Late Night Talk Show Discussion

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Conan Blows

http://teamcoco.com/content/conan-surprises-audience-jimmy-fallon-last-night
Kind of says something about how far Conan's stock has fallen in the past year that I don't hear anything about his first appearance on NBC since the end of his Tonight Show until a day later on Facebook.

I did chuckle at the staredown between him an ?uestlove.

 

[Star Ocean 2]

Conan Blows

Jimmy Kimmel is the real king of late night.

 

[bps21]

Conan Blows

Not surprising Conan would pop up there. Letterman did that a few times for him after his NBC departure.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Conan Blows

I also think he's probably trying to come to some sort of reconciliation with Lorne since they had a bit of a tiff over Lorne being miffed at Conan that he wasn't brought over executive producer for The Tonight Show and Conan being pissed that Lorne didn't speak up in his behalf when he was being pushed aside for Leno again.

 

[Precious Roy]

Conan Blows

Louis CK is on Conan RIGHT NOW

 

[bps21]

Conan Blows

The show was a million times better in NYC in the big theater.

 

[Precious Roy]

Conan Blows

Yeah, I wish they'd just move back to NY permanently

Jon Stewart and Colbert popping up in the crowd was great

 

[Brooklyn Zoo]

Conan Blows

Conan belongs in New York.

 

[bps21]

Conan Blows

The whole week had better everything. The Conan as a Chinese delivery guy video was the best thing they've done on this show...and with the exception of the last 2 weeks of the tonight show run...probably the best thing he's done since Late Night.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Conan Blows

Yeah, I wish they'd just move back to NY permanently

Jon Stewart and Colbert popping up in the crowd was great

This times infinity. The only downside of this week is he has to go back to L.A. next week. I understand why he didn't want to move back but Conan is such a New York show.

 

[Precious Roy]

Conan Blows

Larry King's brain transplanted into Geoff is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while

Putting this here because we don't have a Late Night TV thread

 

[Ed Wood Caulfield]

Conan Blows

Well, if that's the case: I've always enjoyed it when Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake do their "History Of Rap" medleys.

 

[Mattdotcom]

Re: Conan Blows

While waiting for the musical guest, I endured Conan interviewing Keegan-Michael Key. I don't think I've personally ever seen a worse interview on any O'Brien hosted talk show.

 

[foleyfanforever88]

Re: Conan Blows

While waiting for the musical guest, I endured Conan interviewing Keegan-Michael Key. I don't think I've personally ever seen a worse interview on any O'Brien hosted talk show.

I didn't think it was bad at all.

 

[strummer]

Re: Conan Blows

Conan still can't get the big guests to appear on his show. Just like the Tonight Show. His lead guest tonight was Carol Burnett. His others this week: Dr Phil, Kristen Bell and Martin Short. Mean while Letterman and Leno have Denzel, Ryan Reynolds, Reese Witherspoon, etc. The blame should be on his booking crew. Of course the biggest names aren't the best guests but for whatever reason the big stars don't seem to come on his show anymore. He had bigger guests on Late Night

 

[BUTT]

Re: Conan Blows

Conan is only averaging something like a million viewers per night and a .5 18-49 rating. Maybe his audience is too young to commit to regularly watching a late-night show, but I feel Conan's poor performance on TBS has vindicated me for believing that NBC made the right choice in choosing Leno over him. Granted, Jay and Dave each only get a .9 on your average night but I feel pretty confident in saying that The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in 2012 wouldn't even hit those meager numbers.

 

[wnyxmcneal]

Re: Conan Blows

Conan is only averaging something like a million viewers per night and a .5 18-49 rating. Maybe his audience is too young to commit to regularly watching a late-night show, but I feel Conan's poor performance on TBS has vindicated me for believing that NBC made the right choice in choosing Leno over him. Granted, Jay and Dave each only get a .9 on your average night but I feel pretty confident in saying that The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in 2012 wouldn't even hit those meager numbers.

No, I still think you're wrong. While Conan isn't doing that well on TBS, I don't think anyone would be doing well in that spot, especially after all the press wore off.

NBC never gave Conan or his show a chance. Late night talk shows are a slow burn business, they need time to grow. Look at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno take one, which took more than two years and getting the interview of a lifetime to take off. What did going back to Jay Leno really accomplish besides causing them to eat a bunch of money on a contract, a studio, and having a host who skews older. What happens when he wants to retire again?

