It's been a long week for the fellas at late night.
At beginning of the week rumors swirled that Jay Leno's show had been canceled. Then it was revealed Leno was going back to his regular 11:35 slot with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon to follow. That turned into Conan issuing a statement saying he refused to follow Leno. As of now it looks like Leno will take back "The Tonight Show" and Conan has been put out to pasture.
I talked about the whole Leno debacle at length when it first debut and it's safe to say I haven't changed my mind.
NBC has admitted that the Leno show experiment was a failure. To give them credit it was a good idea on paper. Make a cheap show to show five nights a weeks instead of spending a lot money on a scripted show. Tough times call for tough choices. It WOULD have worked if they had a quality program. Quality over quantity. People will watch good shows that are entertaining. NBC and Jay Leno promised that the new show would revolutionize TV and that it wouldn't be like "The Tonight Show". Except it was. Like a chop shop, they may have taken out some parts but it's basically the same show, the same terrible show.
As Leno's rating slipped, it directly affected the affiliates who, again, were promised it would a hit and keep people watching the local news afterwords. As someone who does work for a NBC affiliate with one of those local news stations, I can tell you that we lost 50% of our viewership in almost every demographic because of Leno. TV stations all of the country are struggling because people aren't buying advertisement like they use to (the economy) and that's our main source of income. NBC and the stations themselves went out of their way to heavily (annoyingly) promote Leno's show because we were promised that the Leno brand would save us. Leno's bad ratings get transferred directly to the news. Instead of watching Leno, people are using that time to catch up on shows they recorded on their DVR's.
I say all this because of Conan. He inherited "The Tonight Show" after Jay "retired". NBC moved him and his staff across the country to put on a show. Yet, Jay didn't retire, he wanted to still do his shtick. In reality, Jay's never left. Conan still has to follow Jay and his terrible ratings. I believe the reason Conan's ratings weren't up to par were because Leno's toxic ratings permeating the towns drinking water aka, the rest of the night. If you aren't watching Leno, then you probably won't watch the news, and you most likely won't watch Conan. The only person the networks should hang out to dry is Leno for not living up to his end of the bargain.
NBC messed up big time but instead of trying to fix the problem (Leno), they are making it worse. Online support for Conan is through the roof due in part to Conan's demographic being those people who know how to use the Internet. #TeamCoco was a trending topic but nothing for #TeamLeno. Of course, Conan is the underdog in all this. I would hazard to guess the Internet is part of the problem too. People in their 20's are Conan's main demo but we're all too busy with our DVR's, watching video online, having lives, hula-hoops, loud music, and not watching TV. We're are very difficult demo to keep hold of because there is so much out there. Yet, when you threaten something we like, but don't neccesarliy watch on a regular basis, we take it personally.
At beginning of the week rumors swirled that Jay Leno's show had been canceled. Then it was revealed Leno was going back to his regular 11:35 slot with Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon to follow. That turned into Conan issuing a statement saying he refused to follow Leno. As of now it looks like Leno will take back "The Tonight Show" and Conan has been put out to pasture.
I talked about the whole Leno debacle at length when it first debut and it's safe to say I haven't changed my mind.
NBC has admitted that the Leno show experiment was a failure. To give them credit it was a good idea on paper. Make a cheap show to show five nights a weeks instead of spending a lot money on a scripted show. Tough times call for tough choices. It WOULD have worked if they had a quality program. Quality over quantity. People will watch good shows that are entertaining. NBC and Jay Leno promised that the new show would revolutionize TV and that it wouldn't be like "The Tonight Show". Except it was. Like a chop shop, they may have taken out some parts but it's basically the same show, the same terrible show.
As Leno's rating slipped, it directly affected the affiliates who, again, were promised it would a hit and keep people watching the local news afterwords. As someone who does work for a NBC affiliate with one of those local news stations, I can tell you that we lost 50% of our viewership in almost every demographic because of Leno. TV stations all of the country are struggling because people aren't buying advertisement like they use to (the economy) and that's our main source of income. NBC and the stations themselves went out of their way to heavily (annoyingly) promote Leno's show because we were promised that the Leno brand would save us. Leno's bad ratings get transferred directly to the news. Instead of watching Leno, people are using that time to catch up on shows they recorded on their DVR's.
I say all this because of Conan. He inherited "The Tonight Show" after Jay "retired". NBC moved him and his staff across the country to put on a show. Yet, Jay didn't retire, he wanted to still do his shtick. In reality, Jay's never left. Conan still has to follow Jay and his terrible ratings. I believe the reason Conan's ratings weren't up to par were because Leno's toxic ratings permeating the towns drinking water aka, the rest of the night. If you aren't watching Leno, then you probably won't watch the news, and you most likely won't watch Conan. The only person the networks should hang out to dry is Leno for not living up to his end of the bargain.
