I think it's more plausible on NBC because no one watches NBC! With the Whedon shows, there were other shows on the network that people actually watched, and thus would at least see the promotion for said shows. On NBC, this is not the case. To know about an NBC show, you basically have to read television critics or the every third year when they have the Super Bowl, or you're one of those weird people who watches the Olympics.
Meh NBC is still one of the big three, its getting its ass kicked but once upon a time so was ABC. The shows are getting promotion as much as any other major network.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I think part of the question right now is whether moving the Tonight Show back to 12:05 is violating Conan's contract, or putting him out to pasture. Could NBC be doing this on purpose, making things hard on Conan to get him to quit rather than fire him (i.e., messing with the working conditions)?
I'm starting to wonder if there may be something more insidious at work here. To me, no matter how it's cut, moving the Tonight Show back to 12:05 would be the first step towards total cancellation. NBC is monkeying around in big way, moving a show that, whether you grew up watching it or not, is still an institution. And NBC had no reason to remove Leno from the Tonight Show and then give him his own show before the Tonight Show with his name in the title. I'm starting to wonder if this whole thing my somehow be deliberate in trying to justify canceling the Tonight Show altogether and that they know damn well what they're doing. This was either pure boneheadedness or it's a plot that been in the works for a while. That's like having them screw with Meet The Press.
I think it's more plausible on NBC because no one watches NBC! With the Whedon shows, there were other shows on the network that people actually watched, and thus would at least see the promotion for said shows. On NBC, this is not the case. To know about an NBC show, you basically have to read television critics or the every third year when they have the Super Bowl, or you're one of those weird people who watches the Olympics.
Enough people watched Football Night In America to see promos for Chuck which is on the very next day.
I'm gonna do some analysis but I'm pretty sure that the only night where NBC doesn't go up against at least one top 20 show in the same exact time slot is Friday.
I say good for Conan, and I don't understand why NBC has such a hard-on for Leno, either, especially after the failed experiment that is KILLING them in the ratings.
CHUCK of all shows has become their highest rated hourly program. Now, I'm not complaining; I really like Chuck. But it's a niche show, it shouldn't be the network's ratings leader. Especially at just 7 million viewers.
Because Leno held the top spot in late night for 15 years and only moved to primetime because NBC decided to give Conan his spot 5 years ago(long before this shit went down).
The decision to give Conan the Tonight show in 2004? Was that current NBC managment or old NBC managment? They shift all the time don't they?
Zucker's been there the whole time. He's been in charge of at least NBC's entertainment programming since 2000.
He's certainly had more than a year or two to prove he's worthy of his job. Hasn't NBC consistently ranked last, or next to last every year since...oh...around 2000?
They did well in the early 2000s. Fear Factor and The Apprentice were hits, and they had Friends and Frasier until 2004. 2005 was a disaster, they went from 1st to 4th in one season. The rest of Zucker's reign till present is just insanity.
For example, right before they did The Contender - as if a boxing-based reality show in prime time wasn't a dumb enough idea - Fox had just tried The Next Great Champ, a show with the exact same premise. It did so poorly Fox moved it to Fox Sports. And then Zucker goes ahead with The Contender anyways, and at $2M an episode to boot. $2 million an episode for a reality show. One that's not even on some tropical island, it's in a gym.
By 2008 NBC was so in the tank that they couldn't generate a single new hit despite having both the Super Bowl and the Summer Olympics as promotional tools. Brandon Tartikoff's probably rolling over in his grave. Zucker took a vehicle Tartikoff had lovingly and meticulously restored by hand and smashed it into a wall. Then drove over it with Bigfoot. Then pushed it over a cliff.
I think part of the question right now is whether moving the Tonight Show back to 12:05 is violating Conan's contract, or putting him out to pasture. Could NBC be doing this on purpose, making things hard on Conan to get him to quit rather than fire him (i.e., messing with the working conditions)?
I'm starting to wonder if there may be something more insidious at work here. To me, no matter how it's cut, moving the Tonight Show back to 12:05 would be the first step towards total cancellation. NBC is monkeying around in big way, moving a show that, whether you grew up watching it or not, is still an institution. And NBC had no reason to remove Leno from the Tonight Show and then give him his own show before the Tonight Show with his name in the title. I'm starting to wonder if this whole thing my somehow be deliberate in trying to justify canceling the Tonight Show altogether and that they know damn well what they're doing. This was either pure boneheadedness or it's a plot that been in the works for a while. That's like having them screw with Meet The Press.
