Unit 2 Proposal

For my Unit 2 Proposal, I am going to write about the Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien controversy that occurred this past January.  

The Tonight Show is an American Late-Night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954 when Johnny Carson was the host. It is currently the longest running regularly scheduled entertainment in the United States. 

On May 29, 2010 Jay Leno, “retired”, left The Tonight Show and created his own show titled  “The Jay Leno Show” which aired at 9:00pm on NBC. Leno handed down the Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien, who had previously hosted “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” from 1993 to 2009. Jimmy Fallon then took O’Brien’s place with Late Night.  

After only seven months after being the host of The Tonight Show, NBC executives told O’Brien that they intended to move the "Tonight Show" to 11:05: to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 10:35 because Leno’s ratings for his new shows were low and he wanted a better time slot. This would have pushed Conan’s show and Fallon’s show back half an hour, making all of these late night comedy shows very late. Conan O’Brien then resigned, not wanting to participate in this. In result, Jay Leno took back his position as host of The Tonight Show in March of 2010, Jimmy Fallon resumed his show, and Conan O’Brien quit and no longer has a show of any kind.

This switch around made many people across America upset, and a lot of people believed Leno acted unfairly Conan O’Brien was treated wrongly by NBC, whereas some people were glad to have Leno back as the host of The Tonight Show.

I intend to look at interviews that were held by news reporters on major news channels and plan on re-watching some episodes of TMZ and looking at those interviews. Additionally, I plan on using newspapers and magazines that were published very soon after the controversy all as primary sources.

I chose this topic because I have always loved watching all of the late night shows. I loved watching Conan’s show when he hosted Late Night and also when he took over the Tonight Show, and absolutely love Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that now airs. I occasionally watched the Tonight Show with Leno too, although I don’t anymore. I have been watching these shows since elementary school and was emotionally invested in this controversy when it occurred and still have some investment in it. It will be interesting to investigate these primary sources to see if the arguments made either way by people were effective or solely opinions that were not backed up by any solid evidence.