O'Brien out, Leno back in?
- Thread starter Professor Zoom
- Start date
Maybe so, but I can't help thinking that Conan didn't consider being the King of Late Night on a dying network to be all that great an honor. Remember, they signed him to succeed Leno years ago; a lot has happened to the network since then. Zucker's attempt to screw with the starting time probably convinced him that NBC was failing. And if I was being relegated to second place, I'd be pissed, for all the reasons you cite above, and I'd try to get out, no matter how. I like Conan, and I very much admire how he was able to take a bad situation and turn it so completely in him favor.
I doubt, not after the way his "don't blame Conan" bit got ripped to shreds in the media. I'm sure Leno will stick with his Nuremberg defense: 'I was just a loyal NBC soldier following orders'.
Which is where about half of the US population lives.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
Jump ship in what way, most areas are covered by the major networks.
"Hey, 86 Leno's show or we'll become a CBS station...like the CBS station 5 miles away..."
"We'll dump networks all together rerun ALL IN THE FAMILY and crappy movies!"
I was talking to one of my colleagues at work who is much older than I am. He saw this entire thing as driven by money and ego, and that Conan's departure from NBC was nothing but a shrewd business decision. So essentially, he just mirrored Terengo's sentiments.
I very much argued with him, saying that The Tonight Show is something much more important and beholden than just money and pride to someone like Conan, but he didn't buy it. I also had to argue this point as well to a fellow friend of mine, who just saw this as one big conspiracy by NBC, Leno, & Conan to boost ratings and get more money.
Even if any of those points are true, how does Conan O'Brien, NBC, and even Jay Leno benefit from all of this? Conan O'Brien is no longer hosting the show of his dreams and furthermore probably feels personally disappointed and humiliated after hosting it only seven months, making him the host with the shortest tenure while commanding The Tonight Show. For someone who probably wanted to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, that's not exactly positive affirmation of his contribution to The Tonight Show. I think in Conan's mind, he probably feels like he failed, both as a comedian and host. He probably feels like he failed The Tonight Show, which is probably a huge, huge disappointment for Conan.
Secondly, NBC loses by having to discard a studio they spent $50 million to build, money lost on advertising and promoting Conan, and the most expensive and costly loss of all... losing Conan O'Brien, who will likely generate huge ratings and money wherever he goes next. As NBC stated when they first announced the line-up rejiggering, their intention was to keep Conan on NBC, and I believe that. Now they lost him. In a few years, they'll likely lose Jay Leno too when he retires. So this should and is probably seen as a huge loss for NBC. They just lost one of their biggest late night commodities.
Thirdly, Jay Leno might selfishly see this as winning by regaining The Tonight Show but honestly this is something of a demotion for him. He had the previldge and prestige of hosting his own primetime show and now after only seven months that was yanked from him. Yes, the show wasn't his idea, but as a comedian and entertainer it still is a disappointment and on some level failure for him. He's lost a lot of popularity and public approval and it'll be interesting to see how things go when he resumes hosting The Tonight Show in March. It might even be a bigger failure when it provides ratings are tanking and he's now trailing Letterman. Of course, that remains to be seen, but without the potential for lower ratings after a public backlash, being relegated to your old show after your own show failed is definitely a professional disappointment and failure for Leno, whether he views it that way or not.
So, all in all, no one wins in this situation. I don't see how Conan could have orchestrated this since all he gets from this is some money but to a comedian money isn't everything. He lost the show of his dreams. NBC lost one of their most prized possessions and Leno failed professionally. I don't see how NBC benefits from this at all, besides getting Leno back on The Tonight Show which I'm sure they're secretly hoping will boost ratings once more. We'll see if that even happens. Regardless, it's a no-win for everyone involved. Hell, even Carson Daly got screwed in this entire situation. People still have no idea he has a show.
I very much argued with him, saying that The Tonight Show is something much more important and beholden than just money and pride to someone like Conan, but he didn't buy it. I also had to argue this point as well to a fellow friend of mine, who just saw this as one big conspiracy by NBC, Leno, & Conan to boost ratings and get more money.
Even if any of those points are true, how does Conan O'Brien, NBC, and even Jay Leno benefit from all of this? Conan O'Brien is no longer hosting the show of his dreams and furthermore probably feels personally disappointed and humiliated after hosting it only seven months, making him the host with the shortest tenure while commanding The Tonight Show. For someone who probably wanted to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, that's not exactly positive affirmation of his contribution to The Tonight Show. I think in Conan's mind, he probably feels like he failed, both as a comedian and host. He probably feels like he failed The Tonight Show, which is probably a huge, huge disappointment for Conan.