Oh, shit! I hope I didn't just jinx that.
Honestly I'd bet money that it's boneheadedness and not an insidious plan.
Really right now I see no reason to believe this isn't just a retarded idea that Zucker thought would actually work.
Well I have to thank NBC, because of their dumbshit with the 10'oclock time slot its solidified Castle a bit better, so hopefully they get a third season.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
That was awesome. That is a man with nothing left to lose.
Dear lord, that was brutal.
On a somewhat related note, I'm glad Conan still has Max Weinberg and his band. They were one of my favorite parts of his show.
So for those of us outside the US who can't watch Hulu, what happened on Conan's show? What did he do?
AUDIENCE: *cheers as he's introduced*
CONAN: *smiles, waves trying to calm them down after thirty seconds, thenremarks:* Hey, come on everybody, we gotta go, please! Ladies and gentleman, please, you keep that up and this monologue won't start till 12:05, and ah *pauses* THEN where would we be, huh?
-
CONAN: Big local story this weekend, no one was seriously hurt, but this is true: a 6.5 earthquake hit California. Did you know that? True story, yeah; the earthquake was so powerful it knocked Jay Leno's show from 10:00 to 11:35.
-
CONAN: Everybody now wants to know what my plans are - everyone's asking me. All I can say is that I plan to continue putting on a great show night after night while stealing as many office supplies as humanly possible.
Winter Olympics are coming up. NBC announced that they expect to lose 200 million dollars on the winter Olympics next month. Folks, is it just me, or is that story hilarious? Lose 200 million! For them, that's a big hit; everybody wins!
-
CONAN: Anyways, I mentioned - it's a very big story I guess - NBC is shaking up it's late night lineup yet again. This time they want to move Jay Leno back to 11:35, and there are a lot of rumors about what I'm going to do. I've got a lot of options, I thought I'd share some of them with you:
-Host the Tonight Show at 12:05.
-Star in a Lifetime original movie about a woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her network.
-Go to ABC and star in a male redhead version of "Cougartown" called "Redwolf Village."
-Host a show on BET called "White All Night."
-Move to fox and follow up their hit show "24" with a new show called "24:05."
-Televise my own colonoscopy on the Bravo channel in a show called "Project Funway."
-Convince NBC to let me keep this time slot if I can gain 10 pounds of chin.
-Andy and I will become a team of wacky morning DJs called "Big Red and the Booger."
-Pretend to put my son in a giant foil balloon, then sit back and watch the offers come pouring in!
-Perform the show live every night from Zanie's Comedy Club at 7:30 and 9:30 (half price drinks if you tell em' Coco sent ya!)
-Bring sanity back to NBC by hiring Gary Busey as head of programming.
-Leave television altogether, and work in a classier business with better people, like hardcore porn.
I say good for Conan, and I don't understand why NBC has such a hard-on for Leno, either, especially after the failed experiment that is KILLING them in the ratings.
CHUCK of all shows has become their highest rated hourly program. Now, I'm not complaining; I really like Chuck. But it's a niche show, it shouldn't be the network's ratings leader. Especially at just 7 million viewers.
Because Leno held the top spot in late night for 15 years and only moved to primetime because NBC decided to give Conan his spot 5 years ago(long before this shit went down).
The decision to give Conan the Tonight show in 2004? Was that current NBC managment or old NBC managment? They shift all the time don't they?
Zucker's been there the whole time. He's been in charge of at least NBC's entertainment programming since 2000.
He's certainly had more than a year or two to prove he's worthy of his job. Hasn't NBC consistently ranked last, or next to last every year since...oh...around 2000?
They did well in the early 2000s. Fear Factor and The Apprentice were hits, and they had Friends and Frasier until 2004. 2005 was a disaster, they went from 1st to 4th in one season. The rest of Zucker's reign till present is just insanity.
