(While I was drafting this piece, I noticed that Jeff posted something with similar sentiments, but I'm going further and pitching the "win" situation for both The Chin and The Hair.)
I find the "Team Conan" or "I'm With Coco" or whatever movement patently absurd...not in spirit mind you, but in productive potential. It sprang out of nowhere after seven months of many not paying attention to The Tonight Show even though these people love Conan and what he represents. If you consider Jay Leno the bad guy because a) you don't find him entertaining, b) because he's trying to salvage a job out of self-preservation, or c) you love Conan O'Brien...you're missing the point.
Frankly, I prefer Conan's style and subtance better by far, but Jay isn't the bad guy because he's trying to hang on to his job or, for that matter, because you may not like him. This isn't a populist revolution being lead by El Conan. This is a network turning its talent on one another to avoid being classified as the bad guy (which they are in this case). It's "Conan versus Jay" because that what NBC wants everyone to think that it is.
It's "just business, you understand" as usual, where "the needs of the company" are the fall-back for why NBC has botched what they've botched. The calculated decision at the top is that either one of these guys, left to their own devices when outright fired, could destroy them and raise the stock of another network.
If they cut Jay loose, he takes the longest track record in late night, a self-righteous audience, and a ratings bleed with him. If they snip Conan, he takes $60 million, a self-righteous audience, and a ratings bleed with him. The situation is a net negative no matter what happens, so why not set the talent and their followings against one another to offset whatever ratings the "bad guy" who leaves takes with him? Neither one of them was going to be happy with The Jay Leno Half-Hour Comedy Hour and The Midnight Show with Conan O'Brien. That solution was a push tactic on NBC's part.
If you put the burden of decision on the talent with their jobs and reputations on the line, they'll inevitably get petty. That started to happen last night as both hosts diverted their bull's eyes more directly on one another instead of NBC. Jeff Zucker couldn't possibly hope for more than Conan and Jay damaging their own brands enough that whichever one leaves or stays doesn't matter.
The trump card for O'Brien and Leno, both wronged by NBC, is to both dump NBC and go somewhere else. There should be a big musical number starring them and their teams uploaded to Funny Or Die or YouTube. It should spoof "The Farmer and The Cowman Should Be Friends" from the Fox-owned Oklahoma! and be the ultimate "Fuck you!" to NBC, who's screwed them both. Conan would announce he's going to Fox and Jay that he's going to ABC, who would move Nightline for him. It's known that there is or has been interest for them respectively at both networks. NBC needs Leno much more than he needs them, and I don't know that he's as on-board with being the destruction of the brand as Jimmy Kimmel alleged two nights ago.
That would leave NBC with the option of rebuilding The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon or Carson Daly and a massive talent boycott. That's the only possible win-win for both "rivals" who could be stronger allies. Conan's entire staff uprooted and moved coasts. Jay got pushed out of late night entirely and can't be happy that NBC's allowed him to be pitched as the perceived bad guy. They've both been used and abused, and they need to get on the same page. Together, they could re-shape late night TV on their terms, not those of NBC.