I haven't watched late night television regularly in about 5-6 years. I used to be super-big into it, when I had loads of free time and the only quality programming on late at night just happened to be talk shows, but once I grew older (or, acquired a life.... or became addicted to the internet, one of the two), my viewing of late night programming became reduced to the occasional clip of Letterman going off on somebody.

Still, I watched it hardcore for a good 2 years, even beginning to tape shows at the height of my era of free time. Plus, I read a book about late night TV (The Late Shift, which you probably could have deduced by typing in "late night television books" into Google and then finding that it's the only one that pops up). So I must be an expert.

Anyway, there's a lot of outcry over the reports that Jay Leno may perhaps oust Conan O'Brien out of the Tonight Show seat (either that or pushing Conan back half-an-hour). You know, general "Jay Leno sucks and is unfunny and is more or less the embodiment of Satan" stuff. Which is all true to a point, but here's the thing: if this report is true, and Leno takes back the Tonight Show... and there's a good chance it might be, even if it ends up turning out that there's a sudden change of heart and Conan keeps the gig... it's actually kind of sort of *great* news.

A few reasons why:

1) America loves Leno. Of course, he has zero to none cultural significance in today's new media landscape, but... people keep turning in to him, which means that they must like him, right? That he must make them somewhat happy... right? Or mildly pleased at his general presence on their screen?

2) Conan will probably get to go somewhere else, which is good for a number of reasons. One, since the concept of the Tonight Show is that it is this respectable and broadly enjoyable institution, he won't have to worry about making his humor more mainstream. Two, getting screwed over is always good for comedy. I don't think Conan would translate his ouster into "NBC and Leno screwed me over, now watch as I make them rue the day", but I could see him getting mileage out of the self-deprecating "gee, Chevy Chase had a longer run than I did" stuff.

3) Hating Leno is pretty much more fun than anything else in late night TV. I mean, you could hate him for making a soulless, homogenized product, you could hate him for his inexplicable popularity, you could hate him for his disastrous primetime slot and how it's taking away time that could be used for quality primetime programming, and you most certainly could hate him for stealing the Tonight Show away from Letterman way back when. And now he's DOING IT AGAIN. Isn't that great? Only this time around, he gets to have fun with the internet and the 24/7 news media who'll be asking why this guy is replacing a more deserving host AGAIN. Meaning, he's going to be completely destroyed by everyone.

I remember reading in The Late Shift that once upon a time, when Leno was struggling with the Tonight Show, that Letterman was poised to oust him out of his seat. But one problem was that Letterman didn't like the idea of being disliked after for all intents and purposes uncerimoniously bumping Leno out of his gig. Well, flash forward about 18 years, and we're in a similar predicament with the Tonight Show. Except that Leno's the one poised to take over, and already has baggage of the initial undeserving promotion over Letterman.

Even if Leno only pushes back Conan half an hour, there's going to be a crapload of hatred going his way. Which is good, cause hating Leno is amazingly fun, and only bested by hating Leno with everyone else.