NBC has been the leader in late night television for over 5 decades, not so much by genius in planning, but rather by unintended positive accidents. This dates back to the original tonight show with Steve Allen, then with Jack Parr, and Johnny Carson. Even SNL was brought into the lineup without NBC executives actually envisioning the show how it came to be, but rather as an afterthought to fill the Saturday night dead slot.

Late night talk shows have a certain luxury that prime time programming does not. They can take months to take hold and develop a following, but what is so attractive about them is that once they do get their footing, they're pretty consistent. Conan took months to settle in after replacing Letterman, so did Leno after Carson.

What's different here is that Leno doesn't have the luxury of the late night green house to care for a nurture his budding show. He has to do this through the hurricane of prime time scheduling. How network grade programming executives and a veteran tv show such as Leno could not of had foreseen this months before, I don't know.

The show is also a draw from Conan. The Tonight show should be the flagship for NBC's late night line up as it always has been in the past. If the disastrous programming decision to place Leno at 10pm comes to an unceremonious end, Conan would get the most benefit from it. My only concern is that the people making these decisions, following standard NBC history, may not be the sharpest tacks in the box. If NBC remains the leader in late night television it will be in spite of its executives, and not because of them, just as how it has always been, LOL.