Goodbye Jay!

Today is the last day of the blog challenge and it's safe to report now that one more challenger is out of the race. That still leaves 5 of us in the contest, the process to choose the winner is still TBA.

I'm straying away from the normal lists today, I was running out of ideas anyway. Today I want to blog about something that I'm going to miss. Tonight is the last show that Jay Leno will be doing at 11:30pm, his run as "The Tonight Show" host will end after 17 seasons. I've only been an avid watcher for about the last 6-7 years, but the nights just won't be the same without him. For 4 of these years I was in Central time and watching him beginning at 10:30pm knowing that it would be over at 11:30pm usually left me refreshed for work in the mornings.

Moving back to Eastern time made watching him from 11:30pm-12:30am more difficult, if I could get through the first 30min I would be happy, unless I wanted to watch who he was interviewing. I always set the Sleep timer on my bedroom TV, but sometimes I just couldn't stay awake for what I wanted to see. He's had lots of regular guests over the years that I've enjoyed and some of his skits/comedy bits are memorable. Yes, he'll back on the air in the fall at 10pm, but I doubt it'll be same.

I remember 5 years ago when he made the announcement that he was going to be on the air another 10 years then Conan would be taking over. Just a couple weeks after that, he announced that his time had been reduced to 5 years because NBC was afraid that they'd lose Conan elsewhere if he had to wait 10 years for The Tonight Show job. Back then that seemed a long way off and not much to worry about, turning 3o also seemed a long way off too, but life goes on.

I've set my DVR tonight in case I'm not home at 11:30pm. Conan will be the primary guest tonight and it will be an official passing of the torch. At the very least, the teaser spots promoting Conan will finally end. I'll give him a chance, but it just won't be the same without Monday night "Headlines" or the Terry Bradshaw interviews. I'm not much of a Letterman fan, but I can always turn my late night TV watching towards Friends re-runs. Better yet, maybe I should actually go to bed at an earlier hour.