[ApexOversteer]

I'll preface this by saying that I didn't watch either Leno's Tonight Show or The Jay Leno Show. However, I am fans of both of men.

I feel that The Simpsons' best seasons seem to coincide with Conan's time there and he wrote my all-time favorite episode Marge vs The Monorail. The show hasn't been the same, or funny, since he left. I watched Conan's Late Night and I also watch Conan's Tonight Show monologues from time to time on Hulu.

As for Leno, I greatly enjoy his appearances on My Classic Car with Dennis Gage and Leno's Garage is a fun site, a daily visit in my websurfing. He is a true car guy and someone I'd love the chance to talk with about our favorite cars. I mean, he has put over 70,000 miles on his carburetted '86 Countach LP5000 QV, even daily driving it for 5 years. I'm going to like the guy.

So I did follow this debacle closely, and before you damn Leno, you should know how things went down.

In 2004 Conan was nearing the end of a contract with NBC, and had expressed that he wasn't interested in continuing with his 12:30AM Late Night With Conan O'Brien show. At the time, NBC head Jeff Zucker hatched the plan that would end with this farce.

He asked Leno to step down. Leno balked, because he was #1 at the time. A deal was negotiated where Leno would retain The Tonight Show for 5 more years, and Conan would then move into The Chair. Contracts were signed and everyone was content.

Fast forward to 2009. Leno's Tonight Show is still #1, but true to his word he will hand over to Conan. Zucker and NBC were of course not going to just let #1 Leno walk away. This is where the real stupid sh*t happens. Zucker/NBC decides to screw Conan by putting Leno on for a half hour at 10pm. IMO, going along with this is Leno's one true mistake in all this, but it wasn't his idea.

Conan is f*cked because Leno's audience, who might have watched Conan will now watch Leno, the news, set the alarm, and hit the rack. They have no reason to stay up past 11pm, no reason to even try Conan. Conan was screwed out of any chance at all to earn the viewership of Leno's audience.

Even worse, Leno bombed, leaving Conan with a sh*tty lead-in, and no holdover audience from Leno. Then NBC cancels The Jay Leno Show, despite being contractually obligated to a 2 year run, and Zucker says, we'll just move the 1/2 hour Leno back to 11:30, see if his ratings improve, and shuffle The Tonight Show into tomorrow.

Now, both Leno and Conan have been screwed by Zucker and NBC, simply because Zucker didn't want to lose two guys, but he also didn't want to give them the shows they wanted.

If Zucker had just let Conan go, we'd still have Leno in The Tonight Show, untarnished and #1.

If Zucker had just let Leno go, Conan's ratings might have been better as Leno's audience might have watched him and warmed to him.

Instead, Leno goes back to The Tonight Show a damaged host. Conan goes to Fox or wherever and NBC looks just plain stupid, mean and spiteful.

Now, there are some that claim that Leno was behind it all, but I don't believe that. Everything I've read, everything Leno has said, it all points to one person. Jeff Zucker. If you want to blame anyone, blame Jeff Zucker. At each juncture Leno stated his position and Zucker dismissed it every time because he obviously knew better.

Yes, Leno is back at The Tonight Show. But he never wanted to leave it in the first place and only did because he had been convinced by Jeff Zucker that it was time to let someone else have a shot at it. So when Zucker/NBC decides to put Leno back on at 11:30 and Conan says "F*ck you, you lying sacks of sh*t, I'm not moving to midnight, that isn't The Tonight Show", of course Leno is going to agree to return to his dream job. What else could he do? He wasn't just going to let The Tonight Show die after he spent 17 years making his version #1 and keeping it there.

So, for me, Leno isn't the villain of the piece. I believe Leno to be an honorable man who only did what he was asked to do and mistakenly trusted the people asking him to stand by their word to him and to Conan. The real villains are Zucker and his sycophantic peons all the way.

My only hope is that when Comcast and NBC finalize the deal to merge, that they will celebrate by barbecuing Zucker and feeding his stinking, fetid corpse to The Masturbating Bear and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog.