The media and the public have been going crazy about Jay Leno’s interview with Oprah yesterday. You can find people tweeting about it even today, and the “I’m with Coco” Facebook page has received almost thousands of comments regarding the Oprah show. (Beware: Some of the comments say nasty things about both Jay and Oprah. These people are hardcore.)
As someone who considers herself on Team Conan, I made a point to watch the show yesterday morning. The interview itself was obviously supposed to redeem whatever’s left of Leno’s “everyday nice guy” image, and many writers have been referring to the episode as a means of “damage control” for Jay. For the general public and the media, it didn’t work. People are still siding with Conan. But for Oprah and her stage audience? Well, that’s a different story.
Since Leno came off as aloof, unemotional, and an NBC puppet, the interview was not as enlightening as I had expected it to be. The most dramatic part was probably when Oprah told Jay she thought the jokes at Letterman about his infidelity were “beneath” him, and Leno lied saying he only told one Letterman joke all week. (False. He told more than one.) And the only tough question Oprah really asked was why Leno didn’t just pack up and leave after NBC “fired” (more like pandered to) him twice. Jay responded that he’s just a guy who got fired from his job, and when offered his old job back, he took it.
“And really, who can blame him?” is what we are supposed to think after watching this. But as far as I can tell, the only people who fell into this trap were the people in Oprah’s audience for the after-show debate about the late night controversy. You can watch the whole video on Oprah’s official website. For Conan fans, it will be truly infuriating to watch.
In a nutshell: The audience has watched the already-taped interview with Leno, and Oprah opens up a floor of discussion that’s supposed to include both arguments in favor of either Conan or Leno. For the next half hour or so, Oprah shoves the Leno bias down her audience’s throats, saying constantly after explaining something, “Do you all understand that? Do you realize that’s what happened here?”
She won’t let up, and then the audience turns out to be almost completely on Leno’s side. In fact, the only people who get applause after their arguments are the ones defending Leno. Oprah repeats her arguments in favor or Leno, and basically ends up regurgitating what Jay already said in the interview.
Highlights of points from both Oprah and her audience are listed below. (The parentheses include my commentary):
- Jay Leno is just a guy who lost his job.
- Jay Leno is just a guy who took back his job when it was offered to him.
- Jay Leno does not consider himself a talk show host; he considers himself a stand-up comedian. (Except he’s not funny, so how do you figure that?)
- Jay Leno “wasn’t done yet” when NBC told him to pass the torch to Conan.
- Jay Leno deserves 30 years just like Johnny Carson. (Dear God, help us all.)
- Jay Leno was No. 1 on the Tonight Show for many years after 17 years.
- After 7 whole months, Conan was NOT No. 1! What a failure!
- Conan just couldn’t get the ratings. TV is about the ratings.
- Leno doesn’t own himself – NBC does.
- Unlike Leno, Oprah owns herself.
- “Team Coco” should have watched the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien while it was on the air, instead of just supporting him after he was about to leave. (Okay Oprah, I’ll give you that.)
- Jay Leno is a nice, funny guy.
- David Letterman is a bully.
- No one should feel sorry for Conan – he got 40-something million dollars. (And, as proof that he’s a better person than Leno, shared it with his whole staff.)
- Many people in the audience really had no clue what happened in the Late Show War except for what they saw in the Oprah interview. (Great. And now you’re getting air time to debate the issue.)
- Asked multiple times by Oprah: “Raise your hands if you changed your mind after watching this interview.”
- As far as O is concerned, you damn well should have changed your mind after this interview.
- NBC handled this whole thing poorly and was unfair to both O’Brien and Leno.
And, my favorite repeated point from Ms. Winfrey:
- That’s just how TV works. Tough.
What a crock of…Ahem. Sorry, Team Conan coming out. I don’t want to start hating on O, but basically, the degree to how one-sided this whole group discussion was really disgusted me. I wish I had been in that audience, so I could’ve pointed out all the things in defense of Conan that were conveniently left out of the conversation.
Oh, and by the way – Happy Birthday, Oprah.
You know… It sounds really silly, but I’m looking back at how Oprah talks about certain things and there is a tone I’ve never noticed that this has kind of brought to my attention. There’s a tone of “You, America, need to be corrected about how you feel.”
No, Oprah. I don’t because Jay was a puppet. He might have been trying to protect his network, but “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Y’know?
I do think she brought up some good points. Jay really was screwed five years ago. However, that doesn’t justify what happened to Conan. The entire interview painted Conan as being a petulant child for not wanting to move The Tonight Show to a later time… When she admits to how her own ratings benefit from a specific post-General Hospital time-slot. Where was the respect for Conan having strong beliefs about what defined The Tonight Show? That seems like something she would typically latch on to and discuss.
And then she starts to imply this is all Conan’s fault for “maybe” threatening to leave and leading NBC to elbow Jay off-air? Wow. Just. Wow. I was really appalled by that.
She briefly brought up how NBC was disrespectful to both of them. THAT should have been the focus. I’ve always thought of Oprah as someone who unites people and kind of makes peace as part of her whole “zen mother” image. She made “peace” with Letterman. She brought Sarah Palin on (twice) after campaigning for Obama. She’s candid about when her own spiritual and dieting ventures fail. That’s the Oprah I appreciate. Who is frank, but with the intention of really just clearing the air.
But this? This was rooting for someone she likes and to push it was “getting the facts out” … I just not drinking this batch of Oprah’s kool-aid.
Yup. It was too much…Especially since there seemed to be a general lack of research/knowledge on the subject. In the audience and with Oprah.
