THE CONAN O'BRIEN/JAY LENO CONNECTION TO WHY NOBODY LIKES MIDDLE MANAGERS PLUS SURVIVOR AND JAY LENO SUCKS

Everybody hates middle managers….They are the ones who generally have to do the dirty work….They do not have the luxury to remain above it all and they are not so authoritative they can avoid a reaction, a public reaction or argument, from subordinates against unpopular decisions.

They carry out the decisions while senior management hides and tries to have it both ways….Appearing to empathize with employees all while giving the original directives….They also have to continuously CYA from subordinates who want their job.

The skills used to cling to power and overcome continuous attacks on your work performance and authority translate well to the TV show SURVIVOR….The two winners who IMO most epitomized what the game is about had strong middle management type interactions with the other survivors….These were Richard Hatch of the first one SURVIVOR BORNEO and Brian Hiedek of SURVIOR THAILAND….Lex Van Den Berghe of SURVIVOR AFRICA who came in third also was a good example of this.

Ferreting out who is against you, backstabbing, making phony alliances, and just not telling the truth in general while appearing like a nice person on the surface are the skills of a corporate flunky such as a middle manager.

I bring this up because of the current debacle with late night television….I’ve never liked Jay Leno….He always struck me as the modern day equivalent of Bob Hope a mean nasty guy telling stale jokes whose robotic approach to comedy makes him like an old fashioned Borsht Belt comedian….Every joke he tells should be accompanied by a rimshot.

The public Leno, the nice guy, the friendly host, is a façade….During the first late night wars when Leno shafted David Letterman and forced Johnny Carson into retirement, much of the blame according to the book and movie THE LATE SHIFT was assigned to his pushy manager Helen Kushnick….She has passed on and now we see the handiwork of real Jay or “vintage Jay” as Letterman commented the other day in the current proceedings.

The bottom line is Leno was a given a lot more time to make THE TONIGHT SHOW work when he took it over originally….And in fact he didn’t begin to beat Letterman in the ratings until Hugh Grant came on more than a year after he took over….In addition, he had much stronger lead in shows unlike Conan O’Brien who was stuck with Leno’s crappy prime time shows as his lead.

I would like to see celebrities boycott Jay Leno’s THE TONIGHT SHOW….It’s time we said no to this weasel-like behavior which is polluting America….It’s one thing to say “business is business” it’s another to screw over people in your day to day life.

I’m a huge David Letterman fan but now have a lot of respect for Conan O’Brien as well….His comments on his last TONGHT SHOW were gracious especially about not being cynical….Here’s hoping Letterman and O’Brien (once he signs with another network and gets a new show) thrash Leno in the ratings.