For example, right before they did The Contender - as if a boxing-based reality show in prime time wasn't a dumb enough idea - Fox had just tried The Next Great Champ, a show with the exact same premise. It did so poorly Fox moved it to Fox Sports. And then Zucker goes ahead with The Contender anyways, and at $2M an episode to boot. $2 million an episode for a reality show. One that's not even on some tropical island, it's in a gym.
By 2008 NBC was so in the tank that they couldn't generate a single new hit despite having both the Super Bowl and the Summer Olympics as promotional tools. Brandon Tartikoff's probably rolling over in his grave. Zucker took a vehicle Tartikoff had lovingly and meticulously restored by hand and smashed it into a wall. Then drove over it with Bigfoot. Then pushed it over a cliff.
The thing that blows my mind is that their scheduling doesn't give them one night they can own over another network and they actively engage in competing against other shows in the same format. This whole Jay Leno Show fiasco screwed up an entire hour of possible programming every night. FUCK.
And he shouldn't. Leno's the one who sucked so bad that NBC had to make drastic changes. Why they don't drop the suck instead of fucking with a consistent talent is beyond me.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
And he shouldn't. Leno's the one who sucked so bad that NBC had to make drastic changes. Why they don't drop the suck instead of fucking with a consistent talent is beyond me.
I thought Leno was leaving the show because he didn't want to do shows that late anymore?
Popeater.com is running a story saying Leno is grumbling about how shitty this whole thing is going down, and is talking about walking as well. It sounds as if they're both waiting to see what NBC says.
Where's this? All I see is the article on Conan's statement.
No insidious plot at all - sometimes the people in charge of programming have no real clue what they're doing.
The best part. In the middle of this whole Leno disaster, NBC re-ups Zucker for another 3 years through 2013 and puts him in charge of the joint venture with Comcast.
And he shouldn't. Leno's the one who sucked so bad that NBC had to make drastic changes. Why they don't drop the suck instead of fucking with a consistent talent is beyond me.
I thought Leno was leaving the show because he didn't want to do shows that late anymore?
NBC decided in 2004 to let Conan take over the Tonight Show 5 years later. As far as I know it wasn't Leno's choice.
I now kinda hope that Jay tells NBC to fuck off and Conan stays on to honor his contract...while not accepting any guidance from NBC. It'd be an obvious ploy to get fired but it would be epic to watch.
Conan has almost got to quit after a disrespect of this magnitude. The only way Conan could save face is if the Network Execs get canned instead. Wich they should, putting this shit out in public is an awfull way to manage a network. No way NBC walks away with this with dignity intact.
How bad is this mess? There is a show once made by Steven Bocho called Cop Rock. I have never seen it myself, but I hear it was one of the worst shows in television history. Tonight Steven Bocho is sitting in his living room sipping fine Whiskey and smoking a Cuban Sigar, thinking: "Finally! Somebody made a worse screwup then Cop Rock".
Kipling217 on
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mrt144King of the NumbernamesRegistered Userregular
Conan has almost got to quit after a disrespect of this magnitude. The only way Conan could save face is if the Network Execs get canned instead. Wich they should, putting this shit out in public is an awfull way to manage a network. No way NBC walks away with this with dignity intact.
How bad is this mess? There is a show once made by Steven Bocho called Cop Rock. I have never seen it myself, but I hear it was one of the worst shows in television history. Tonight Steven Bocho is sitting in his living room sipping fine Whiskey and smoking a Cuban Sigar, thinking: "Finally! Somebody made a worse screwup then Cop Rock".
And he shouldn't. Leno's the one who sucked so bad that NBC had to make drastic changes. Why they don't drop the suck instead of fucking with a consistent talent is beyond me.
I thought Leno was leaving the show because he didn't want to do shows that late anymore?
NBC decided in 2004 to let Conan take over the Tonight Show 5 years later. As far as I know it wasn't Leno's choice.
Leno promised he'd bow out gracefully in 2009, so that Conan's start wouldn't be tainted with bickering the way Leno's was between he and Letterman.
Jay Leno’s takeover as host of NBC’s “Tonight” show in 1992 was fraught with drama and bad feelings, but he’s assured the next transition will be as smooth as his nightly sign-off: “Stay tuned for Conan.”
...
Leno beat out David Letterman for the “Tonight” job, sparking a feud that lives on and was even the subject of a book and movie, “The Late Shift.”