Secondly, NBC loses by having to discard a studio they spent $50 million to build, money lost on advertising and promoting Conan, and the most expensive and costly loss of all... losing Conan O'Brien, who will likely generate huge ratings and money wherever he goes next. As NBC stated when they first announced the line-up rejiggering, their intention was to keep Conan on NBC, and I believe that. Now they lost him. In a few years, they'll likely lose Jay Leno too when he retires. So this should and is probably seen as a huge loss for NBC. They just lost one of their biggest late night commodities.
Thirdly, Jay Leno might selfishly see this as winning by regaining The Tonight Show but honestly this is something of a demotion for him. He had the previldge and prestige of hosting his own primetime show and now after only seven months that was yanked from him. Yes, the show wasn't his idea, but as a comedian and entertainer it still is a disappointment and on some level failure for him. He's lost a lot of popularity and public approval and it'll be interesting to see how things go when he resumes hosting The Tonight Show in March. It might even be a bigger failure when it provides ratings are tanking and he's now trailing Letterman. Of course, that remains to be seen, but without the potential for lower ratings after a public backlash, being relegated to your old show after your own show failed is definitely a professional disappointment and failure for Leno, whether he views it that way or not.
So, all in all, no one wins in this situation. I don't see how Conan could have orchestrated this since all he gets from this is some money but to a comedian money isn't everything. He lost the show of his dreams. NBC lost one of their most prized possessions and Leno failed professionally. I don't see how NBC benefits from this at all, besides getting Leno back on The Tonight Show which I'm sure they're secretly hoping will boost ratings once more. We'll see if that even happens. Regardless, it's a no-win for everyone involved. Hell, even Carson Daly got screwed in this entire situation. People still have no idea he has a show.
They were threatening to jump ship in the sense that they would substitute either syndicated or locally-originated programming in place of Leno. They weren't threatening to drop their affiliation with NBC, but such a threat coming from more than one or two stations was a major vote of no confidence in Zucker and the rest of the network execs.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
That's what I was wondering, preempt the timeslot or such, not "jump ship" on NBC entirely (There's all this doom and gloom about NBC, like networks don't bounce back.)
I mean, where I once lived the local NBC affiliate didn't even show Late Night with Conan O'Brien at all for his first few years. (Houston was another one, though, IIRC they pushed it back to the wee hours of the morning.) One time they messed up and I almost saw part of the opening credits.
The 18-49 demo for Conan's last show was pretty crazy high. It ended up being a 4.8 which so far this year has only been bettered by American Idol, NFL playoffs in prime-time, Golden Globes, Big Bang Theory/Two & Half Men, and Grey's Anatomy. All prime-time stuff.
I hope the FOX stuff comes quick and then they can keep the momentum going and use the internet to get little blurbs out. If legally they can't be from Conan, they can be from Fox about Conan
Maybe let Conan go be a guest judge on American Idol
I hope the FOX stuff comes quick and then they can keep the momentum going and use the internet to get little blurbs out. If legally they can't be from Conan, they can be from Fox about Conan
Maybe let Conan go be a guest judge on American Idol
So, what happens if Conan breaks the no talking/no show deal? (turnabout being fairplay
I would imagine he forfeits the entire severance package, including the payouts for his staff.
Sounds like Fox is getting serious about going after Conan. It would be interesting to see who Conan gets as his first guest on the hypothetical new Fox show...
Lining up Tiger Woods for his first "post scandal" interview would be sweet.
Lining up Tiger Woods for his first "post scandal" interview would be sweet.
Eh, that's quite a ways away...I doubt Tiger will stay silent for another 7 months anyway. I'm sure another scandal will pop up for someone.
While I agree, if he does stay quiet till then, it would be a hell of a draw.
In other news, Tilda Swinton says she would love to play him in a movie... 
http://www.movieline.com/2010/01/tilda-swinton-on-playing-conan-obrien-yes-yes-yes-absolutely.php
http://www.movieline.com/2010/01/tilda-swinton-on-playing-conan-obrien-yes-yes-yes-absolutely.php
The Tonight Show airs at 11:35 here, so that proposed change would have pushed it to 12:05. I live on the West Coast.