Super Bowl ad: Conan deleted

I know that Conan will be just fine -- is fine already, what with his tens of millions of dollars for leaving NBC and the outpouring of fan love and sympathy and an inevitable perch on another network. But still, I felt a pang for him last night, watching the Jay-Dave-Oprah Super Bowl commercial for "The Late Show." The ad seemed to completely erase the whole Leno-O'Brien mess, to turn back (and turn forward) the time machine to the days of the Dave-Jay late night contest.

There's no question in my mind that the ad served Jay Leno a lot more than David Letterman, whose CBS show sponsored and put the ad together (see this New York Times piece for details on the shoot). Again, it negated the massive 10 p.m. "Jay Leno Show" debacle, as if the big late-night controversy has never stopped being a duel between Oprah's two big children, Leno and Letterman. It showed Leno as a good sport, willing to sit there while Letterman mocked him.

And the ad implied that Letterman doesn't truly feel defensive of Conan O'Brien -- that Letterman's expressions of sympathy for O'Brien during the past few months were just part of some big promotional game. Obviously, Letterman has to contend with Leno again; he has to be a realist and deal with the fact that Leno may once again clobber him in the 11:35 p.m. ratings. He needs to regroup, as much as Leno and O'Brien need to regroup. He has to show himself moving forward, and not staking his future in an NBC failure. He has to get his show's logo out there on the viral circuit. But still, his ad turned me off.

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