Posts Tagged ‘Team Coco’

The now infamous NBC late-night bru-ha-ha that happened months ago, which led to Conan O’Brien being released from hosting duties of the “Tonight Show” only to have Jay Leno reclaim his former post after his 10 o’clock comedy/variety show experiment failed is still not quite finished. On May 2nd, Conan O’Brian appeared in an in-depth interview on “60 Minutes”. The show aired on the night after he was no longer contractually banned from appearing on television in accordance with his agreement with NBC for leaving “The Tonight Show”.

Choosing his words carefully, per the stipulations of his agreement not to publicly disparage NBC, O’Brien told correspondent Steve Kroft that he did not agree with how Leno handled the situation, and purported that had he been in Leno’s position, he would have handled things differently.

Meanwhile, on May 1st, Jay Leno headlined the annual White House correspondent’s dinner, where the President himself poked fun at the North Andover native, asserting that, like Leno, his approval ratings had also dropped in the last year. Obama, who introduced Leno, likewise exclaimed his relief at the order in which they spoke, saying “We’ve all seen what happens when you take the time slot after Leno.”

Just a few nights later, Leno slipped in a slight jab at O’Brien, his former late-night follower when Conan occupied the time slot after “Tonight”. In a joke about Faisal Shahzad, the man accused of the recent attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square, Leno displayed a fake Facebook profile of Shahzad. Among the things displayed on the faux page, Shahzad was listed as a member of “Team Coco”, the name of the group of fans who rallied behind O’Brien during the original late-night show shake-up.

O’Brien’s “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour“ will keep him busy into the summer months before he turns his attention to his new late-night show on TBS, set to debut in November.