Jay Leno and David Letterman are in the twilight of their days as late-night TV kings, and it’s not clear that any late-night comic will wield that kind of broad influence again.

Late-night ratings sank over the past three months, despite the attention and extraordinary television created over the winter by the drama of Leno taking back “The Tonight Show” from Conan O’Brien.

“Late-night talk shows have been around since the 1950s, and you wonder if they are getting passe with the viewing public,” said Brad Adgate, an analyst with Horizon Media.

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The Emmys are standing with Team Coco, snubbing Jay Leno.

O’Brien’s short-lived reign at NBC’s “Tonight” show earned him an Emmy nod for best variety, music or comedy series. Leno, who returned to “Tonight” following the failure of his prime-time show, was not nominated on Thursday.

But if it makes Leno feel any better, David Letterman was snubbed in the same category — for the first time in 17 years.

NBC submitted both versions of “Tonight” for Emmys consideration, letting the TV academy decide what to include in the category. They went with O’Brien, who was nominated alongside “Saturday Night Live” and shows hosted by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher. O’Brien’s final “Tonight” show was also nominated for best writing in a variety, music or comedy series.

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Conan O’Brien told a concert hall filled with advertisers Wednesday that he envisioned his new TBS talk show would “pick up where ‘Hee Haw’ left off.”

“I have a hunch that 32-year-old men want to hear corny jokes and classic country music,” said O’Brien, who strapped on a guitar and played a personalized version of “On the Road Again.”

He was joking, of course.

O’Brien, whose show starts in November, was the star attraction as Turner Entertainment Networks outlined its programming plans. The comic said it was his first time back in New York since NBC brought him in a year ago to promote his takeover of the “Tonight” show.

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The Big Man is back.

E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who arose from a wheelchair to perform at the 2009 Super Bowl with Bruce Springsteen after a double knee replacement, is taking the stage again amid a new struggle to recover from major spinal surgery.

The stage “always feels like home. It’s where I belong,” Clemons, a former youth counselor, said after performing Saturday night at a Hard Rock Cafe benefit for Home Safe, a children’s charity, in Hollywood, Fla.

Clemons, who had surgery Jan. 13, said in a recent interview he’s winning his battles – including severe, chronic pain and post-surgical depression. His impish humor helps.

“I am the bunny, baby!” he said gleefully, evoking the drum-pounding rabbit from the battery commercial.
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Conan O’Brien’s live tour is quickly becoming one for the ages.

Days after starting it in Phoenix — with former sidekick Andy Richter, Jack McBrayer of 30 Rock and the awesome indie band Spoon — O’Brien was joined on stage by another celebrity guest.

During O’Brien’s cover of Five For Fighting’s Superman (It’s Not Easy) at his Los Angeles stop, the red-headed comic was joined by Jim Carrey, complete with Superman outfit.

Forget hitting the ski slopes, grabbing bags of swag, or long, luxurious nights by the fire. Joan Rivers is working the Sundance Film Festival.

“It is so frustrating to be at Sundance because you can’t see anything but your own movie,” said Rivers, who attended the festival in support of the documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg. The film premiered Monday night.

“Everybody’s saying, ‘Did you see this? Did you see this?’” the 76-year-old comedian said. “You go, ‘No! No! No!’”

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NBC says it has a deal with Conan O’Brien to produce a possible series, only days after his rancorous exit as host of the network’s “Tonight Show.”

NBC is picking up a pilot from O’Brien’s production company, Conaco. The drama, as yet untitled, focuses on a Supreme Court justice who leaves the bench to start his own practice.

Casting has yet to be announced for the pilot, which is bucking for a series slot on NBC’s fall schedule.

Despite O’Brien’s recent split from NBC as an on-camera star, he retains a development deal with the network.

Past series produced by Conaco include the comedy “Andy Barker, P.I.,” which featured O’Brien’s longtime talk-show sidekick Andy Richter.

It would’ve been very easy for Conan O’Brien to end up cynical after all of what’s happened in the last month.

Easy and, as we learned about O’Brien on his final Tonight Show, the last thing he’d be.

“I hate cynicism,” he said in a closing monologue. “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.”

Instead, O’Brien’s final show was mostly full of fun and great moments — he continued his “crazy expensive” sketches, using what appear to be massively costly items and sticking NBC with the tab. On Friday, O’Brien brought out what he said was the skeleton of a “giant ground sloth” borrowed from the Smithsonian, which sprayed “beluga caviar” on a “Picasso.” Cost to NBC: $65 million.

(Then, nice guy that he is, O’Brien admitted the whole thing was fake. Again, it’d have been so easy to do that for real, but then the lawsuits… etc.)
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Now that the Jay Leno-Conan O’Brien-NBC is finally jumping over the line from speculated story to what amounts to a small bit of history, the obvious question on some folks’ minds is “Who could’ve predicted this?”

Colby Hall of Mediaite has the answer for you. Who could’ve predicted this? Howard Stern. More than three years ago.

Now that Conan O’Brien is jobless — or, will be after Friday, anyway — what will the soon-to-be-ex-Tonight Show host do with his free time?

Fellow NBCer Joel McHale (Community) decided to offer O’Brien a job — at his other gig, The Soup on E!