• Newsday breaking news http://www.4info.com/x/bt97 Officials seek more cash to house sex offenders  *Introducing New Robitussin(R) To Go! http://4in.fo/GyeR6A
• A text message from the Newsday paywall text alert service • Regarding news that’s apparently important enough to send us a text message about. The news itself? Relatively important (whether or not it’s breaking is questionable). What weirds us out, though, is the ad. You have three sentences to break news about something – news we’re paying for – and one of the sentences is a Robitussin ad? (We couldn’t get the link to work, by the way.) We specifically asked not to get offers. This seems sneaky. We were all about to write something positive about their site which is actually useful and worth paying for, and then they had to send us this. Newsday fail. (Note: The link to the article is behind a paywall, and we’re linking to it anyway just so you, too, feel the pain of hitting a paywall. It hurts almost as much as running into a real one.) source

• Without Flash support, iPad users will not be able to access the full range of web content, including over 70% of games and 75% of video on the web.
• Adobe Systems Group Manager for Flash Platform Product Marketing Adrian Ludwig • Discussing the iPad and how lame it is that Apple has decided that – yet again – Flash was a poor fit for the device. He also takes issue with the company’s DRMed implementation of the ePub format. Our opinion? It makes sense that the iPhone doesn’t have having Flash due to screen size and battery life, but the iPad? Now it seems like the company’s getting petty. Then again, we’re kinda pissed it doesn’t support Hypercard. source

• Wyclef tries really hard to defend his charity here, but before you believe every word you read here, we want to note that while the Haitian pop star is definitely sincere, there has been a lot of waste in his organization in the past, as Gawker notes. source

• 
  Leno trashes In case anyone’s wondering where Leno stands in the wake of this whole situation, here’s your video proof. He’s clearly unhappy about the whole thing. Our respect for him goes up after watching this.
• 
  Conan’s options Not to be outdone, the pompadoured redhead ripped on NBC even harder than Leno did, with a hilarious list of options the late-night host has after the late-night debacle. Our favorite is the last one. Easily.

• What did the network do to him? I don’t think anyone’s preventing people from watching Conan. Once they give you the cameras, it’s on you. I can’t blame NBC for having to move things around. I hope Conan stays, I think he’s terrific. But there’s no rules in show business, there’s no refs.
• Comedian Jerry Seinfeld • Criticizing the idea of Conan O’Brien possibly switching to another network after the Jay Leno debacle. Seinfeld thinks that was a good idea too, saying, “I also think this was the right idea at the wrong time. I’m proud that NBC had the guts to try something.” Also, he made some weird comment about the AOL/Time Warner merger which made him sound like an idiot. Remember, this is the guy who did the terrible Microsoft commercials with Bill Gates. source

• I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up.
• Disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich • In an Esquire interview, saying the kind of thing that makes the Harry Reid thing seem tame. He also made claims in the interview that Obama campaign mastermind David Axelrod tapped him as a presidential candidate in 2008 before Obama. This is the guy that apparently tried to sell Obama’s seat, remember. Blago’s next career move? “The Celebrity Apprentice,” where he’ll be able to share haircare tips with The Donald. source

• She still didn’t really understand why there was a North Korea and a South Korea. She was still regularly saying that Saddam Hussein had been behind 9/11.
• John McCain’s 2008 campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt • Regarding Sarah “Going Rogue” Palin’s faults as a vice presidential candidate – and as a human being, really. Schmidt went further, saying she was woefully misinformed about policy issues and overly concerned about her political standing in Alaska on the day she had a key interview with Katie Couric. Despite this, Schmidt admits that if she wasn’t on the ticket, the campaign would’ve faltered even worse than it did. source

• A lot of rumors are going around about Jay Leno’s fate today. TMZ is reporting that Jay Leno – who we think is as funny as watching Dennis Miller analyze an NFL game – could get his old time slot back, at a severe cost to Conan O’Brien, who won the gig over five years ago, only to see NBC pull the trap door from under him with their Leno antics. So, how did we get here?

2004: Conan’s early confidence bet

• what? NBC, in a show of confidence for a guy they’d shown little love to in the ’90s, gives Conan O’Brien “The Tonight Show” slot – five years in advance.
• why? Because the last time they handed out “The Tonight Show” slot, they also screwed it up. Heir apparent David Letterman went to CBS. He still hates Leno.
• later … Later, Jimmy Fallon was tapped for the “Late Night” slot vacated by Conan. “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels wanted him since ’04. source

November 2008: Uh, we’re not so sure …

• Jay’s new time Instead of ditching Leno like everyone expected, NBC announced months before the switch-over that they were keeping Leno on in a 10 p.m. slot, effectively stealing Conan O’Brien’s thunder.
• Why? Economics.A late-night talk show is cheaper to produce than a high-quality drama like “E.R.” or “Law and Order,” so NBC execs thought they could ride a wave of low ratings through the recession. source

September 2009: The reviews! The reviews!

• ‘The Jay Leno Show’ is of course not the ‘brand-new hour of comedy’ its promos claim; it is brand-old to the bone.
• Slate reviewer Troy Patterson • On Jay Leno’s first night. Like most reviewers, he disliked “The Jay Leno Show” due to the fact that it was exactly the same routine as his boring schtick on “The Tonight Show.” Leno got lucky, though, by grilling Kanye West immediately after his VMAs incident, which created pretty much the best moment on the show, ever. It was all downhill from there. source
  

Late 2009: That didn’t work out so well …

• 18 million viewers watched the first episode of “Leno”

• 53% the decline in Leno’s ratings on the fourth night – that was fast source
• 1.5 the ratings threshold Leno was given for the show to remain profitable
• 1.6 Leno’s average ratings since starting the show in September – which NBC execs expected

Late 2009: Residual effects

• D-F the grade local affiliates gave Leno as a lead-in to their local news broadcasts; it had a direct effect on their ratings source
• 47% drop in Conan’s ratings a month after Leno took over the 10 p.m. slot; he regularly gets trumped by Letterman now source

• Oh, and show-producers were pissed, too. One show in particular, “Southland,” nearly died as a result of “The Jay Leno Show,” due to the number of slots the show took up. (It later found a home on TNT, and goes back on the air this month.) Show creator John Wells, who also worked on “E.R.,” said at the time his show was canceled, “I wish NBC and Jay Leno well; personally, he’s a very nice guy, but I hope he falls flat on his face and we get five dramas back.” Ouch! (But we totally agree with him.) source

Early 2010: So, what’s next?

• olympics On February 1, the Winter Olympics hit NBC, completely blowing up their schedule and conveniently giving them a chance to give low-rated Leno a break.
• later? Word on the street is that Leno will be losing his spot and going after the local news; Conan would likely come after, then Fallon, and maybe Carson Daly at like 3 or so. source