Conan was given a chance and he failed to produce results. Leno won, Conan lost. Fair and square.
To be a little more fair about what happened-Conan suffered from a piss poor 10 pm EVERY NIGHT lead in that also decimated local news ratings to the extent NBC was facing an affiliate revolt. Lets see now, what show was that? And, don’t recall the timing, but, believe it was more than seven months between Jay’s Tonight Show debut and the Hugh Grant interview that finally saw him pass Letterman.
Conan’s statement from earlier this week here-