Don't forget that for much of Conan's run, his lead-in was The Jay Leno Show, which was bleeding viewers.

 

[BUTT]

Re: Conan Blows

I agree that they didn't give Conan a chance, but they were put in a tough spot where they had to choose one or the other. And in the choice between someone with a proven track record of success or someone who was losing to Letterman in every category, what do you do? I don't see that the public would eventually embrace Conan after a couple of years in the spot. Conan isn't, and wasn't, some unknown quantity. He got huge ratings that first week he hosted Tonight and then the public tuned out. They gave him a chance and didn't like what they saw. Of course The Jay Leno Show was a horrible idea, but the 10PM shows they have now really aren't doing much better. Now if NBC had a big roster of hit shows to help provide a strong lead-in for the local news, and thus to Conan's Tonight Show, OR if they were planning to remake the entire schedule and focus on attracting young male viewers, he might have been worth taking a chance on but when you have so much that isn't working, I can't blame them for sticking with something that does, that being Leno at 11:30. The network was caught in a situation where they had to look at their options and determine if they were willing to let Jay Leno go and compete against them. They would have seen that as the necessary decision if they believed that Conan's Tonight Show had the potential to become a major hit with the 18-49 demographic, but they apparently didn't think there was a chance of that happening. I can't say for sure that they were right but Conan's TBS ratings haven't done anything to convince me otherwise. You can say nobody would have done well in that spot but track record has to count for something, doesn't it? And as much money as they had to eat on Conan's contract, they would have had to eat a lot more on Leno's pay-and-play deal.

To be honest, I don't think Jeff Zucker ever really wanted Conan to host the Tonight Show. That deal he made in 2004 was mainly made with the intention of ensuring five more years of the successful Leno/Conan lineup. Conan getting the Tonight Show was the deal he had to make in order to protect his late-night schedule but I don't believe he was fully committed to the idea.

 

[bps21]

Re: Conan Blows

You should always choose the younger audience over the older one.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: Conan Blows

BUTT is 47 years old.

 

[BUTT]

Re: Conan Blows

Actually, Bill Carter's War For Late Night book said that NBC was freaked out by just how young Conan's audience was, as half of the 18-49 viewers were between 18 and 34 (that may be a little confusing at first but it makes sense). Advertisers like young viewers, but not TOO young, because younger people have less money. Les Moonves has often commented on how ridiculous it is that an 18-year-old is considered more valuable to an advertiser than a 50-year-old.

 

[bps21]

Re: Conan Blows

Younger viewers get older. Older viewers just die.

 

[BUTT]

Re: Conan Blows

Ad rates for a show aren't just determined by the audience's median age. The number of people watching matters a bit, too.

 

[Precious Roy]

Re: Conan Blows

Young people waste their money on new shit they don't need. 50 yr olds are still listening to their decades old CDs and have been wearing the same clothes for years.

 

[Precious Roy]

Re: Conan Blows

Young people waste their money on new shit they don't need. 50 yr olds are still listening to their decades old CDs and have been wearing the same clothes for years.

I know this because I am 50

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: Conan Blows

Young people waste their money on new shit they don't need. 50 yr olds are still listening to their decades old CDs and have been wearing the same clothes for years.

I know this because I am 50

 

[bps21]

Re: Conan Blows

Fallon last night was something else. It was the all Bruce Springsteen episode and the opening saw Fallon's Neil Young joined by Springsteen dressed as 80's Bruce singing "Sexy and I know it". That was awesome and even better than when they did it with 70's Bruce singing "Whip My Hair".

But the real highlight was the third musical performance as The E Street Band crushed a performance of the E Street Shuffle with the Roots and Tom Morello.

Worth going to hulu or nbc.com or anywhere else that might have the video of those for easy watching.

 

[Sex Machine Gun]

Re: Conan Blows

Young people waste their money on new shit they don't need. 50 yr olds are still listening to their decades old CDs and have been wearing the same clothes for years.

I do this and I'm 28.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: Conan Blows

The story Bruce told about him and Little Stevie getting turned away from Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm for violating the dress code and Little Stevie's enraged reaction was also awesome. Every now and then, Fallon absolutely crushes it and last night's show was one of those times.

 

[Brocklock]

Re: Conan Blows

Larry David's on Conan. Should be great. His disgusted facial expression after the clip from The Three Stooges was priceless.