Leno recalled the animosity on his show Monday, saying “a lot of good friendships were permanently damaged.”
“Quite frankly, I don’t want to see anybody go through that again,” he said.
...
Shortly after he signed his latest contract extension, Leno said NBC executives approached him, saying they didn’t want to lose O’Brien. He [Leno] endorsed the move and set his own 2009 exit date, when he’ll be 59.
I'd say this has hardly qualified as bowing out gracefully.
Yeah, you see the odd person sticking up for Jay on HuffingtonPost or wherever, and while I'm sure it sucks for him that his 10pm show is getting axed, I don't have much sympathy. He should have categorically rejected any idea of going back to 11:30.
Carson wants Letterman. NBC wants Letterman and someone else to keep up the surprisingly good ratings of Late, Late, and figures they can string along Letterman forever because they are the only game in town. Letterman eventually jumps ship and does well, but it's not the tonight show, Conan takes his old job at Late Late.
Conan works hard at it, keeps the ratings high. Leno does his nice guy thing but that gets staler and staler as the years move along while Conan's quality stays around the same or goes up, depending on who you ask. 2004 rolls along, Conan's contract is up, gets offers from literally everyone. Conan wants the Tonight Show, doesn't want to be strung along like Letterman. Gets a contract that says "He's the Guy" after Leno's contract is up. Gets the show. Now this. Is going to become Letterman 2.0, only with nowhere to go.
Jay Leno will get his one-hour show back, and it will be called "The Tonight Show".... sources tell TMZ.
We're told NBC honchos still have to sit down with Jay's rep and put the finishing touches on a new deal, but NBC has signed off on the plan if Conan O'Brien leaves ... and Conan has made it clear that he's leaving the network
, and not on good terms.
O'Brien took several cheap shots at Leno in his blistering letter, denigrating Leno's show as a "comedy program."
Sources tell TMZ Jay and Conan have not spoken with each other since NBC announced the switch.
It's looking increasingly like Conan may be making a deal with Fox for a late night show from 11:00 PM to midnight.
Honestly I'm hoping Conan will walk over this and end up doing something much better with his talent.
This may be selfish. Maybe being a late night talk show host has always been his biggest dream but dammit he could do so many better things. Funnier things.
O'Brien took several cheap shots at Leno in his blistering letter, denigrating Leno's show as a "comedy program."
I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting.
Have Conan and Leno come out to a press conference. Have things go ok for a bit, with Leno promising to step down...
Only to have Andy Richter come out of nowhere with a steel chair and belt Conan! By God! Then have him and Leno give him a hellacious beat down, ending with Andy stepping over Conan's lifeless form and embrace Leno.
Then a few days later have Richter hit Leno with a baseball bat, proclaiming that it is his turn!
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Posts
So for those of us outside the US who can't watch Hulu, what happened on Conan's show? What did he do?
I think one joke went:
Meh NBC is still one of the big three, its getting its ass kicked but once upon a time so was ABC. The shows are getting promotion as much as any other major network.
pleasepaypreacher.net
This is the best monologue ever.
As was Twilight Intern not wanting to have his job bumped up 30 minutes, so he chose to run outside and burst into flames under the light of the sun.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I'm starting to wonder if there may be something more insidious at work here. To me, no matter how it's cut, moving the Tonight Show back to 12:05 would be the first step towards total cancellation. NBC is monkeying around in big way, moving a show that, whether you grew up watching it or not, is still an institution. And NBC had no reason to remove Leno from the Tonight Show and then give him his own show before the Tonight Show with his name in the title. I'm starting to wonder if this whole thing my somehow be deliberate in trying to justify canceling the Tonight Show altogether and that they know damn well what they're doing. This was either pure boneheadedness or it's a plot that been in the works for a while. That's like having them screw with Meet The Press.
Oh, shit! I hope I didn't just jinx that.
Enough people watched Football Night In America to see promos for Chuck which is on the very next day.
I'm gonna do some analysis but I'm pretty sure that the only night where NBC doesn't go up against at least one top 20 show in the same exact time slot is Friday.
They did well in the early 2000s. Fear Factor and The Apprentice were hits, and they had Friends and Frasier until 2004. 2005 was a disaster, they went from 1st to 4th in one season. The rest of Zucker's reign till present is just insanity.
