Try saying THAT title 108 times fast, eh? or don’t, since the bigger news is that Conan just signed a deal with TBS. But first the Slash pic:
Okay, so that’s kindov amusing. but what about this TBS bullshit? His new show will only be on Mondays through Thursdays – no Friday show?? dude… that’s when all his middle school to high school fans watch. It was the only time I watched growing up at least. ug… It will air at 11 p.m. Eastern, pushing George Lopez’s show “Lopez Tonight,” to midnight, which I find delightfully coincidental. How awesome would it have been if Lopez wrote a public letter to TBS in the style of Conans to NBC where they both refuse to move their shows from 11 to midnight to accommodate a new host? dude…
So why no Fox? Those of us who were paying attention knew that Fox was publicly saying they weren’t in negotiations or were actively interested but… didn’t 100% of us think that was bullshit? TBS? i just.. i… oy…
The AP reports: “In three months, I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable,” O’Brien said in a tongue-in-cheek-toned statement. “My plan is working perfectly.”
Theres no way this TBS bullshit is for real.. you heard it here first: Conan probably has a 1-2 year deal there designed to show the Fox affiliates that he is not ratings poison. once he’s shown to be a tested and proven commodity on TBS and the Fox execs convince their affiliates to carry him, Coco will respectfully not renew his contract with TBS and move to Fox at 11pm. Theres just no other way this makes sense. and no one is calling it out. wtf dude… im tellin you. you heard it here first…
“Every comedian dreams of hosting the ‘Tonight Show’ and, for seven months, I got to,” O’Brien said near the end of his last show Friday night. “I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second.”
Viewers, however, may argue that what they saw was somehow different, at least up until the end, when all bets were off – and O’Brien’s ratings soared.
And his final show didn’t disappoint. It attracted more than 7 million viewers, according to preliminary numbers released by Nielsen, clobbering David Letterman’s 2.8 million viewers and Jimmy Kimmel’s 1.4 million.
Part of O’Brien’s exit talks with NBC centered on who gets the “intellectual property” rights to stuff he and his team created in his run there. One most often mentioned was the Masturbating Bear, a guy in a bear costume who, well, enough said.
The bear was a huge hit with O’Brien’s “Late Night” crowd, yet, wasn’t used on “Tonight” for the first time until Wednesday, when, frankly, it was too late.
The point is that while he’s losing the bear in the $45 million divorce with NBC, O’Brien has a chance to get something bigger back – his sense of humor.
“The networks never really counter-program in late-night,” Brad Adgate, a senior vice president at Horizon Media said of O’Brien’s options now that he left NBC. “I would offer his ‘Late Show’ [the next time]. To do something that’s exactly what Leno and Letterman are offering, I don’t know if that’s what viewers want.”
Fox officials have said they’re interested in O’Brien. And Fox, no doubt, can provide marketing muscle and reach. Anyone doubting that should look at the way Fox promotes “American Idol” to the point that you half-expect Simon Cowell to anchor the news alongside Ernie Anastos.
Farewell sweet prince… until the fall, when the parting agreement with NBC allows you back into our living rooms (or in my case: computer screen, several days after the original airing)…
O’Brien appropriately ended his last “Tonight Show” with an all-star rendition of “Freebird,” a song that includes the line, “Cause I’m as free as a bird now, and this bird you cannot change.”
“All I ask is one thing, and I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch. Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere.
Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.
But if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”
As an entertainer, like most 15 to 30 year olds, I prefer the stylings of Conan O’Brien to that of the more formulaic Jay Leno, though I find both men funny and likable. However, while I’m naturally inclined to protest in the name of Team Coco, I can’t bring myself to it when it’s framed in the context of hating Jay Leno. During this whole controversy with the Late Night shuffling at NBC, I have never understood the hate directed at such a nice guy/possible evil genius like Leno. The dude is either a supervillian level manipulator who covers his tracks so well that he should be ruling a race of mutants somewhere or he’s the nice guy he appears to be and this isn’t his fault…
Watch this and tell me which you think is more likely…
In what scenario could Jay be the bad guy in all this? Clearly he has to be lying about something if he is so ruthless in his mad drive to boot all who dare oppose him so I’m really asking all you Leno haters: what do you think happened? and based on what? What makes you think that any events took place that were at all different than how Leno describes?
