Conan O'Brien to Debut on TBS in November - Page 2  

Two? Proven? Who would that be? I only count one now, with O'Brien.

All I can say is, at least someone had enough sense to but him on before Lopez'. Otherwise, he would never stand any chance whatsoever.

I just hope to God now for his sake that he doesn't "tailor his humor" to make it transition into Lopez' show smoother.

Conan found a good place to be with very little pressure. He can have a small audience and be successful.

This is not much different than a baseball prospect getting called up, striking out too many times, and being sent back to the minors.

I don't think it matters who is first or who goes second. They will probably do the same.

But even they run out of options eventually.

Really? yeah, those past 17 years Conan has been in the business of late night means nothing!

Oh, yeah, it does. You either "get into" Lopez' "humor", or you don't. And that's not even considering his sorely obvious lack of talent at what he's doing - carrying a night in and night out talk show.

From Fredfa's "Hot Off The Press" thread at the top of 'HDTV Programming' page (notice the highlighted portions):

Nielsen Notes
Viewer Age Rises With Leno Return
By Bill Carter, The New York Times - April 11th, 2010

EUGENE, Ore. As Conan O'Brien starts his post-NBC career on a stage here Monday night with the kickoff of his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour, his former employer, NBC, finds itself reliving the good old days, with Jay Leno back where he used to be hosting The Tonight Show and at the top of the late-night ratings.

Still, competitors and even some advertisers are increasingly taking note that the standout word among those details is old.

As in: while audiences for Mr. Leno have increased more than 50 percent from Mr. O'Brien's average, the median age for Tonight Show viewers has jumped more than 10 years, to 56 years old, in the wake of the departure of the host NBC had once designated to be the future of late night.

Viewers like Jay, said Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at the media buying firm Horizon Media. Who would have thought he would come back and go right to the top from his first day? But Mr. Adgate added, You do notice that jump of 10 years over Conan.

NBC will certainly take that development for the moment, not only because Tonight is back in first place, but also because the network seems to have stabilized after the crisis it faced last fall when its 10 p.m. hour, filled each weeknight with Mr. Leno's new comedy show, stirred a rebellion among its affiliates because of its low ratings. But even with his new pre-eminence, Mr. Leno has not recaptured the ratings he commanded before NBC's ill-fated reshuffle of its late-night line-up.

Notably (and, supporters of Mr. O'Brien would argue, not coincidentally) the NBC 10 p.m. lineup a factor in helping to deliver audiences to late-night shows is also up about 50 percent since being revamped in the upheaval that rocked the network in January, according to Nielsen figures.

Even though everyone can go to their remote control, the lead-in audience is still a very impactful part of a network television strategy, Mr. Adgate said.

That was certainly what the NBC stations believed when they threatened to pre-empt Mr. Leno's prime-time show because of declining ratings for their late newscasts, which followed him in the fall. Now the stations, and Mr. Leno, are getting the benefit of NBC's efficient patch-up job.

NBC has added a new 10 p.m. drama with glimmerings of promise in Parenthood; a comedy reality show that has performed more than respectably in The Marriage Ref; and it has restored a long-running hit, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, to 10 p.m., where the drama has resumed being the top show at that hour. (Last fall, it dropped to last place after being displaced to 9 p.m. to make room for Mr. Leno.)

As far as the late-night picture goes, it's as if a collective erase button was pushed, said Robert Thompson, professor of television at Syracuse University, with the usual suspects back in their usual locations except Conan is gone.

A critical result from NBC's point of view is that Mr. Leno has drawn the biggest audiences in most age groups almost every night since returning March 1. That performance has defied what Mr. Adgate described as expectations built of resentment by younger viewers over what happened with Mr. O'Brien that Mr. Leno might not automatically resume his winning ways.

That he has is not the best news for David Letterman on CBS, who grabbed the leadership during Mr. O'Brien's brief run, nor for Nightline on ABC, which also enjoyed a competitive boost.

But the situation is not exactly as it was before NBC disturbed the late-night universe. Mr. Leno has not been unaffected by the turbulence. His ratings lead is clearly down from where it was a year ago.

Measured against the same period beginning in March 2009 (and, to make the comparison as fair as possible, excluding one huge night when President Obama was his guest in 2009 and the abnormally big week he enjoyed his first week back this year), Mr. Leno is down about 18 percent in viewers, and slightly more among the 18- to 49-year-old viewers that matter most to many advertisers.

With those anomalies factored out, Mr. Leno is now averaging about 4.4 million viewers a night, down from 5.37 million in 2009. His rating among 18- to 49-year-olds is about a 1.15, down from a 1.5. By contrast, Mr. Letterman is down to about 3.54 million viewers, from 3.76 million last year, and his rating in 18- to 49-year-olds is now about a 0.95, down from a 1.0. Nightline is down to 3.61 million viewers from about 3.85 million last year and to a 0.9 rating in the 18-to-49 age group from a 1.1.

Mr. Thompson said that NBC might be more concerned about the trend among the youngest core of viewers, who made up the base for Mr. O'Brien. They seem to be drifting away, toward comedy they find more relevant, he said.

The hip young comedy stuff has all gone to cable, Mr. Thompson said. Maybe Jimmy Kimmel on ABC may benefit because his hip quotient seems to be on the rise.

Mr. Kimmel's numbers are also down slightly year over year. Among the network players, only Craig Ferguson on CBS has held his rating in the 18- to 49-year-olds from last year. His overall audience has dropped slightly to 1.71 million, from 1.81 million, but so has everyone else's on the network side.

