Conan O'Brien & The Great NBC War

[Blitzkrieg1701]

So, is anybody else paying attention to all this? I usually avoid showbusiness news like the plague, but I've been following all this stuff VERY closely... and doing a lot of this:



So, yeah. I'm a Conan fan and am very unhappy at the thought of him leaving. Anyone have thoughts about the looming late night shake-up on NBC?

[Cognitive Gear]

[Blitzkrieg1701]

Well said, sir. Well said.

[Radical Dreamer]

Indeed. XD

[Roy Mustang]

I'm not the biggest Conan fan, but I thought he was funny. But I did feel that he wasn't his best since he took over the job for the tonight show. But that can be blame on the writers then himself. Since all of this has happen, he has been at his best with jokes about it.

That being said, NBC is doing him wrong about this. Leno had poor ratings, when he started the Tonight Show and it took a few years before they got good. I feel that NBC didn't want to give him a chance at this and was from day one, ready to have Leno come back. It was a dirty deal from the start.

Where I feel that it was a dirty deal that they gave him. I don't feel bad for Conan since he will get $25 million, most of what he's due in the remainder of his three-year contract and free to work elsewhere. Also NBC will spend another $15 million to shut down the show, so Conan could have the last laugh on them after all of this said and done.

It has been report that Friday will be his last day on the Tonight Show.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Blitzkrieg1701]

Well, the whole reason they got Leno to promise him the Tonight Show the show in the first place was to keep Conan from leaving for another network YEARS ago.

Also, whether you feel bad for Conan or not, you REALLY have to feel bad for all the staff he brought with him from New York. They'e not gonna get anywhere NEAR as much from NBC for all their trouble (and Conan's making sure everyone hears about that).

[ST. Attidude]

I thought that episode with Weezer was pretty good...

Man, Dave Letterman will hold on to this for his jokes like the rainy weather predicated at my place : all week long. If not longer... :p

[Radical Dreamer]

Well, the whole reason they got Leno to promise him the Tonight Show the show in the first place was to keep Conan from leaving for another network YEARS ago.

Also, whether you feel bad for Conan or not, you REALLY have to feel bad for all the staff he brought with him from New York. They'e not gonna get anywhere NEAR as much from NBC for all their trouble (and Conan's making sure everyone hears about that).

Yeah, that's the part that really gets me about this whole thing. I mean, I don't doubt that Conan will take his staff with him wherever he goes (after all, they followed him across the country; I'm sure he'll make sure they're taken care of even if they don't continue being on the same show), but it's stupid of NBC to jeopardize their livelihoods like that, without even giving the show a proper trial run after Leno left.

[ChristianKitsune]

Not intentionally, but they talk about it on the news EVERYDAY @_@.

[ShiroiHikari]

I, too, am with Coco.

No seriously, the NBC execs are being colossal idiots about this whole thing. Jay Leno is yesterday's news and they're giving him back the Tonight Show? Let 'em drown, I say. Conan should find a network that ISN'T circling the drain.

[goldenspines]

Personally, I like both Leno and Conan. This whole affair is rather annoying, but what can we do if NBC refuses to be reasonable? Life sucks, but I hope something good will come out of it all for both Conan and his staff, as well as Leno and his staff.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

To be honest, I'm starting to become slightly sympathetic to Leno at this point. I'm still a hardcore Conan fan, and would much rather watch him than Jay, but the more I hear about the boneheaded decisions NBC has been making regarding both of them, the harder it is to really be ticked off at Leno. I mean, to hear him tell it, even HE didn't think the whole 10 PM thing would work. I'm not sure how much I believe that, but there's no denying that NBC is kicking both men around something fierce.

In other news, I REALLY wish I lived close enough to one of those Pro-Conan rallies to join in. That looked like a LOT of fun.

[Cognitive Gear]

Has anyone else been catching this on TV? This week has been fantastic so far. I could not stop laughing when they showed this explanation of what has been happening.

