As someone who was never a huge fan of Leno or Conan (Craig Ferguson and Chelsea Lately are more my style), I still backed Team Coco when the shit hit the fan. When a David is battling a Goliath, I'll support the little guy (or girl) every time. However, now that it looks like Conan has settled his differences with NBC, and Leno is getting some instant Karma for his part in the debacle, it's time to talk about the real victims of late night TV.
In this day and age it's pretty pathetic that there's not a single network late night chat show hosted by a woman. And the sole female late night representative on cable got her gig in-part due to her special relationship with her E! TV boss. Add to that the recent Letterman-intern debacle, and the fact that women (who choose not to schtup their bosses) are conspicuous by their absence even behind the scenes on late night TV, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out who the real underdog is.
I live not far from Conan's Universal City home, and have honked for Coco multiple times a day to show my support. But now his $40 million payoff is in the mail, can we honk for all the women that don't even get a shot at the 12.05 time slot?
(Thanks to Scott Ian for the YouTube link.)