NBC will give $45 million to Conan O’Brien and his “staff” to leave the network so the great Jay Leno can return to his rightful place as host of the Tonight Show.

The Peacock network made the announcement on January 21, 2010.

O’Brien’s final NBC broadcast is Friday. Leno’s second debut as Tonight Show anchor is set for March 1, 2010.

“We’re pleased that Jay is returning to host the franchise that he helmed brilliantly and successfully for many years,” said Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment. “He is an enormous talent, a consummate professional and one of the hardest-working performers on television.”

O’Brien, or “Cuckoo” as his fans call him, can return to television as soon as September but NBC will retain the rights to most of his “comedy bits” (industry term). Why they want to keep them is anyone’s guess.

Many believe O’Brien will land on FOX thus causing a four-way log jam at late night (O’Brien on Fox, Jay Leno on NBC, the disgusting old man David Letterman on CBS, and Jimmy Kimmell on ABC). Land of Punt hopes O’Brien migrates to Murdock’s network because he will flat out falter and watching O’Brien fail will be funnier than Jay-Walking.

While Cuckoo has lots of support on the internet (minus this site), and from teens studying for their GED, no one watches him. He’s not that funny, he’s an elitist Harvard snob, and he’s extremely smarmy. Think Tina Fey only not as masculine.

Leno is a proven ratings winner. He’s funny, affable, and a hard worker. As long as he wants it, Leno should be host of the Tonight Show.

Cuckoo should have returned to the Late Night slot at 12:30am but he apparently didn’t want to usurp current host and fellow SNL alumni Jimmy Fallon.

LOP is flummoxed as why O’Brien displayed such a mind-numbingly, weak-willed, pathetically-puny, overtly-feminine, cowardly show of benevolence (then again, maybe he wanted that $45 million severance package).

O’Brien’s fans will argue that Cuckoo didn’t have the same advantages as Leno, namely a 10pm drama as a lead in. Also, O’Brien hosted the Tonight Show for 7 months while Leno hosted for 17 years.

Finally, O’Brien fans will point out that their guy(?) and Leno have never faced one another head to head. So saying one is a higher ratings-grabber than the other is not fair.

However, those are just excuses because the bottom line is that at 11:35pm more people watched, and want to watch, Leno then O’Brien. Leno is successful. O’Brien is not.

It’s NBC’s network and they can do what they want. Fortunately, they want to return Leno to his rightful place.

Good riddance to Cuckoo.

This entire ordeal is a moot point for Land of Punt. LOP’s late night viewing habits involve Fox News Channel’s Red Eye.

McCartney and his band performed “Get Back” and “Sing the Changes” from his latest album Electric Arguments.

Paul’s old band, The Beatles (maybe you’ve heard of them) made rooftop concerts cool back in the late 60’s.

In 1964, The Beatles launched the British Invasion and made their U.S. television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. The studio Sullivan used is now being used by Letterman.

As you might expect news of McCartney’s performance spread and by the time he ascended to the marquee thousands of fans had gathered to watch the impromptu and free concert.

Sir Paul is in town to play three shows at the New York Mets’ new ballpark, Citi Field. In 1964, the Beatles played at the Mets’ old home, Shea Stadium

After the broadcast concluded, McCartney played five more songs: “Band on the Run,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Helter Skelter” and “Back in the U.S.S.R.”

In between tunes, he joked with the crowd and implored the police to let him play longer. As it was, he quit around 6 P.M. Eastern.

For being in his late 60’s, McCartney sounded great and performed with a lot of vim.

The interview segments were also quite delightful. McCartney was very funny, witty and sharp as a tack. Paul was the epitome of cool.

McCartney talked about playing on the Ed Sullivan Show, the “Paul is Dead” rumor and Michael Jackson—he spoke highly of the King Of Pop but did insinuate that Jackson screwed him in matters of business.

An awkward moment occurred when McCartney asked Letterman how many people were watching his show. Letterman should have said about 3.68 million viewers, about a million more than watch The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien.

Even better for McCartney, every one of those 3.68 million viewers remember seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. While the 2.82 million people who turn in to watch Conan don’t even remember Wings.