Leno 'signs for hour-long show'

Update:The Daily Beast reports that Conan O'Brien will leave NBC with a payout and he will be free to join another network. And O'Brien has put The Tonight Show up for sale on Craigslist.

If TMZ.com is to be believed (and it was right about Michael Jackson, but wrong about other things), Jay Leno has struck a deal with NBC to host and hour-long nightly show from 11.35pm -- not a half-hour show as previously reported. If that's the case, Conan O'Brien (who has said moving Leno to 11.35pm will destroy The Tonight Show franchise) is definitely out. To paraphrase a Tweet from a few days ago (which I thought was from Australian comic Wil Anderson but I can't find it now), I like both Leno and O'Brien but I know when somebody's getting screwed. Of course, the one who is really laughing here is David Letterman, who missed out to Leno when Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show and has been beating O'Brien in the ratings. The big questions now for NBC are: Is Leno damaged goods; will he ever be No. 1 again; and will O'Brien make an impact if he goes to Fox? The network will, of course, be hoping that the public has a short memory - which, sadly, is very often the case.
Coco image by Mike Mitchell