I thought at the start that moving Conan to the Tonight Show was probably a mistake. He 's just too quirky for that audience. And I think NBC should have given Dave the first offer of the show, considering what he made NBC's Late Night into. And shown Johnny some respect in honoring his preference of successor (Dave), since he made it pretty easy on them the way he exited.
Leno, to me, is a guy who writes decent jokes. A stand up comedian. Which is why his monologues were ok. But a very weak interviewer, who's questions generally reached for the lowest common denominator. Sexual innuendo, gossip..... all while he had that smirk on his face along with that cackle. His skits were second rate Late Night takeoffs. Trying to get the common man on the street to do or say something stupid, with none of the humor Letterman was able to elicit. Didn't help that Leno was doing it with LA phonies as opposed to New Yorkers. But Leno trying to lead people into things was the biggest problem.
Dave is from the Carson school as far as interviews go. He would go to great lengths to make his guests look good, even at his own expense. This was their job to do. And when tough times arose (like 9/11), he was eloquent and comforting, speaking from the heart. He can get a bit mean & isn't nearly as good as he was on Late Night, but he would have fit perfectly into Johnny's seat, and deserved the first shot at it.
So it's a big mess. NBC execs look like dimwits now. No surprise there. These are the same sort of people who ran the music companies into the ground. Same corporations squandering every opportunity in the last 30 years to keep their product relevant due to arrogance, narrow mindedness and greed.
You can't blame Leno for wanting the job back, but he really comes out of this looking bad, imo. I hope Letterman is able to maintain the ratings lead if Leno does go back to the Tonight Show.