Published February 4, 2010

On Conan O’Brien’s final night as host of “The Tonight Show,” “NBC exit interviewer” Steve Carell attempted to comfort him with a quote from “Up in the Air,” the recent film centered on a man whose job it is to fire people.

“Anyone who has ever built an empire or changed the world sat where you are right now,” Carell said, “and it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it.” In the film, which deals with the harsh reality of our current economic climate, the quote is used to sugarcoat the truth and reassure people that being fired isn’t all that bad. While he was not exactly fired, Conan has been turned into an everyman despite his enormous success, and could stand in for any one of those fired employees in the film.

If this whole debacle with NBC giving “The Tonight Show” to Conan for seven months before local affiliates complained that Leno’s primetime lead-in affected their ratings proves anything, it’s that truly no one is safe. Conan O’Brien went to Harvard, wrote the classic Simpsons episode “Marge vs. the Monorail” and hosted “Late Night” for 16 years but even he got screwed over by the man. When something like this happens, it shows that even the celebrities that we admire can be just like the rest of us. Rather than take the offered 12:05 slot and give into his bosses, Conan has chosen to keep his integrity and the legacy of “The Tonight Show” in tact and give up his dream. He is both just an average, everyday man like the rest of us and yet someone whom we admire, largely because he is not willing to make sacrifices just to keep employment. A closing performance of “Freebird” perfectly encapsulated Conan’s feelings of why he wants to move on.

NBC’s spin on the situation is that they are firing Conan because his show was losing money, deceptively including the cost of the $50 million studio in their calculations.  NBC says that it’s a ratings issue, but the network has forgotten too quickly that it took Leno three years to overtake Letterman, his and Conan’s competitor, in the ratings. Perhaps they also wanted to punish Jimmy Fallon for failing to beat Craig Fergusson in his year on the air by bumping him back a half hour as well. It’s just the same damage control that we’ve seen lately from banks and car companies claiming that bailouts are necessary, then giving themselves bonuses. NBC is just another corporation making boneheaded decisions that are far too common.

But the whole reason behind this disaster is not completely the result of the incompetent CEOs, but of the sycophant, the Dwight Schrute (or Gareth Keenan, depending on your preference) of this whole affair, Jay Leno. He says that no one should blame Conan, but rather his agents and managers, and Jay, being the nice guy that he is, has no agents or managers. Well then who exactly negotiated Jay’s $150 million buyout, forcing NBC to side with him? In 2004, when Leno made the announcement that Conan would be replacing him as the host of “The Tonight Show,” he said that it’s best to go out on top, that retiring would be for the best and that he did not want there to be any animosity or destroyed relationships as there were when he and Letterman were both considered for “The Tonight Show.” Clearly, he does not believe that, as retiring in 2009 or even right now in 2010 could have avoided this whole mess. For all of his jokes about the situation, no one is forcing him to stay on television and if he had any class, he would realize that it is time to pass the torch.

Fortunately though, Conan will be able to land on his feet. NBC has unwittingly turned him into a martyr, giving him his Hugh Grant moment that turned Leno into a number one hit. Whatever network Conan lands on (Fox is believed to be the most likely), he will most likely be helped by this whole affair. He has received tremendous support in his last two weeks from Facebook groups, rallies, ratings and standing ovations from his audience. The final “Tonight Show” episode’s montage of Conan’s best moments from the past seven months, followed by the words “to be continued,” tells us that this is not the end of Conan’s career. It’s too early to tell if he will build an empire or change the world, but he is still leaving with a sense of hope.

“Please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere,” Conan said in his final address. “Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.” It’s an inspiring message for both people currently out of work and young people who dream of doing something big. If Conan continues his work on another network, then perhaps there really is hope for the rest of us.