For instance, I just remembered how Oprah said in the after-show debate: “You know, I thought that NBC wanted Conan and Leno to share the ‘Tonight Show’ before this interview! I didn’t know.”
REALLY, Oprah? You were so out of touch you didn’t have a grasp on the SIMPLE facts of this whole issue? Ugh.
Yeah, it was really was quite too much for me, too. And I’m not even entirely one side or the other – I’m mostly just tiffed at NBC. I know I’m a fan of the “I’m with Coco” page, but that’s mostly because I loved Conan when he was on Late Night. (I never really got around to watching him on The Tonight Show.)
But there was one woman who brought up the economic recession, and I really wish Oprah had given her more air time to flesh that out. I really do think we are latching onto this because we all know people who have lost their jobs, and who have been screwed over by bosses. (I know someone who, literally, this just happened to in December.) And I think we are siding with Conan not just because we might like him as a person better, but because he is a someone who is standing up for his own rights and for the rights of the long-lasting creative legacy that is The Tonight Show. Leno, in comparison, is nothing more than a persona-less workaholic (which Oprah, very understandably, applauds). But where Leno accepted being pushed around, Conan refused. So, honestly, major kudos to Conan there.
Our outrage at NBC, then, really does come from the fact that there is a deep-seated frustration with how big corporations deal with the little laborers they move around as if they are abstract assets. It really hits home when you realize that NBC is not about making quality programming or paying homage to an American tradition. NBC functions just like every large corporation, and like every other television network: it’s essence to make as large a profit as possible. And the fact that the Supreme Court just gave these same huge corporations an insane amount of political sway – well, that just heightens this tension.
You brought up some great points! Especially the recession part, which I always got a sense of. Someone on my other Conan post shared this article with me, which was really interesting – http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/01/how_the_bursting_of_the_late_n.html
Also, I think it’s so generational – the gap between the middle-aged or older people who are used to Leno, and then us – who adore Conan and grew up with him. It almost seems like a war of the generations, except that a lot of older people are siding with Conan after all that came to light.
I really do love also that Conan not only held his integrity intact, but didn’t go down without a fight.
P.S. Brittany tells me that Oprah and Leno have been friends for a while…this I did not realize. If so, it enrages me even more.
I will preface my comment by saying: I really couldn’t care less about this issue. I never watched Conan or Leno and haven’t been following the media coverage of the story much.
I think you seem more angry not at O’s taking Leno’s side, but at her biased interview and subsequent insistance on converting the viewers to “see the light” (I also didn’t watch the after-the-show clip, honestly I am sick to death of this subject).
I will be the first to admit that Oprah has a gigantic ego and an unhealthy amount of power . Check out this CNBC doc if you are ever bored and want to bone up on the subject.(http://www.hulu.com/watch/74284/cnbc-originals-the-oprah-effect#x-0,vepisode,1,0)
And her influence is scary- especially given the vast amounts of viewers that follow what she says seemingly mindlessly. And while logical people can make their own decisions about what type of jeans to purchase or which presidential candidate to vote for, Oprah should realize the huge responsibility she holds when she speaks. While watching her talk about her friends “Johnny” Travolta or “Tommy” Cruise can become nauseating after awhile(watching her kiss Whitney Houston’s ass for two hours was almost unbearable for me) , I think its important to give her some credit. She more often uses her show as a platform for something much deeper and more meaningful than celebrity tiffs and uses her money and influence to bring about great social change.
I found it kind of refreshing to see Jay Leno speak- he has been sort of villified in this whole scenario more than he deserved. And Oprah and Leno have been friends for awhile, and I think its natural and within her rights to try to help out a friend. She is hardly Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and I think if Conan accepted her invitation to come on the show, she would given him an equal chance to share his side of things.
Also to her credit, she didn’t air this audience debate on television(where most of her viewers watch her) and I don’t really think she gave Leno a free pass during the interview.Yes, he is extremely annoying and was playing the victim. I think Conan has done a bit of that himself throughout this mess. I disagree with the idea that Conan was painted poorly in this show- I wish that he had been there to share his side, but neither Winfery or Leno said much about him.
It’s all well and dandy that Conan has tweets and Facebook groups now- but he had low ratings and I am to assume that he could have been cancelled at some point, regardless of Jay Leno.
Well, that’s my two cents. I hope I haven’t painted myself as an Oprah-brainwashed nut incapable of any rhyme or reason. See you in LA- holla!!! :)
Thanks, Steph! I appreciate your response! I knew you weren’t one of those “blindly devoted” Oprah followers, though being a huge O fan yourself, your comment means a lot!
I agree with pretty much everything you said except ONE thing:
“…but he had low ratings and I am to assume that he could have been cancelled at some point, regardless of Jay Leno.”
This isn’t true. There’s a lot of factors, but basically, it’s clear now that a) Leno’s horrible show was an equally horrible lead-in to the news, and then Conan’s Tonight Show (it’s the first time in 60 years there’s been a “pre-late-show” late show before the Tonight Show); b) The intention was not originally to CANCEL Conan, but to move him to 12:05 (which he declined to do b/c it wasn’t fair to the Tonight Show or Conan, or Jimmy Fallons’ Late Night) and c) Conan only had 7 months to find his audience, while Leno sucked for the first THREE YEARS before he found his.
Sorry, I know you said you didn’t follow the late show war much and didn’t care, but I just had to point those things out!
Also: Thanks for the link to that Oprah thing – I’ll definitely check it out! Sounds fascinating.
See you in L.A. :-)