And this is why he has so many friends. He is genuinely a good guy.
O'Brien out, Leno back in?
- Thread starter Professor Zoom
- Start date
And this is why he has so many friends. He is genuinely a good guy.
I betcha Leno is just lovin' all this.
Conan did.
It would be cool but I doubt Letterman will be retiring any time soon.
.
Win.
Very good point.
You're right. It was totally unethical for NBC to let go a host who was not drawing the ratings they wanted, and replace him with a host they think can draw ratings. That's completely unheard of in the entertainment industry. And to make it worse, they let him go with only a $35 million severance package and a $12 million severance package for his staff, and the virtual assurance that all of them would be working on another show at another network by fall. How horrible of them.
You're right. It was totally unethical for NBC to let go a host who was not drawing the ratings they wanted, and replace him with a host they think can draw ratings. That's completely unheard of in the entertainment industry. And to make it worse, they let him go with only a $35 million severance package and a $12 million severance package for his staff, and the virtual assurance that all of them would be working on another show at another network by fall. How horrible of them.
What part of "it takes time to build an audience" do you not understand? It took Leno about three years to build an audience when he originally hosted The Tonight Show
I understand that just fine. That has nothing to do with the point I was making.What part of "it takes time to build an audience" do you not understand? It took Leno about three years to build an audience when he originally hosted The Tonight Show
I, personally, think Conan is very talented and that he could have built an audience for his Tonight Show in time, especially if the prime-time lead-in was restored. And I think NBC should have kept him in that slot and not given it back to Leno.
But that's not what I was discussing. It is being suggested in this thread that for NBC to make the business decision that they were unhappy with the performance of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and to negotiate a release from his contract was unethical and immoral, and that's just bunk. It might not be a business decision I think was smart, but it's still a business decision they have the right to make.
NBC didn't like the numbers they were seeing from the show, they felt it was not in their best interest to give the show more time, and they decided to change directions, just as networks do all the time. Further, they negotiated a very handsome severance package for both Conan and his staff, and did not hold him to restrictions on going to another network, so that we're virtually guaranteed he and his staff will be back working very soon.
A stupid move? Sure. But nothing unethical about it.
Conan got into a hissy-fit about moving the show ahead half a fucking hour. Oh, woe is him.
Problem was, they weren't trying to fix the Tonight Show. they needed to cancel Jay's show, but wrote the contract in such a way as they would have had to pay a HUGE penalty. They were hoping they could effectively cancel Jay's show, while demoting Conan back to Late Night, and as long as the NAMES of the shows stayed the same, they wouldn't have to pay either of them any penalties...
I understand that just fine. That has nothing to do with the point I was making.What part of "it takes time to build an audience" do you not understand? It took Leno about three years to build an audience when he originally hosted The Tonight Show
I, personally, think Conan is very talented and that he could have built an audience for his Tonight Show in time, especially if the prime-time lead-in was restored. And I think NBC should have kept him in that slot and not given it back to Leno.
But that's not what I was discussing. It is being suggested in this thread that for NBC to make the business decision that they were unhappy with the performance of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and to negotiate a release from his contract was unethical and immoral, and that's just bunk. It might not be a business decision I think was smart, but it's still a business decision they have the right to make.
NBC didn't like the numbers they were seeing from the show, they felt it was not in their best interest to give the show more time, and they decided to change directions, just as networks do all the time. Further, they negotiated a very handsome severance package for both Conan and his staff, and did not hold him to restrictions on going to another network, so that we're virtually guaranteed he and his staff will be back working very soon.
A stupid move? Sure. But nothing unethical about it.
Leno's show FLOPPED about three days after debuting. This caused a problem with the affiliates, who were complaining to NBC that they were going to refuse to broadcast his show as *they* were losing revenue from their nightly local news case due to loss of viewers. NBC used Conan's alleged "low ratings" as an excuse to bump him, after which point all hell broke loose.
Sorry, but it's all unethical.
I understand that just fine. That has nothing to do with the point I was making.What part of "it takes time to build an audience" do you not understand? It took Leno about three years to build an audience when he originally hosted The Tonight Show
I, personally, think Conan is very talented and that he could have built an audience for his Tonight Show in time, especially if the prime-time lead-in was restored. And I think NBC should have kept him in that slot and not given it back to Leno.
But that's not what I was discussing. It is being suggested in this thread that for NBC to make the business decision that they were unhappy with the performance of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
Emphasis mine. It was LENO'S show they canceled. NOT Conan's.
I don't recall anyone saying negotiating a release from the contract was unethical. It was trying to move Conan and BLAME Conan, when in fact, it was all a domino fall from LENO'S failure at 10 pm.
Yes. It woulda cost them a lot more to get rid of Leno. But, it sure has tarnished Leno.
You mean LENO? Remember, it was Leno's show that was actually canceled. Not Conan.
This isn't accurate.
The canceled Leno's show. If they didn't do something they would have to give him a HUGE payout...which they didn't want to do, so they attempted to renegotiate, putting him at 11:30, however, that would be a possibly breach of Conan's contract...
So, they weren't changing directions because of Conan's numbers, they were trying to not do a payout of Leno, and were hoping Conan would do what they wanted.
And quite possibly did so to avoid a very messy lawsuit. Breaches of contract create problems.
Conan got into a hissy-fit about moving the show ahead half a fucking hour. Oh, woe is him.
It was moving it BACK a "fucking" HALF hour...and yeah...there's something about 1) the Tonight show airing in the morning not making sense and 2) Tarnishing a brand...but whatever...
No argument there. No one has denied that, not even Leno. He has repeatedly referred to his show as having been canceled, and accepted the blame for not delivering for the affiliates. No one has attempted to cover up his show's flop.
His low ratings aren't "alleged." They are fact. As we've discussed, there are some very valid reasons why they were low, such as his lead-in and his not having time to build an audience. But that still doesn't change the fact that, in raw numbers, he was drawing about half the viewers Leno had been drawing in the same time slot.
Agreed. Never disputed that. However, once they made the decision to cancel Leno's 10 pm show, they then had to decide what the best way to deal with the situation was. When looking at the cold, hard facts, they saw that (a) to get rid of Leno would cost a heck of a lot more than to get rid of Conan, and (b) Leno's ratings at 11:30 were a lot better than Conan's. They, therefore, made the business decision that it would be best to keep them both if possible, but if not, to get rid of Conan instead of Leno.
No one blamed Conan for the failure of Leno's show. But had Conan's show been pulling stellar ratings, they would have not thought about giving it back to Leno. The failure of Conan's show to perform didn't start the problem, but it did contribute to the decision NBC made as to how to deal with it.
Leno had rating problems when he first started out. Yet, NBC didn't yank him after seven months.