[Radical Dreamer]

I've watched every show this week without fail, and last night's was absolutely brilliant. XDD The Nard-Dog showing up and singing a song to Conan? A $1.5 million dollar comedy bit, just because they can? And the return of a certain lovable Late Night character? I can't wait to see what else they have in store for tonight and tomorrow. XD

[Nate]

Oooh, here's where I get to stir up controversy!

I think it was a bad move to put Conan in Leno's spot in the first place. I think that was one of the dumbest moves NBC could ever have made. I realize WHY they did it, but it was still a really bad and stupid move.

Why do I say that? It's certainly not because the man isn't funny (he is), nor is it because he doesn't put on a good show (he does), it's just the audience for Conan's brand of humor is vastly different than the audience for Leno's humor (which itself was a brand of humor quite different from Carson's brand). It was doomed to fail from the start. It would be like replacing Mitch Hedberg with Carlos Mencia. Completely different audiences, and the original fans would be turned off by it.

So NBC is now having to deal with the consequences of their decision, and nobody is happy. It's a raw deal for everyone. :\

[Radical Dreamer]

Oooh, here's where I get to stir up controversy!

I think it was a bad move to put Conan in Leno's spot in the first place. I think that was one of the dumbest moves NBC could ever have made. I realize WHY they did it, but it was still a really bad and stupid move.

Why do I say that? It's certainly not because the man isn't funny (he is), nor is it because he doesn't put on a good show (he does), it's just the audience for Conan's brand of humor is vastly different than the audience for Leno's humor (which itself was a brand of humor quite different from Carson's brand). It was doomed to fail from the start. It would be like replacing Mitch Hedberg with Carlos Mencia. Completely different audiences, and the original fans would be turned off by it.

So NBC is now having to deal with the consequences of their decision, and nobody is happy. It's a raw deal for everyone. :\

No, I would agree that that was a bad decision to begin with. The only reason they put Conan on The Tonight Show was because, at the time in 2004, Conan wanted to leave NBC to go to another network anyways. To coax him back into staying, they offered him The Tonight Show in 2009, which he'd wanted for years, and then slipped it out from under his feet once they finally gave it to him. It's a ridiculous situation, though, and while I know Leno's audience didn't really care for Conan, I still think it's unfair that NBC only gave him seven months to build good ratings, while Leno got a good four years before getting good ratings on The Tonight Show.

[ShiroiHikari]

For the record, I like Conan a lot but I do think it was the wrong time for him to take over The Tonight Show.

[ClosetOtaku]

I miss Johnny Carson...

[Blitzkrieg1701]

Conan's biggest problem with The Tonight Show wasn't really "his
problem at all. It's that his most loyal audience (dorks like us) doesn't really watch much TV actually on the television anymore. That, or they found themselves torn between him, Letterman, and Colbert, so they COULDN'T watch regularly.

But anyway, it's officially over now. What'd ya'll think of the final episode? I'm a little too choked up by the reality of no Conan to have many thoughts... other than "DANG, that man can play some mean guitar!"

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Yes.

[Radical Dreamer]

Last night's episode was brilliant! Tom Hanks and Steve Carrell were amazing, but I was really impressed with Conan's speech. Classy man! And he can really play the guitar, too! Good luck finding something new, Coco!

[minakichan]

Isn't it true that Conan's ratings on the Tonight Show were lower than Leno's? Even if Conan's Tonight ratings were higher than those from his own show, this move hurt ratings in both Tonight and in not making the most of Leno's own potential, so calling it quits might just have been the best, even if it was a really jerkish move. And bringing Leno to Tonight again might give NBC the chance to take back the #1 spot from Letterman (whom I actually prefer over both, but okay).

From a business perspective, I realize that this controversy has created a lot of publicity, but I wonder how it'll affect NBC. It's true that with this, Conan's final shows probably have the best ratings ever in his entire Tonight stint. When Leno comes back, he'll probably get a ratings boost too, even though Conan fans with Nielsen boxes are probably boycotting him, because people are curious is his format will change, what he'll say, whatever. If he can charm people at this early stage, then he might be able to take back at least a large chunk of the success he had previously on Tonight, and even without Conan, NBC might be able to keep that success. But if he doesn't and people are unimpressed, he might lose more viewers to the point that even when this controversy is long forgotten, people might lose interest in him and a lot of Tonight show viewers who might fondly remember Conan will only watch Leno occasionally; in the meantime, NBC will have lost a popular performer and will have to deal with Conan as the competition from another company.

