Over the last two weeks I, like most of my peers, couldn’t pull myself away from coverage of the Conan O’Brien-NBC late night feud. Suddenly, it seemed as if friends of mine who had never before professed their love for “Coco” burst out of the darkness to defend the wronged host. I even tuned into O’Brien’s last week of hosting “The Tonight Show,” for the first and perhaps last time, to hear him tell his side of the story.

But the fact that the first time I watched “The Tonight Show” was this week symbolizes all of O’Brien’s problems. The truth of the matter is that O’Brien just could not compete for his core audience — and has very little chance of competing in the future — within the confines of an 11:30 p.m. show broadcast on network television.

O’Brien first earned notoriety for pushing the envelope as a writer for popular shows such as “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons.” O’Brien continued his quest to discover where the censorship limits on comedy were when he became the host of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” on NBC. O’Brien introduced characters such as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the Masturbating Bear and Pimpbot 5000.

But the creative limits were lax at 12:35 a.m. O’Brien was forced to eliminate or self-censor himself to fit the standards of his new 11:35 p.m. time slot when he took over “The Tonight Show”; the Masturbating Bear was forced into hibernation.

O’Brien was forced to play Jay Leno’s game — perform non-threatening comedy that appeals to an older, more reserved audience. At the same time, the network expected O’Brien to pull in younger viewers, like myself, without the tools which he was accustomed to use. Even when working at FOX, writing for “The Simpsons,” which aired during primetime, O’Brien was encouraged to think outside the box; “The Tonight Show” format boxed O’Brien in.

At the same time, O’Brien had to compete against more TV offerings targeted at his audience, such as “SportsCenter” and “Jersey Shore” reruns. My occasional TV nights are monopolized by the Stewart-Colbert power hour on Comedy Central.

Cable TV makes conventional late-night talk shows seem dry and boring — why watch O’Brien interview some actor promoting a lame movie when there’s Colbert skewering astronauts, Olympians and politicians on a regular basis?

This is not to say that I don’t find O’Brien more entertaining than Leno or Letterman, or that I think the “Coco” nuts are insincere in their support.

Still, just by looking at the poor ratings amongst 18- to 35-year-olds — and the population in general — it’s hard to see O’Brien’s recent astronomical ratings and fans’ outpouring of affection as reasons to keep his “Tonight Show” at 11:35.

Moving O’Brien to midnight, as the network suggested, made a lot of sense. You could catch the show after Colbert went off the air, O’Brien could have more artistic freedom, and you could still watch “SportsCenter LA” after he wrapped up. Sure, it would have been odd to have “The Tonight Show” tomorrow morning, but O’Brien just was not connecting with viewers at the current time.

Many Coco fans now hold out hope for a new O’Brien late-night franchise at FOX. To some degree this move would make sense: O’Brien would return to his roots at “The Simpsons’” network, where he would have more artistic freedom and the ability to reestablish his own comedic identity.

Unfortunately, this potential remedy would only treat the symptom of O’Brien’s unemployment, not the cause. O’Brien would still have the same competition and only slightly more freedom — unless he were to drastically change the format of his show. Don’t get me wrong — O’Brien did refuse to engage in a lot of the same formulaic bits of Leno and Letterman at NBC — but O’Brien’s “Tonight” and “Late Night” were rather conventional in format if not in content.

Unfortunately for O’Brien, the late-night atmosphere has evolved in a manner that will make it near impossible to regain the foothold he lost when he left 12:35p.m. Young viewers have largely already been won over by cable; while moving to cable, where he could finally stretch himself to his comedic limits, presents the best opportunity for him to stage a comeback, the most probably outcome is still his permanent consignment to the dustbin of television’s past. Say hello to Craig Kilborn, Conan.

I hope O’Brien wises up to this fact sooner rather than later. If he delays — moving to FOX first, next September — the slim window of opportunity he has will close for good. His only chance is cable, either competing with Comedy Central or following Colbert at midnight. If not, then I hope he’s happy with his current chief claim to fame, as the guy who wrote the “Marge vs. the Monorail” Simpsons episode. Perhaps he should be — it’s a legacy that I know most in my demographic would have a great deal of respect for.

Adam McCall is a College sophomore from Acton, Mass. He is the speaker of the Student Government Association.