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Source: ONE News -
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A Facebook group called I'm With COCO has organised rallies to support beleaguered talk show host Conan O'Brien in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Seattle.
The LA crowd assembled at Pioneer Square, which is right outside of WMAQ-TV's downtown studios, where O'Brien and his crew tape The Tonight Show, to demonstrate their support for the comedian and to voice their opposition to NBC and rival Jay Leno.
They were accompanied by stuntman Steven Ho, who was one of O'Brien's first guests on the show.
The protesters, holding up signs and placards, were mostly made up of teens and young people.
NBC is trying to remove O'Brien as host of its Tonight Show late-night program and replace him with Jay Leno, who previously hosted the talk and variety show before a failed attempt to move him to a prime time slot in order to save money on the expensive drama series that are usually broadcast at that time.
O'Brien's fans are angry at what they consider NBC executives painting O'Brien in a bad light, especially after senior NBC sports executive Dick Ebersol, blamed O'Brien for much of the fiasco, telling the New York Times the on-air jokes against Leno were chicken-hearted and gutless.
Media watchers are calling this a major public relations disaster, from which NBC could be slow to recover.
