Originally Posted by wmcbrine
I'm not getting why we're supposed to find him sympathetic.
Uh, yeah, we know that's not what happened. Leno never wanted to quit. So what? How does that make him not the villain? He still got his damn prime-time show, undermining Conan, and ultimately showing that he only cared about himself, and not the institution that was "The Tonight Show".
As Amnesia says, why is Leno the villain here?
O'Brien's ratings dropped like a stone months before Leno's primetime show premiered.
How did Leno engineer that?
Originally Posted by GoPackGo
Chris Rock made a good point on Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.
He said that if Conan had a background in standup, he never would have let Leno get that 10 pm show. Every standup knows that if the guy before you is a bigger star, then no one will stay to see your set.
Technically, O'Brien's lead in was the local news.