Late Night Wars?

To be honest, I really don't care who takes over The Tonight Show. I like Conan more than Jay, but I don't watch either so my opinion doesn't really matter. I stopped watching The Tonight Show after Johnny Carson retired and haven't watched it since. Jay Leno seems like a nice enough guy, but I find him awkward to watch and not very funny. Sorry, Jay. Conan is funny, but not charismatic enough to make me want to tune in to watch him every night. Also, let's face it, the whole talk show format is stale. I'm so sick of hearing celebrities tell the same stories on The Today Show all the way through to The Tonight Show.

The thing that caught my attention with this story is that NBC is paying a huge sum of money to Conan O'Brien and his staff for him to relinquish his job. Doesn't this seem ridiculous? Only in America, kids. It's really quite insensitive of NBC to be wrangling this way so publicly while so many people are unemployed and struggling.

Here in Sioux City, John Morrell and Co. are closing a meat processing plant that employs fourteen hundred people. I won't miss the plant, because the stench of it wafts all through Sioux City. However, I do feel for the people who are losing their livelihood. The plant will close its doors in April.

Hubby lost his job a few years ago. I was terrified. We had a mortgage and three children and bills, bills, bills. We had bought our home because, in part, it was close to his work place. He had been with the company for ten years and put his heart and soul into working there; nobody ever questioned his commitment to his work. There was reason for us to worry at that time, but it didn't take long for hubby to get a new job and the severance package was okay. We weathered our storm with relative ease.

These folks here in Sioux City are facing more challenging conditions. Sioux City just doesn't have that many jobs to go around. I peruse the want ads occasionally. Usually it's about one page. The competition for existing jobs is going to be unbelievable. Things are going to be hard for the people who will be jobless when the Morrell plant closes. There are just fewer jobs now. America is making less stuff. Manufacturing is dying. If big companies can do it cheaper somewhere else, they will.

Yes, our reality in America is changing. Our bubble certainly has burst and we need to take a hard look at what is and what isn't working. Unfortunately, I don't think things are going to get better quickly. It's going to be a long process. NBC seems to have missed the memo. It seems ridiculous to pay a man and his staff forty-five million dollars to go away only to be replaced by another guy who nobody watches. Maybe The Tonight Show is losing ratings because it's out of touch with what America is watching. There's nothing wrong with John Stewart's ratings. He's on at around the same time. And people are still watching David Letterman.

I just wonder what the fourteen hundred folks here in Sioux City who are losing their jobs think of NBC's million dollar pay-out.