NBC booted Jay when he was at the top so they wouldn’t lose Conan, Conan failed to do nearly as well as Jay, Jays show goes on the air and also does poorly in the ratings, the affiliates complain and something has to be done. So what could have been done? Cut Leno loose from his NBC contract so he can go over to Fox opposite Conan and beat him in the ratings? that would be a blunder. Cut Conan from his NBC contract so he can go to Fox? that would be needlessly problematic too. So the suits came up with a plan to make the affiliates happy by killing the Jay Leno show, still keep Jay Leno at NBC by putting him back at his old time slot and still keep Conan both at NBC and at the Tonight Show and move it a half hour later. Sucky situation that NBC put itself into, but that was really their best option and there’s no way that can be pinned negatively on Leno, as just like he said: going from an hour show to a half hour is a demotion that he accepted because when you don’t perform well at a job, you need to be humbled a little.
The problem was that Conan gave a big “fuck that” to moving the Tonight show from 11:30pm to midnight, as it would then be “the Tomorrow Show”, and Conan is morally against that because of his Tonight Show idealism – or so he claims (more likely, it’s just that he would rather spill his white Irish blood with a rusty Italian fork before going back to the after-midnight wasteland he worked so hard to get OUT of for 17 years.
So now NBC is going to let Conan go and put Jay, the proven ratings winner, back at his old spot in the Tonight Show.
Seriously… what else should they have done? I’m really asking…
Seth Meyers explains it this way:
The 2nd question is that: if Leno isn’t the power hungry manipulator that he’s being falsely painted as, why would people who know better still dislike him so much? The answer is that he’s the Sean Hannity of late night: he’s a squeaky clean family man who is really nice both personally and professionally, he’s incredibly successful at what he does, and there are at least 3 others in his field who are viewed to have more talent and thus be more deserving of that success level. Nathan Rabin sums that sentiment up perfectly with the following:
He’s been married to the same woman for decades. He has amassed a vast fortune working nonstop yet never spends his money on anything other than his overflowing collection of sports cars. He seems devoid of angst.
He suffers from a terrible dearth of personal demons. Leno is so normal and functional that he’s practically a freak. That creeps out comedy writers who would rather have their heroes stagger into the gutter, penniless and filled with contempt for a world that has shunned them, than play yet another Indian casino to pay for that 32nd Maserati.
Bitterness is an almost universal trait among funny people. They hate it when their friends become successful. They grow positively apoplectic when success comes to someone they consider unworthy. The bigger the success, the bigger the resentment and Leno has attained a level of fame most comics can only dream about. Even more unforgivably, that success came at the expense of more worthy souls: first Letterman and now O’Brien.
As for Conans future, it’s pretty obvious Fox is his only option, and I think will be a good fit for him:
“In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket,” his manager, Gavin Polone, told The Wall Street Journal. “Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.”
O’Brien will be free to begin another TV job as soon as September, NBC said. There has been speculation on where he might go next. ABC (which airs “Nightline” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) has said it wasn’t interested, while Fox, which lacks a network late-night show, expressed appreciation for his show — but nothing more.
Play by Play from the WasPot, cuz I’m too lazy to type something in a video contained in the same post, especially when someone else has already done it for me:
“I had to come back to show the respect, man, because I started ‘Saturday Night Live’ the same year you started this show,” MacDonald started.
“That’s right,” Conan answered.
“Yeah. . . . we’d all watch and go, ‘I don’t think it’s gonna work,’ ” MacDonald continued, warming up to his subject.
“It’s not gonna work,” Conan echoed.
“But then, it worked and it was great and we’re all really proud,” MacDonald continued. “And so, that’s great. And also, it’s stunning how Jay Leno outfoxed you again.”
“Yeah, he’s good,” Conan said, laughing uncomfortably, as the story started to veer off-script.
“He’s very good. . . . He’s the shrewdest guy,” MacDonald continued, in re Leno. “He outfoxed — you’re in good company — he outfoxed Johnny Carson, David Letterman. Every 10 years, some redheaded rube shows up,” MacDonald plowed on.
“I’m like some clown off the bus with a cardboard suit: ‘Gee, golly! This is going to be great!’ ” Conan joked-but-not-really.
Here’s where MacDonald broke into his Leno imitation: ” ‘Yeah, you can come after me!’ And you go, ‘Hey, thanks, Jay!’ ”
“Uh-huh,” said Conan, still not looking completely happy.
MacDonald is now in high gear: “Your agent is like, ‘There’s good news and bad news. You are doing “The Tonight Show,” it’s true. But remember that discussion we had when you said, “I will never have to [:O] follow Leno again?” ‘ ”
More Conan laughing uncomfortably while the audience cheers and applauds.
“Yeah, yeah. It’s so nice to have you back, Norm. It’s so very nice to have you back — and you bring joy to so many people,” Conan said, and then he tried clumsily to change the subject: “And, you know what, I’ll tell you something, Norm. These are tough times, people need to laugh now. Because — it’s the economy.”
