NBC is dropping Conan O’Brien down the memory hole. Media Memo reports that NBC is removing on line videos of his shows:
The GE (GE) unit has removed every episode of the show’s seven-month run from its NBC.com site, as well as Hulu, the site NBC owns with News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox and Disney’s (DIS) ABC.
A little odd, given that a couple of days ago, the network was offering every single “Tonight Show” episode O’Brien had taped on NBC.com. But then again, everything about this story has been odd. NBC declined to comment.
NBC–at least, I’m assuming it’s NBC–has also been aggressive about taking down Conan episodes from Google’s (GOOG) YouTube.
Conan’s picture has also been removed from a mural in the lobby of NBC’s corporate headquarters.
The message from NBC is that Jay Leno has always hosted The Tonight Show since Johnny Carson retired, just like Oceana was always at war with Eurasia.
#liberal Conan O’Brien Purged From The Web http://url4.eu/1KcQn
I think O’Brien got the shaft but I was never a big fan of his and kind of wondered about the decision to replace Leno with him.
However, NBC gets the golden finger ward for the way they’ve handled the whole mess and I hope O’Brien falls into a nice pot of gold.
#liberal Conan O’Brien Purged From The Web http://url4.eu/1KcQn
» Conan O'Brien Purged From The Web Liberal Values: Conan O'Brien Purged From The Web. February 6, 2010 — Ron Chus… http://bit.ly/d37IHP
» Conan O'Brien Purged From The Web Liberal Values: Conan O'Brien Purged From The Web. February 6, 2010 — Ron Chus… http://bit.ly/d37IHP
» Conan O'Brien Purged From The Web Liberal Values: Conan O'Brien Purged From The Web. February 6, 2010 — Ron Chus… http://bit.ly/d37IHP
» Conan O'Brien Purged From The Web Liberal Values: Conan O'Brien Purged From The Web. February 6, 2010 — Ron Chus… http://bit.ly/d37IHP
Yes, the whole Conan O’Brien thing has been very strange. After all, they made him host of the Tonight Show even though he wasn’t even half the comedian that Leno is, much less David Letterman or even (dare I say it?) Jimmy Fallon. Now, they wonder why he doesn’t have the ratings? But O’Brien’s Tonight Show was a lot better than Leno’s weeknight show, and that’s a much better measure of how the new Leno show will be. NBC’s decision to take down the O’Brien picture and clips just further demonstrates how bizarre things have gotten at that once great network.