“All I ask of you is one thing: Don’t be cynical.”
by Bryan
Conan’s final thoughts:
“And finally, I have to say something to our fans. The massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming. The rallies, the signs, all the goofy, outrageous creativity on the internet, and the fact that people have traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain to be in our audience, made a sad situation joyous and inspirational.
“To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.
“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.”
h/t Warming Glow
Bryan Joiner 
I’ll agree that he wasn’t right for it right now, but they made it so clear that this was a long-term investment I don’t blame Conan for trying to skirt the line between getting new viewers and keeping old ones. Did I watch the show usually? No. Do I think this is a national tragedy? No. But people like Kevin Smith, who tweeted that “No one got screwed” over this because there was money involved miss the point. Conan most certainly did get screwed, but I don’t really feel sorry for him, he handled it pretty well and we got two great weeks of television out of it. And I guess his point was that those two weeks of TV were worth it for him, money or no. Now I’ll go back to generally not caring.
I don’t know what he can do next. I got the sad sense that this wasn’t a valedictory for his show so much as this phase of his career. FOX just seems like such a weird place for him, though I could totally see it happening. The nice thing is that wherever he goes, he’s going to be a f*cking wild man.
ok then forget the money. it may have been his lifelong dream to host the tonight show, it may also have been starbury’s lifelong dream to play for the knicks. it didn’t work out. let’s say starbury still had something left in the tank and he was able to contribute to the Celts last year and they won the title. Starbury would have been happy. Conan was not right for the Tonight Show.
Sports Guy was right, he would have to water down his act. Take Letterman (please) he’s impossible to watch.
you take the show. I’ll take the money.
I don’t think he’s referring to this situation, and I can’t stand the argument that because there was so much money involved there can’t be matters of principle involved. Everything is relative. Something that may seem trifling to you might be huge to someone else because you grew up fairly well off in NYC. It’s not about the money. I assure you he’d rather still have the show.
Hard to be cynical when you’re getting $35 million to walk away from a show you weren’t right for and that was failing plus getting free hype to build into a new show on a more appropriate network and format.
Leno goes back where he belongs. He’s a better Hollywood host anyway. What exactly was there to be cynical about in the first place?
Pssh, where’s the fun in that?