Biz, Culture: The winners and losers in the NBC/Leno/Conan debacle
The winners
- viewers After losing five months of first-run dramas on NBC (who had perhaps some of the best ones on TV for a long time), they’re coming back. That’s good.
- Leno Ten to one, Jay Leno is getting his old time slot back – and probably his audience. Considering he was supposed to be retired by now, this rules for him.
- cable This flub-up by a major network helped other major networks – as well as cable networks like TBS, A&E and TNT – gain ground and mindshare.
The losers
- Conan The “Tonight Show” host is probably the biggest loser of all – losing his hard-fought-for perch thanks to corporate manhandling. If we were him, we’d walk.
- Carson Ten-to-one, the “Last Call” host is going to lose his time slot thanks to this. We know the guy’s a tool and always has been, but come on! That isn’t freaking fair!
- NBC It’s going to take a long time for the network to fix the wrongs of what they’ve done to their viewers and the creative community. They screwed up. Badly.