Jay Leno returned to The Tonight Show this past Monday after audiences (ideally) had a chance to cool off from the heated Jay Leno versus Conan O’Brien debate. (AKA When People Who Like Conan But Don’t Watch His Show Sound Off On Facebook And Twitter.) According to Variety, ratings were high: 6.6 million viewers tuned in for the show, though they’re likely to drop throughout the week as people realize that a new desk and a couple un-funny segments aren’t really worth a renewed interest in late-night television.
Jay’s comeback featured interviews with Jamie Foxx (who seemed to be a sort of Jay cheerleader and audience warm-up dude) and Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsey Vonn. Country star Brad Paisley also appeared and performed “American Saturday Night.” Overall, it’s a lot like the old Tonight Show, though a new font and the aforementioned segments demonstrated NBC’s attempt to change the brand in an effort not to offend people. But even Jay admits that NBC made a blunder. Early in his monologue, he cracked a skiing joke about NBC’s knowledge of going “downhill fast.” Ironically, it’s a move from Conan’s playbook; Conan’s always been known for his self- and network-deprecating humor.
So the real question is, where’s Conan in all this? Insiders speculated that he’d move to Fox, but no deal is official. Our favorite ginger did join Twitter, however, where he quickly racked up a few hundred thousand followers. His first tweet: “Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me.”
I think Conan has to wait a few more months before he can sign a new deal with another network (or at least publicly) as a part of the deal when he left NBC. So pretty much that means he’ll be chilling, writing some new shit, and enjoying the time off before his next big project — probably with Fox.