NBC To Conan O’Brien: You’re “An Astounding Failure”

January 15, 2010  |   Filed under: News  |   Posted by:

Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sport, had some harsh words for current (and departing) The Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien. He blasted O’Brien in the New York Times. Here’s what he had to say:

Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports, said the reason for Mr. Leno’s return to NBC’s late-night roster after a short stint in prime time this season was a simple one: disappointing ratings for Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show.”

Referring to the pointed jokes made this week by Mr. O’Brien and David Letterman of CBS, Mr. Ebersol said it was “chicken-hearted and gutless to blame a guy you couldn’t beat in the ratings.”

He added that “what this is really all about is an astounding failure by Conan.”

Conan O’Brien’s party haven’t responded to Ebersol’s comments.

If you’ve been watching any late-night TV this past week, you’ve seen barbs flying from all sides.

Yesterday it was reported and confirmed that Jay Leno will be heading back to The Tonight Show following the Olympics, leaving Conan’s future in the air.

Of course, stay tuned for all the latest on the Late-Night Crisis.

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Posted by on January 15, 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
  • CanCan

    Conan sounds like a spoiled brat. I’m glad he’s not going to be around. I didn’t think he was funny at all.

  • http://TopTwitsBlog.com TopTwitsBlog

    Conan’s ratings were down because the entire network is down, and his lead in was the worst possible one – Leno.

    Click here to find out what celebrities are saying about this

  • I’m with Coco!

    Maybe your just not intelligent enough to get Conan’s humor. Leno’s show isen’t doing all that great either. NBC is making a mistake.

  • Monkey D. Luffy

    CanCan you obviously don’t know what you are talking about. How does Conan sound like a brat when he’s being railroaded by NBC and Leno? How when he was promised this job years ago should Jay retires only to have Leno pull a Brett Favre and want back in? The ones being a brats are NBC executive who don’t want to let a next generation take it’s rightful place. Conan had poor rating but nothing compared to Leno’s 10 o’clock snorefest. If they wanted better ratings for Conan maybe they should have promoted him more than they did the Jay Leno Show.
    And also Conan O’brien is hilarious.

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