[ShiroiHikari]

Yes his ratings were relatively low, but Conan also had a poor lead-in. Leno's show turned viewers off from the local newscasts, and since people weren't watching the local news, they didn't stay tuned for The Tonight Show.

ETA: Wow, was that final episode fantastic or what?

[Blitzkrieg1701]

I'm sure Leno will do better back on The Tonight Show than he did at ten, but I strongly doubt he'll be able to soundly beat out Letterman anymore. Aside from all the pro-Conan sentiment, the poor performance of The Jay Leno Show is probably gonna damage his reputation quite a bit.

Also, you're right about Conan's Tonight Show ratings being rather poor, but so were Leno's at first. That's to be EXPECTED with a new show, which is why a network that knows what it's doing will give a show more time to find its footing and attract an audience. What this whole experience has revealed is that NBC DOESN'T know what its doing, and that they're already struggling too much to give a show a chance to blossom.

But let's be honest, these past two weeks were by far the best Tonight Show programs Conan did since he starter, and it's all because he quit trying to be a more "normal" host and just started amusing himself ("You know what'd be fun? FREEBIRD! Get Beck on the phone!") If nothing else, I hope this will serve as a lesson to him to stick to the kind of comedy he does best. The less faithfully he sticks to the old talk show format, the better he's gonna be.

Speaking of the lat show, though, the whole thing was a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. That retrospective montage, mixed with the opening to the first show, really made me emotional. "To Be Continued" indeed!

[ShiroiHikari]

So what do you guys think Conan will do when he's allowed to return to television? There's been a lot of talk of him going to Fox or Comedy Central. One thing that I'd kinda like to see him do is go on a tour of sorts, whether it be with the Max Weinberg 7 or just doing stand-up.

[Blitzkrieg1701]

I have no doubt that Conan's gonna get back on TV as soon as he's legally able, the guy clearly loves what he does too much not to. Personally, I'd prefer to see him on cable somewhere rather than a broadcast network. The ratings expectations would be lower, and he'd have more freedom to be his weird, wacky self. In the meantime, though, I don't really expect to see too much Conan for a while. He's never really been a stand-up performer, after all. I like to imagine him locking himself in some secret, underground bunker for the next seven months in order to plot his next show... or perform horrific experiments on Andy, whatever comes first.

Also, that's pretty much the greatest avatar in the history of ever. Well done.

[Roy Mustang]

Opps nevermind!



[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]
Col. Roy Mustang
[/color][/font]

[Nate]

Don't mind me, just dropping this off here:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2010/01/13/130-conan-obrien/

[Blitzkrieg1701]

Oh dang, that (second to) last paragraph STUNG.

Also, word on the street (or, at least The AV Club) is that Conan is, in fact, looking at doing some kind of tour this summer. There goes my mental image of him concocting devious new absurdest skits in an invisible lab on the moon all year.

[ShiroiHikari]

Okay, I can't let this go without saying something.

Watching shows doesn't mean jack diddly squat unless you have a Nielsen box. And if you watch stuff on Hulu, that doesn't count either. So I'm sick of hearing the argument that nobody was watching Conan-- how do they even frigging know? Many people in his target demographic (including myself) don't even have cable service, much less Nielsen boxes.

ALSO ALSO the way TV works is that shows have lead-ins. Nobody was watching The Jay Leno Show, therefore fewer people were watching local newscasts afterward, and since fewer people were sticking around for the news, they weren't sticking around for Conan, either. It got so bad that affiliates were threatening to drop Jay's new show. Local news is a big source of revenue for them. And that's what started all this BS.

I'm sorry, but I'm sick of misinformation and half-truths being perpetrated, even if it is supposed to be a "joke". (For the record, I don't like Stuff White People Like in the first place.)

Now, as for Conan doing a tour, I am 100% behind that and if he comes anywhere near my general vicinity, I am there.