For example, right before they did The Contender - as if a boxing-based reality show in prime time wasn't a dumb enough idea - Fox had just tried The Next Great Champ, a show with the exact same premise. It did so poorly Fox moved it to Fox Sports. And then Zucker goes ahead with The Contender anyways, and at $2M an episode to boot. $2 million an episode for a reality show. One that's not even on some tropical island, it's in a gym.
By 2008 NBC was so in the tank that they couldn't generate a single new hit despite having both the Super Bowl and the Summer Olympics as promotional tools. Brandon Tartikoff's probably rolling over in his grave. Zucker took a vehicle Tartikoff had lovingly and meticulously restored by hand and smashed it into a wall. Then drove over it with Bigfoot. Then pushed it over a cliff.
Honestly I'd bet money that it's boneheadedness and not an insidious plan.
Really right now I see no reason to believe this isn't just a retarded idea that Zucker thought would actually work.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
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The thing that blows my mind is that their scheduling doesn't give them one night they can own over another network and they actively engage in competing against other shows in the same format. This whole Jay Leno Show fiasco screwed up an entire hour of possible programming every night. FUCK.
And he shouldn't. Leno's the one who sucked so bad that NBC had to make drastic changes. Why they don't drop the suck instead of fucking with a consistent talent is beyond me.
I thought Leno was leaving the show because he didn't want to do shows that late anymore?
Where's this? All I see is the article on Conan's statement.
The best part. In the middle of this whole Leno disaster, NBC re-ups Zucker for another 3 years through 2013 and puts him in charge of the joint venture with Comcast.
http://www.popeater.com/2010/01/13/jay-leno-leaving-nbc/
Geek: Remixed - A Decade's worth of ruined pop culture memories
Xbox Live - Fatboy PDX
NBC decided in 2004 to let Conan take over the Tonight Show 5 years later. As far as I know it wasn't Leno's choice.
I now kinda hope that Jay tells NBC to fuck off and Conan stays on to honor his contract...while not accepting any guidance from NBC. It'd be an obvious ploy to get fired but it would be epic to watch.
Its called posturing.
If leno were so torn up he'd just leave.
How bad is this mess? There is a show once made by Steven Bocho called Cop Rock. I have never seen it myself, but I hear it was one of the worst shows in television history. Tonight Steven Bocho is sitting in his living room sipping fine Whiskey and smoking a Cuban Sigar, thinking: "Finally! Somebody made a worse screwup then Cop Rock".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFKqr5GhcxQ
Yes.
Leno promised he'd bow out gracefully in 2009, so that Conan's start wouldn't be tainted with bickering the way Leno's was between he and Letterman.
2004: Leno promises smooth transition to O'Brien
I'd say this has hardly qualified as bowing out gracefully.
Carson wants Letterman. NBC wants Letterman and someone else to keep up the surprisingly good ratings of Late, Late, and figures they can string along Letterman forever because they are the only game in town. Letterman eventually jumps ship and does well, but it's not the tonight show, Conan takes his old job at Late Late.
Conan works hard at it, keeps the ratings high. Leno does his nice guy thing but that gets staler and staler as the years move along while Conan's quality stays around the same or goes up, depending on who you ask. 2004 rolls along, Conan's contract is up, gets offers from literally everyone. Conan wants the Tonight Show, doesn't want to be strung along like Letterman. Gets a contract that says "He's the Guy" after Leno's contract is up. Gets the show. Now this. Is going to become Letterman 2.0, only with nowhere to go.
This may be selfish. Maybe being a late night talk show host has always been his biggest dream but dammit he could do so many better things. Funnier things.
And yet they were the first one to expose this whole thing.
Yeah I don't like them much personally speaking but they tend to find out stuff.
take that, Jay
Have Conan and Leno come out to a press conference. Have things go ok for a bit, with Leno promising to step down...
Only to have Andy Richter come out of nowhere with a steel chair and belt Conan! By God! Then have him and Leno give him a hellacious beat down, ending with Andy stepping over Conan's lifeless form and embrace Leno.
Then a few days later have Richter hit Leno with a baseball bat, proclaiming that it is his turn!
I was going to make this post.