NBC asked Conan O'Brien to book a certain celebrity during his "Tonight Show" tenure ...he refused

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Conan O’Brien refused to book Sarah Palin on NBC Tonight Show

November 18, 2010



http://www.beatweek.com/news/7564-conan-obrien-refused-to-book-sarah-palin-on-nbc-tonight-show/

Conan O’Brien stood up to NBC in a number of ways during his brief Tonight Show run, regularly ignoring suggestions from the network on how to boost his ratings, but one act of defiance stands out in particular: Conan declined to book Sarah Palin as a guest, even after the network asked him to. The former republican vice presidential candidate, former republican governor of Alaska, and current Fox News employee was never booked on Conan’s Tonight Show, says NY Times reporter Bill Carter in a chat with PopEater, as O’Brien blocked the move. Palin has become a champion among extremist conservatives but is generally considered a patently offensive pariah by both liberals and moderates.

Suffice to say that Palin will never surface as a guest on Conan O’Brien’s new TBS show either, as Conan ostensibly has even more control over this new show than he ever did at NBC. Interestingly, after NBC ran Conan out of town and Jay Leno was given back the Tonight Show, Leno immediately booked Palin as a first-week guest despite continual claims on Leno’s part that his show is politically neutral.

[NuclearDem]

1. Way to go Conan!

[Mad_Dem_X]

88. +1

[HipChick]

2. Team Conan

Leno is boring as hell

[stlsaxman]

29. Who is Leno?

:shrug:
























:hi: -"just kidding!"

[bjobotts]

66. Palin runs high only becuase she never submits to anyone who might challenge her

[bjobotts]

67. She knows as does her staff that informed people would expose her as an idiot and fool

[bjobotts]

69. Which is why she only twitters, goes on FOX or hate radio and attends no debates

[bjobotts]

71. She is off limits to MSM yet her tremendous egomakes her think she could be presidental beauty queen

[Name removed]

72. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Initech]

3. Conan rules!!!

[pleah]

4. K&R Bravo, Conan! n/t

[classof56]

5. Good on ya, Conan!

I like his new show, will like it even more knowing this!

[TheIdiot]

9. Me, too...

just might double-down on his advertisers... switch to Bing and buy TWO Chevy Cruzes!

[47of74]

6. Something stinks to high heaven at NBC headquarters.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

10. That was my primary reason for posting...

...as well as the intention behind the way I constructed my subject line. In light of the Olbermann incident...and now Scarborough...it seems that we are seeing a trend that's been developing for a while.

:patriot:

[tigereye]

90. what happened with Scarborough? Missed that one..

[Amerigo Vespucci]

97. He was also given a "four day weekend" becuase of his political contributions

Not much to the story other than that...the same thing that happened to Olbermann, a two-day slap on the wrist.

[Radical Activist]

13. Reminds me of Donohue.

This is the company that launched Ronald Reagan's political career and they have the same basic philosophy.

[lunasun]

38. I think David letterman could tell you what that smell is nt

[Initech]

7. Leno's show is NOT politically neutral, by any standard.

People forget that he had ARNOLD SCHWARZENNEGER ANNOUNCING HIS REPUBLICAN CANDIDACY THE FIRST WEEK ON THE TONIGHT SHOW!!!! :argh:

(apologies for all caps - it's necessary to get my point across)

[Ken Burch]

12. Not only that...on the coup d'Enron election night in Cali

Jay INTRODUCED Arnold at his campaign HQ as he rose to give his acceptance speech.

[Initech]

21. *AND* he had Arnold on recently to talk about his last days in office.

[ejpoeta]

8. i have never been much of a fan of conan's humor... but i applaud him for standing up

to nbc. and i am even less likely than i was before to watch leno..... and i don't watch leno. he isn't very funny in my opinion. kudos to conan.

[Warpy]

11. He would have chewed her up and spit her out

had he been forced to have the twit on his show.

The NBC poobahs should have been damned grateful he refused.

