In The Year 2000......................and 9

Conan O'Brien is going to take over the Tonight Show..........in five years.

When the announcement first came this afternoon, it took a minute to sink in. I almost didn't hear the "in the year 2009" and thought that Jay Leno had suddenly just stepped down.

I have mixed feelings about this. Of course I love Conan. I just want him to stay on the air and stay himself. I'll follow him if he switches networks or timeslots, no problem. But I really like Jay. He gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. I like that the Tonight Show is a bit safer and more bland. I don't know that Conan's zingy wit is a solid fit for an 11:30 crowd. Of course, by the time the torch is actually passed, those of us who have followed Conan for a while will *be* the 11:30 crowd, so I guess it's not so much that we will follow him as that he will follow us. At least he'll stay on NBC.

Nothing is going to happen until 2009, so it's sort of silly to speculate now, but I just couldn't let the announcement go unnoticed.