Conan

I've been Team Coco as long as I can remember. Way back in the day, whenever I found the time, or remembered, I'd tune into Late Night with Conan O'Brien. And whenever I caught the end of Jay Leno, I'd just get that look on my face. You know the one. The one when you just took a swig of milk, and you're not quite sure if it's spoiled or not; But you drink it anyway, cause it's your milk. Then Conan would come on, with his String Dance, and Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7, and the show would go off from there. As I said, I didn't tune in regularly but when I did, I thought it was always well done and I loved it.

So when I heard Conan was taking over the Tonight Show, I knew he'd earned it, and though I might not watch, I knew Conan deserved it, and that though, it takes time for audiences to adapt to their new host, they would eventually come to love him as I had. NBC didn't give him that time. I love a lot of shows on NBC, but they blew it on this one. They gave Conan three years of low-ish ratings at the beginning of Late Night, but because of their mistake with Leno, they cut him out of his dream job a mere seven months after giving him that spot. I was fully on Conan's side since I heard about this issue. He deserved the spot, and by trying to push him back to play the ratings game with Jay Leno, they blew it. Now Conan's going to walk with the late night community he developed over to another network, and I don't blame him. In his Letter to the World, seen here, he was gracious and thoughtfully and genuinely displayed his thoughts on the matter for everyone to read. I agreed with him on every point.

The Media coverage that followed him his last couple weeks as host was nothing short of ubiquitous, and on both Twitter and Digg.com, Team Conan or Team Coco topics were always at the top of the chart. I declared my loyalty on Twitter, and did my due diligence digging Pro-Coco related arguments on Digg at every opportunity, but the support of myself along with what seemed like tens of thousands of internet goers was not enough to change NBC's mind regarding changing his time slot, eventually forcing Conan to leave the network.

I just watched Conan's last episode as the host of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, (for those who missed it you can check it out here,) and it was fantastic. He took a few pot shots here and there at the network, but at the end graciously and earnestly thanked NBC for the opportunity to do the job he loved so much. Then he proceeded to blow everyone's mind by playing guitar behind Will Ferrell during his rendition of Free Bird. If there's a better way to go out than that, it has yet to be done. So, here's to you Conan. May you have a joyous and peaceful seven months off with NBC's 33 million dollars, but I for one, am expecting you to be back this fall. Fox? Cable? I don't care. But I want my Coco back, because I know that even if I can't watch every night, some day some kid will tune in and you'll make him or her laugh with your smart humor just as you did with me when I was their age.

Thanks for everything Conan, and godspeed.