[LiberalFighter]

14. NBC probably gave Leno another classic car.

[DarthDem]

15. Way to Go Conan . . . and LOL at Leno

Awesome, Conan. Not too often these days that you see someone so willing to stand up to corporate overlords. Extremely, extremely courageous. Way to go.

As for Leno scrambling to book Palin as fast as his fat little fingers could dial her flacks - - completely as expected. A total, complete, utter shill for whomever he perceives to be the master. I'll never forget how, during the writer's strike, Leno said he would pay all of the Tonight Show staff - - then failed to follow through. He was eventually shamed into doing so through adverse media reports, like the coward he is. Meanwhile, Letterman paid not only everyone from his show but everyone from Craig Ferguson's show (which he owns), without any fanfare or desired self-publicity.

Leno is a piece of dung.

Again, WTG Conan!!!!!

[madrchsod]

16. i`d like to see sarah on ferguson ......

that would be surreal.

[pinboy3niner]

24. ...being interviewed by Geoff. :)

Geoff feigns disinterest as Ferguson interviews a guest.

[Codeine]

35. "I'm sorry; that's not in my contract, Craig."

[pinboy3niner]

78. !

:rofl:

[HipChick]

25. Ironically before she hit the big-time, she tried to get on Craig's show..she was always media seeki

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh-lW2opLyQ

[Kceres]

17. Well, I've tried to like Conan and this will help.

Tried as I might, I've just never found him all that funny. However, now that I have this new information I will make an extra effort to seek out his new show.

[InvisibleTouch]

18. Good for him! Figures about Leno, though. n/t

[malaise]

19. Everyone knows that the corporate bosses at M$Greedia

are Lady Blah Blah's chief promoters. Fuck them.

Bravo Conan. :yourock:

[City Lights]

20. Conan!

:yourock:

nbc, not so much. :puke:

[IEATNEWT]

22. alright conan!!

to bad your show sucks though

[Gold Metal Flake]

23. Oh that liberally-biased NBC.

[barbtries]

26. good for him n t

[JTG of the PRB]

27. Way to go, Conan!

Good for him! :applause:

[Canuckistanian]

28. Interesting

You always wonder whether some particular guest is ACTUALLY invited by the host of the show.

Here's the real litmus test, though. Would Johnny Carson have invited Palin on his how?

[MindandSoul]

30. That information will make me a more faithful viewer of Conan!

[Exultant Democracy]

31. John Stewart picked the worst time for his Rachel interview. I'm with CoCo now.

Considering Conan's ratings I'm not the only 18-35 year old liberal who made the switch.

[ProudDad]

32. Leno is a notorious republican... (n/t)

on edit: Oh, and like that other notorious right-winger, Dennis Miller, Leno is not funny...

I miss Steve Allen and Jack Parr...

[lunasun]

36. not funny and outright repub based on his monologues I have heard(not many)

yea Steve Allen do not think he would have a show these days

[ProudDad]

45. Yep, they'd say now that

both he and Parr are just too "wordy" and "literate"...

Not entertaining at all...

[redirish28]

33. Good for Conan.

[lunatica]

34. Fiery redheads are more scary than pit bulls with lipstick and mama grizzlies

:scared:

[sarcasmo]

37. A+ for Team Coco.

[progressoid]

39. Ah, that damn liberal media again.

[Major Hogwash]

40. It wasn't because Conan is a partisan hack or anything like that.

It's because he likes to have guests on that are smarter than a sack of rocks.
Conan is a lot sharper than most of his tv counterparts gave him credit.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

44. I remember his first show, with John Goodman as the guest...

...it was awkward, to be sure, and Goodman deserves a lot of credit for being a cool and laid-back guest. Lorne Michaels had faith in his ability to do the show from the beginning, and while he still may not be everyone's cup of tea, I'll take his quirkiness over Leno's obsessive desire to constantly please his masters any day.

:toast:

[savalez]

41. Conan rocks! His TBS show is awesome. Way better.

[BrklynLiberal]

42. Conan is a GOOD man!!

[DiehardLiberal]

43. Yep - CoCo Rocks!

So glad he is back - he's a class act!

