After a week of controversially (albeit hilarious) expensive bits, unabashed honesty and a rallying cry from the members of Team Coco, last night saw the end of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien, officially marking the end of his incredibly tumultuous relationship with NBC.
And let’s face it, it was sad. As he dressed up expensive cars with mouse ears and presented a show horse wearing a novelty Snuggie (costing NBC upwards of $4-5 million dollars in the process), you couldn’t help but feel defeated for the comedian-that-could that got brutally taken down by the man (named Jeff Zucker).
Nothing against Jay Leno (I’ll keep my thoughts on the father of 50 plus cars to myself), but I think we can all attest to the fact that NBC’s late night television has now lost its connection to the younger crowd (regardless of how cute Jimmy Fallon appears to be in a suit). Though Leno is a staple of the Peacock (like the principal of a school who refuses to retire), Conan was the reality check (the hip, fun teacher “ like Robin Williams in Dead Poet Society), while Fallon’s newbie shtick cements him as the ninth grader who thinks whoopee cushions still garner laughs. (Nothing against him personally, but I still harbour resentment for the times he laughed on SNL.) Basically, the network secured teenage and middle-aged viewership, and failed to think about everyone in between.
So now we wait. With the support of the public and celebrities alike, Conan has the world at his feet “ and $32 million in the bank. Whether he leads Team Coco into an age of victory or leaves us to fall under the dictatorship of Peacocks and cars, history “ in the form of archived Rolling Stones and Snuggies “ has been made.
