After some speculation, some rumors and one entertaining monologue, Conan O'Brien finally addressed the "12:05 a.m. plan" that NBC has proposed: He's not moving The Tonight Show.
This planned schedule change is the result of Jay Leno failing to deliver the numbers NBC wanted with his primetime show. The network's brilliant solution (insert sarcastic tone here) is to move The Jay Leno Show to the 11:35 p.m. timeslot, pushing The Tonight Show back to 12:05 a.m. The Tonight Show was plagued by difficult ratings in the last three months of 2009, as Conan O'Brien tied Letterman with 18-49 year old viewers but didn't do quite so hot with the advertiser-coveted 25-54 year old demo. And Leno, well, Leno isn't doing awesome at 10 p.m.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I remember Jay Leno retiring, NBC handing The Tonight Show over to Conan and then Jay changing his fickle little mind about the whole thing. (I put some links in there to refresh your memory. You're Welcome.) Does this mean Jay is the one that "Team Conan" should be hating on? Would the less-than-stellar ratings of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien have caused NBC to rethink their late night schedule anyway? Are we all just really tired of Jay Leno, whether he's on at 10 p.m. or 11:35 p.m.? Who knows? In my opinion, this is a classic case of a television network not giving their shows a chance to grow, earn audience share and make a place for themselves in an over-saturated market.
So, what side are you taking? Team Conan? Team Jay? Team Idontcare? Check out Conan's official statement and leave your thought in the comments, after the jump: