Seven months. 146 episodes.

That’s the entire run of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.”

Wesley Fenlon

After a 16-year relationship with Jay Leno as the host of “Late Night,” the network gave Conan only seven months with “The Tonight Show” before deciding to take it all back.
NBC is playing it safe.

Apparently there’s an audience out there for Leno’s brand of mild head-bobbin’ humor, but as a long-time fan of “Late Night,” I was thrilled when NBC announced Conan as the “Tonight Show” successor.

In fact, everyone I know with a hint of interest in late-night television preferred Conan O’Brien’s self-deprecating style and eclectic gags to anything Jay Leno had to offer.
After five long years, Conan took the reins of “The Tonight Show” in May 2009.

My friends and I were preoccupied celebrating the end of the semester, but we took time out from partying to watch Conan’s first episode with delight.

Conan’s off-the-wall comedy has made him a favorite of the young demographic, but hesteadily lost viewers over the next few months.

But firing Conan was the wrong choice.

In their desperate move to grab for a little ratings security, NBC may get back some of the audience Conan lost, but what about the audience of the future?

Even if Jay Leno is a safe bet with older audiences, his clock’s ticking. He’s turning 60 this year — how much longer will he want to host a nightly television program?

NBC shouldn’t have worried about O’Brien losing some of the traditional audience in his first seven months.

Though Leno’s show took two years to reach top ratings, Conan’s “Tonight Show” was not given time to get into a groove of its own.

By trying to win back the audience of the past, NBC has alienated the younger viewers who love Conan — and we are the audience of the future.

As short-term hits like “Heroes” and “Deal or No Deal” are shedding audiences in primetime, paying Conan $33 million — his generous chunk of the last week’s $45 million “Tonight Show” settlement — can’t be the smartest long-term plan.

Considering NBC has been struggling with ratings across the board, putting Leno back at the helm of “The Tonight Show” seems like a $45 million way of saying “we are hopelessly outdated.”

The Internet is where NBC should be focusing. “The Tonight Show” is available for free, with barely any advertising, on Hulu.com and NBC’s official Web site.

When more and more of the precious 18-49 year old audience is watching TV online, what do you do? You figure out how to make online more profitable.

Last fall, I made the big switch to an Internet-only household, shedding the expense of cable television. Why pay when I can stream?

I’d gladly sit through a few more commercials if it made the difference between failure and profitability for a program like “The Tonight Show.”

Plenty of people will still pay for the convenience of cable, but young viewers are going to continue to migrate to the easy availability of Internet TV.

And we’re the ones NBC should be catering to with “The Tonight Show,” because we’ll be watching television for a long, long time. We may just be watching Conan on another network instead.

One thing’s for sure — when Jay Leno takes his show back after the Winter Olympics, I won’t be watching.

— Wesley Fenlon is a senior from Clarkesville majoring in magazines.