during the summer — we're not on — was not doing well. The great hope was that we would help him. Well, we didn't help him any. OK.

They come and go, "This show isn't working. We want to let you go." "Can you let me out of my contract?" "No, you're still a valuable asset to this company." How valuable can I be? You fired me twice. How valuable can I be? OK.

So then, the affiliates are not happy. The affiliates are the ones that own the TV stations. They're the ones that sort of make the decisions. "They're not happy with your performance, and Conan is not doing well at 11:30." I said, "What's your idea?" They said, "Well, look, how about you do a half-hour show at 11:30?" Now, where I come from, when your boss gives you a job and you don't do it well — I think we did a good job here, but we didn't get the ratings, so you get humbled. I said, "OK, I'm not crazy about doing a half-hour, but OK. What do you want to do with Conan?" "We'll put him on at midnight, or 12:05, keeps 'The Tonight Show' does all that, he gets the whole hour." I said, "OK. You think Conan will go for that?" "Yes, yes. [Laughter.] Almost guarantee you." I said OK. Shake hands, that's it. I don't have a manager, I don't have an agent, that's my handshake deal.

Next thing, I see Conan . . . saying he doesn't want to do that. They come back to me and they say, "If he decides to walk and doesn't want to do it, do you want the show back?" I go, "Yeah, I'll take the show back. If that's what he wants to do. This way, we keep our people working, fine."

So that's pretty much where we are. It looks like we might be back at 11:30, I'm not sure. I don't know. [Applause.] I don't know. But through all of this — through all of this, Conan O'Brien has been a gentleman. He's a good guy. I have no animosity towards him.

This is all business. If you don't get the ratings, they take you off the air . . . You can do almost anything. You get ratings, they keep you. I don't get ratings he wants. That was NBC's solution. It didn't work, so we might have an answer for you tomorrow.

So, we'll see. That's basically where it is.'

Ultimately the fault lies with NBC. NBC forced Leno to step down from Tonight show and refuse to let him off his contract.

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/new...80IeSI?v=1

This is NOT what he said 6 years ago when the story broke and he addressed it on the air. He initially said he agreed that they shouldn't let Conan go to another network, that he would retire, that 17 years was enough, and that Johnny Carson was the only person that could host this show into his 60s. Suddenly he wants the show back and he comes up with this revisionist history. If he's claiming what he said 6 years ago, on the show to the public, was a lie, then why should I believe him now?

GE must be so happy that they're dumping NBC.

This is NOT what he said 6 years ago when the story broke and he addressed it on the air. He initially said he agreed that they shouldn't let Conan go to another network, that he would retire, that 17 years was enough, and that Johnny Carson was the only person that could host this show into his 60s. Suddenly he wants the show back and he comes up with this revisionist history. If he's claiming what he said 6 years ago, on the show to the public, was a lie, then why should I believe him now?

Reread what he said

He didn't want the show back.

• He wanted out of the contract.
• NBC refused.
• NBC told him they will change the time slot a little bit (at this point he still isn't getting the show back).
• Leno will agree to it if Conan agrees to it

However, Conan refused the change and will step down if it is changed. So what is Jay Leno suppose to do? He can't get out of his contract.

He can't get out of his contract to go to a competing network, but they can't make him go on at 11:35. His contract is got 10pm, as has been reported many times throughout this mess. He's negotiating a NEW contract to move back to 11:35. What is he supposed to do? He's supposed to retire and not hang over Conan's head. If I take another job tomorrow and my underling replaces me, should I run back to it after I get fired? Have SOME sense of decency here Jay, this is disgusting. And if you're going to do it, at least have the balls to admit what you're doing.

He can't get out of his contract to go to a competing network, but they can't make him go on at 11:35. His contract is got 10pm, as has been reported many times throughout this mess. He's negotiating a NEW contract to move back to 11:35. What is he supposed to do? He's supposed to retire and not hang over Conan's head. If I take another job tomorrow and my underling replaces me, should I run back to it after I get fired? Have SOME sense of decency here Jay, this is disgusting. And if you're going to do it, at least have the balls to admit what you're doing.

"What's your idea?" They said, "Well, look, how about you do a half-hour show at 11:30?" Now, where I come from, when your boss gives you a job and you don't do it well — I think we did a good job here, but we didn't get the ratings, so you get humbled. I said, "OK, I'm not crazy about doing a half-hour, but OK. What do you want to do with Conan?" "We'll put him on at midnight, or 12:05, keeps 'The Tonight Show' does all that, he gets the whole hour." I said, "OK. You think Conan will go for that?" "Yes, yes. [Laughter.] Almost guarantee you." I said OK. Shake hands, that's it. I don't have a manager, I don't have an agent, that's my handshake deal.

shaggy, you're not making sense.

He wasn't fired, he WANTED OUT of his NBC contract, NBC wouldn't let him go to another company.
Your example is FLAWED because Leno wasn't given the opportunity to go take another job, NBC assigned him another job and gave him a new contract for the new job.

Then because of ratings they wanted to move leno BACK to the old time frame, and bump the current time holder conan 1 hour later. Conan didn't want to, and said he'll leave if they try to bump him. NBC decides then they'll let conan go and offered the time back to Leno. Whats leno gonna do? Say no to a job? He already was told his 10PM show wasn't gonna go on, he wants to keep working. He asked for his NBC to release him from his 10PM show contract, NBC won't do it to protect their profit and instead say they'll let conan go.
Nothing about leno leaving for another job then wanting to get back after he got fired.
Again i personally just think you got tunnel vision because you dislike leno.
I prefer conan over leno, but to blame this on really anything besides NBC is stupid.

So if you're able to do a job still that you like, but you're being FORCE not to do the job with a competitor, thats fine. Should you just take your $$ and not do something you enjoy? What if your employer offered you a different position where you can continue to do the job you want, you're gonna say no? Come on now.

If Leno said no to the 11:35 time slot in the first place, they never could've even approached Conan. They can't "assign" him that spot, for two reasons. His contract stipulates 10pm, and he'd need a new one, and Conan has a contract for the Tongiht Show with the 11:35 timeslot implied, which was obviously upheld since NBC is forced to buy him out for $30M. Your entire argument begins after the fact, after Conan basically quit. Leno's an ass for ever agreeing to backstab Conan and hang over his head. You don't think Carson could've made things difficult for Leno if he wanted to come back?