NBC messed up big time but instead of trying to fix the problem (Leno), they are making it worse. Online support for Conan is through the roof due in part to Conan's demographic being those people who know how to use the Internet. #TeamCoco was a trending topic but nothing for #TeamLeno. Of course, Conan is the underdog in all this. I would hazard to guess the Internet is part of the problem too. People in their 20's are Conan's main demo but we're all too busy with our DVR's, watching video online, having lives, hula-hoops, loud music, and not watching TV. We're are very difficult demo to keep hold of because there is so much out there. Yet, when you threaten something we like, but don't neccesarliy watch on a regular basis, we take it personally.
The only people who support Leno are the network and Jerry Seinfeld, which comes from the two being BBF's. What I don't get is the network kowtowing to Leno and his demands? He is a proven failure. He whines about his time slot and they are happy to oblige. Someone on Twitter put it best "So Conan fails and he lose his show. Leno fails and he gets his show back." Sound fair? Of course not. Imagine two kids get an F on a test and the teacher allows only one of them to retake it because he's been held back a few times. What makes it worse is that Leno is whining on his own show about being canceled ,which isn't true because he's just being moved to a different time. Then he has the gall to say Conan should thank him for the ratings boost. Conan earned those numbers by being the Jay-Z of comedy while all Leno can muster is a poor Vanilla Ice impression. If you're going to kick Conan off the air for losing viewers, Leno should have to pack his bags (again) too.
You know what's hilarious about this whole mess? Conan's ratings are skyrocketing while Leno continues to hemorrhage viewers. Obviously it's due to a renewed interest in what the late night hosts are going to say about the situation but I think it also proves that Conan can bring in the people.
It comes down to two different style of hosting. Leno is a very middle of the road comedian. He doesn't aim too high in case his audience doesn't have at least a G.E.D. His appeal is the middle-class working person who likes working on cars, watching cars, and talking about cars. There's nothing inherently wrong about this but it's a direct aim at this Middle-America, NASCAR, blue collar, demographic that helped The Blue Collar Comedy Tour become a sensation. Lowest-Common-Denominator jokes that any hillbilly can enjoy. Never aiming for anything higher or different. Some highlights of the new show are Beer Pong Shot of The Week and The Green Car Challenge. Can you even name ONE classic Leno bit? Anything that has stood the test of time? Anything that doesn't require Leno to react to people or things sent in? Something actually written by a writer?
It comes down to two different style of hosting. Leno is a very middle of the road comedian. He doesn't aim too high in case his audience doesn't have at least a G.E.D. His appeal is the middle-class working person who likes working on cars, watching cars, and talking about cars. There's nothing inherently wrong about this but it's a direct aim at this Middle-America, NASCAR, blue collar, demographic that helped The Blue Collar Comedy Tour become a sensation. Lowest-Common-Denominator jokes that any hillbilly can enjoy. Never aiming for anything higher or different. Some highlights of the new show are Beer Pong Shot of The Week and The Green Car Challenge. Can you even name ONE classic Leno bit? Anything that has stood the test of time? Anything that doesn't require Leno to react to people or things sent in? Something actually written by a writer?
Conan on the other hand isn't afraid to be different and out there. He's a nerd, dork and dweeb and we love him for that. He's the kid in school who was hilarious not because he repeated the joke he stole off the Internet but because he was original and pulled it off. Sure, he has some weird stuff but he doesn't care what some executive thinks about it. He's having fun. This is what the network is afraid of. They want that coveted demographic that Leno resonates with because they're safe and predictable, like Leno. To please his NBC master, Conan stopped doing some of his more popular segments because they were deemed to "crazy" for 11:35. I admire because Conan because he is crazy talented, in fearless in the face of creativity and knows how to stick it to his bosses. This whole situation is very frightening to someone like myself who would like to get into television. It proves that creativity is not the commodity it use to be. The message the networks are sending is, trying something different will not serve you well.
Then there was the time he participated in this during the writer strike, a monumental milestone in late night TV:
Classic. Brutal. Awkward.
Leno and his mooks doesn't have the creative know-how to conjure up that hilarity. They rely on drunk people on the streets to not know common knowledge.
Sadly, it looks the time for Conan is coming to a close. As I type this, NBC is trying to figure out how much money they're willling to pay Conan just to leave and not appear on another station. That's right, they're breaking his contract and barring him from station shopping. A lot of people suggest he go to FOX, I can only assume this is because they don't have a late show but I don't think that's a great idea. FOX doesn't have a good track record with comedies that aren't by Matt Groening (The Simpson) or Seth McFarlane (Family Guy and it's clones). I would suggest he go to Comedy Central or start something on the same Internet that loves him so much.
In closing, Conan O'Brien deserved better. He got back-stabbed by a station that didn't appreciate him or give him a fair chance. A station that was more concerned about fulfilling the needs of a dying/poisonous/obsolete brand that has infuriated and financially damaged affiliates. Whatever you do Mr. O'Brien I know you will make people laugh and will have great success. All the best. My babies.
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