Tonight is Jay Leno’s last night on the Tonight Show and I will admit being out of the loop on this one.  I saw a commercial about the change the other day and wondered, “What is that all about?”  To my surprise, Leno is really calling it quits…sort of.

I initially thought this was something that came about recently, possibly prompted by recent health issues Leno experienced.  After doing some research on the Internet, I found out that this isn’t something that came about in the last few weeks, months or even years.  Do you know when this change was planned?  I didn’t either until I found some articles on the change.  Jay Leno announced his departure and succesor 5 years ago!  That seems kind of strange to me, but part of the reason makes perfect sense.

Leno and David Letterman were up for the job as Johnny Carson’s replacement years ago and the competition caused a riff between the two that likely still exists today.  Leno, knowing that he couldn’t do this forever, thought it would cause less drama to arrange for his departure in advance.  I would say that was a smart, unselfish, move even though since then he has probably reconsidered the decision on more than one occasion.  NBC also had the luxury of locking in O’Brien long-term.

Conan O’Brien clearly isn’t for everyone, similar to the way people thought of Leno years ago, and there have been plenty of Internet comments on the change.  Many people left comments on articles saying they would stop watching the show because of their dislike for O’Brien – something I’m sure NBC took into account.  NBC likely views this as an opportunity for the Tonight Show to get younger since O’Brien will bring his fair share of fans with him from his show that followed the Tonight Show.  Whether the Tonight Show remains the ratings leader, ahead of Letterman’s show, remains to be seen and is probably unlikely immediately following the change.  But the network seems to have an ace up its sleeve.

I’m sure millions of people will miss Leno, but they will get over it soon enough.  Leno is moving to primetime and will have a nightly show airing at 10pm starting this fall.  I’m not sure what his format will be, but I think it could end up being an earlier Tonight Show.  This will undoubtedly make many viewers happy – one viewer said that the only thing that kept him up during the news was knowing the Tonight Show came on next.  Since the Tonight Show audience has got older, they will be able to go to bed sooner and still get to see Leno.

I’m not really into Leno (or Letterman), but he has done a commendable job especially considering the huge shoes he had to fill following Carson.  I hope this works out for NBC because they are in last place, ratings wise, out of the big four networks (I remember when Fox wasn’t considered a major network).  Only time will tell if this works out.  So long Jay!

Note: Conan O’Brien will be one of Jay’s guests on his last show.