[UrbScotty]

46. For once, Conan does something good. Besides boring people to sleep.

:-)

Leno's still better, but good for Conan anyway.

[Vidar]

47. Way to go, Conan! I'm sorry it cost you so much, though.

[newtothegame]

48. Sorry but DU is going downhill...

I swear, half the time the "Greatest Post" is about some Hollywood celebrity.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

57. Time for the sock puppet

[47of74]

59. LOL...I love this

I may have to swipe this for future use.

[AspenRose]

109. ROFL!!!

:rofl: :spray: :applause:

[Initech]

65. This isn't TMZ.

But this does explain a lot about why Conan got ousted as the host of the Tonight Show - talk about partisan politics.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

93. And that's why this didn't go in The Lounge or the Enterainmnent Forum...

...because it's about the politics behind the incident, not "Hey look, everybody...it's a clip of Conan with the masturbating bear."

But I think the sock puppet has gone a long way toward healing any misunderstandings.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

99. And the other half are you saying "WE ONLY ELECTED OBAMA BECAUSE HE WAS BLACK!"

[Dave From Canada]

49. Conan had Sarah Palin on his Late Night show. Her and William Shatner read from eachothers books.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3410kz4yHU

[itsallhappening]

64. That WAS the Tonight show.

You can tell from the stage backdrop.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/12/12/2009-12-12_sarah_palin_faces_off_with_william_shatner_in_surprise_tonight_show_cameo.html

[BurtWorm]

92. Ooops!

Inconvenient little clip there for the myth. Oh well. I don't doubt Conan was at least a little sick to his stomach.

My eyebrows raised over the the idea in the OP that it's counter to political neutrality to have a Republican on your show, even a psychobagger one like Palin. Leno is only interested in numbers of viewers. There's political neutrality for you.

[deacon]

50. A way for him to avoid infringement. O'donnell and Palin on at the same time. Masturbating

Grizzly Bears. :)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

51. Actually, she did appear on his show once with William Shatner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-mgBvCJmo

She may not have been a guest on the couch, but she did make an appearance.

[Blasphemer]

52. Interesting... explains a lot.... nt

[de novo]

53. Thata boy, I knew there was a reason I liked him.

[JDPriestly]

54. So that's how Leno bought his job. Interesting. A political favor?

Or is Leno just more subservient, more compliant?

[eShirl]

55. Then how come I remember when Palin was on his show?

Conan apparently compromised.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

56. "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," not "The Tonight Show."

The story is about his time on The Tonight Show. She was in a comedy bit on "Late Night." NBC asked him to have her on the Tonight Show and he said "no." He didn't compromise. He said "no."

[itsallhappening]

58. Nope. It was The Tonight Show.

[onehandle]

74. She was never a 'guest.' No chair. No interview. nt

[itsallhappening]

87. Right. Just correcting the record. It was The Tonight Show.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

70. No, it was on the Tonight Show during Conan's reign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-mgBvCJmo

[itsallhappening]

63. His ratings sucked, so he had her on The Tonight Show.

There has to be way more to this story, if it's a story at all.

[onehandle]

73. She was never on there as a guest to push her agenda.

No interview. He wouldn't let her.

[itsallhappening]

86. "He wouldn't let her." That's what you want to believe.

There's no proof of that, and it actually makes no sense.

If Conan had been refusing to do what his employers wanted him to do, that would have been cause for terminating his contract and NBC wouldn't have had to pay him $40 million to walk away.

Was NBC just stupid or something?

[Deep13]

101. The terms of the contract would spell out how much control...

the corporation owners versus the contract employees have over the content of the show. So it is possible that even if he refused, they would not have a right to fire him.

[earth mom]

60. Conan Rocks!

:yourock:

:loveya:

[onehandle]

61. Coco is King. nt

[Dappleganger]

62. Coco is my late-night hero...

[DesertFlower]

68. great. nt

[Swampguana]

75. Good for you

Definitely the right choice. Ratings aren't worth having her involved with anything.

[nonconformist]

76. Yet another reason to love Conan.

Coco is all kinds of awesome.

[Skittles]

77. THANK YOU CONAN

:thumbsup:

[proteus_lives]

79. I'm with CoCo!

[Enthusiast]

80. When I read this I pictured

Conan trying to deal with Palin on his old NBC program. I just couldn't do it. He would have had to suspend all his normal faculties. Leno is an entirely different cat. No one should be forced to endure Palin. Cruel and unusual punishment.

[Norrin Radd]

81. Cool.

Been watching Conan since his first episode of Late Night.

[Yeahyeah]

82. GE paid him 100's of millions even though he juuust wouldn't do what they wanted.

Please stop.

[itsallhappening]

89. Exactly. People WANT this story to be true so they're

ignoring the problems with it, mainly: If Conan had been refusing to do what his employers wanted him to do, that would have been cause for terminating his contract and NBC wouldn't have had to pay him $40 million to walk away.

[DefenseLawyer]

108. He probably had final say over bookings in his contract

If that was the case he would have been merely ignoring their "suggestions" not violating his contract.

[Yeahyeah]

110. a couple of things I remember about O'Brien is him bowing to dennis Miller like he was a god a few

years ago and this-

Has Conan O'Brien ever apologized to Hans Blix?

At the time before the Iraq War, Conan O'Brien introduced a running gag on "Late Night" where he had a Hans Blix look-alike search for things that were "hidden in plain sight", obviously alluding to the fact that the weapons inspector Hans Blix was assumed to be too stupid to find the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This segment of the show was clearly designed to ridicule Hans Blix, who was perceived to be too stupid to find things that should be very easy to find.

As we now know, the weapons of mass destruction really did not exist, and Hans Blix was most definitely not as stupid as portrayed by O'Brien.

So the question is: Was O'Brien ever man enough to apologize to Hans Blix? I stopped watching the show around the time when that segment appeared, so I don't know if O'Brien ever actually said that he is sorry for portraying Blix as a stupid idiot. Did he? Or has he ever said anything about this in interviews?
2 years ago

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080922043314AAOLEAs

[jobycom]

112. Thanks, I hadn't heard that story before. nt

[onehandle]

111. So you 'signed up' at Democratic Underground just to rag on Conan O'Brien?

Jay? That you?

[Anakin Skywalker]

83. +1 for Conan!

It's good to know that the empty-headed Palin was rejected!

[indimuse]

84. Bravo Conan! n/t

[mwb970]

85. Have not watched Leno in years - I'm really kind of sick of him.

Conan is just so much funnier! And Jimmy Fallon is sometimes even better. (No Palins on his show either, thank God.)

[Quasimodem]

91. I only watch late night celebrity talk shows if there is no decent late night movie on.

But I'll do anything rather than watch Leno.

I quit watching Leno the second time he presented "The Dancing Itos."

Publicly belittling a sitting judge involved in a high profile court case is just not my idea of entertainment.

Anyone who thinks that it is, in my opinion, is a moron.

[BoneDaddy]

94. Hats off to ya Conan

nice job, but I would rather have had you have her on and then make total fun of her.

[swilton]

95. At least they have Palin labeled correctly

A 'celebrity' vice 'politician'.

[WI_DEM]

96. Leno loves having Palin on.

[valerief]

98. Whoa, me likes Conan!!! nt

[blue sky at night]

100. jay leno......

could he be more loathsome?

[Uncle Joe]

102. sucks.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

103. I knew I liked Conan....the Conan/Daily Show conflict is killing me though.

Time for me to join the 21st Century and get a DVR.

[BetsysGhost]

104. Amerigo Vespucci

'It's a Beautiful Day' :hi:

[xxqqqzme]

105. leno - politically neutral?

I must be a bi-partisan appeaser then.

[herbm]

106. Leno'a a rich fat cat and he weenies for anyone.

[Presidentcokedupfratboy]

107. Good man

I always like CoCo better than Leno.