This is especially true in the youngest end of the age breakdown. Late night has always held special appeal for young men in particular, but it is no longer a contest as to where this group's late-night preferences lie. Comedy Central's two hosts, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, both surpass all the network shows among men ages 18 to 34. That corresponds to the big edge they enjoy in terms of median age.

While Mr. Leno now has a median age of 56, with Mr. Letterman at 54, Nightline at 55, Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Kimmel both at 52, and even NBC's younger act, Jimmy Fallon, at 50, Mr. Stewart comes in with a median age of 49 and Mr. Colbert younger still at 37.

(Youngest of all late-night hosts? George Lopez on his Lopez Tonight show on TBS. He has a smaller audience, but a very young one, with a median age of just 33.)

Mr. Thompson suggested that after the bold experiment of the summer and fall, NBC was back exactly where it was. You could argue that NBC's idea to move Leno to 10 made a lot of sense, it just didn't work, Mr. Thompson said.

Certainly little has changed about the overall weakness of the 10 p.m. hour. Each of the three networks that program that hour is seeing significant falloffs this year, especially among that 18-to-49 audience. CBS, the strongest performer at 10, is down about 16 percent, to a 2.6 average rating with that group for weeknights at 10.

ABC, which has been the weakest network at 10, is off about 19 percent, to an extremely low 2.1 average rating. NBC's stopgap schedule at 10 is averaging a 2.4 rating, which is down from a 2.7 last year at this time, or about 11 percent.

Still, that surely beats the 1.5 rating Mr. Leno had been scoring there.

Over all, I can't imagine NBC isn't happy with the results it has gotten so far, Mr. Adgate said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/bu...html?ref=media

* * * * * * * * * *

Rammitinski, you should know by now if you frequent these TV threads that young viewers 18-49 are the most desired by advertisers. A Conan-Lopez latenight block won't set the ratings on fire but neither do Stuart-Colbert, and the latter have the media hype and profitability that comes from having a young audience. Again, even if Conan's ratings aren't massive out of the gate, the speed at which TBS has become a player in late night TV (and credit has to go to "Lopez Tonight" for paving the way and getting the young-skewing ratings to prove it's worth) is nothing short of astounding. And yes, I'll grant you that Lopez has a lot of learning to do to become a more tolerable and long-lasting late night host. That's what the post-mindight time slots are for.

I think most will DVR these shows so it does not matter who is first or second. I doubt there will be a lead in boost on TBS. People will have to go looking for Conan or Lopez to find them.

Huh? Are you saying the Turner networks are not a good vehicle for promotion? I suspect they can promote to a much larger demographic using the Turner networks than they could on Fox.

He will be owning his own TV show. That instantly makes it better for him. Being on a cable network provides him with the ability to not be censored as much so he has more free range to do what he wants. And he will not require the ratings that Fox would need to keep his show profitable.

Somebody else on another forum/story posted something that I hadn't thought of: besides TBS Turner owns Cartoon Network, home of Adult Swim. So, between the youth-skewing TBS latenight talkers and Adult Swim, the Turner Networks will command a hefty size of the under-50 cable viewers watching cable television late at night. In terms of dollars and cents that is huge!

And Turner will surely be heavily pimping Conan's show on Adult Swim. Combine that w/ TBS/TNT....there should actually be plenty of eyes such promotion will be played out in front of.

Plus, won't there be at least 1-2 MLB games carried by Turner before the fall? Can they promote this at all prior to Sept 1st?

I honestly don't think his learning the ropes better will ever help pick up more viewers, though. Not as long as his "style of humor" doesn't change.

He probably could pick up more viewers if his actual attitude behind some of his "humor" changed. He's had a taste of wider popularity, but he's apparently content with not even going for that anymore. Whatever. If he's staying truer to himself, then good for him.

I'm just afraid O'Brien will have to change his schtick too much now, too.

Crazy that FOX's affiliates were so adamant about not giving up news/syndicated shows instead of Conan. Hard to blame them though, especially with syndicated shows. Seinfeld late night hour repeats still do really well in most markets.

W/O broadcast TV's FCC restritctions, I HOPE Conan changes...back into the Conan we had @ 12:35.

Considering that Turner's current late night audience - TBS & elsewhere - does skew younger & bringing Conan in is surely part of the plan of increasing said young viewer base, it'd be in both Conan's & Turner's best interests to have a show more in line w/ Late Night than The Tonight Show.

So what if a return of Masturbating Bear, Triumph or the Preparation H guy would potentially alienate older viewers or a "wider audience"? Said viewers are already tuning into Jay anyway & not likely to stray from old habits. Plus, Conan will not need broadcast TV-level ratings to be considered a success. He'll surely pull in more viewers than George Lopez does now....and Turner is pleased w/ his numbers.

And hey...doesn't TBS also run Seinfeld reruns? Now there's a solid - and relatively cheap - lead-in for Conan & George!

Every Sunday - plus the entire October postseason (which is why they now always premier their new shows in November)

Ratings would obviously be better for Conan, but the affiliates would lose like half of their own commercial time (if not more) - and the higher ratings would not make up the difference. (It would be close though.)

The real issue was that many affiliates had syndication deals locked into specific time slots.

It's a long-term vision thing. Yes, money in the bank now for red-hot "Office" repeats and classic "Seinfeld" are good. But will they still be hot five, ten, fifteen years from now? And will local TV stations be around (let alone be able) to afford the costs of syndicated shows coming down the line? The Fox suits have the long-term vision thing and were thinking to a few years down the road, when Leno will be in his mid-60's and Letterman will be retiring. Their viewers will be up for grabs, and a seasoned-with-experience "Conan O'Brien Show" franchise would have been there to welcome them. But the Fox affiliates, like the NBC affiliates that got Leno yanked from primetime, live for the previous night's overnight ratings report and the present-day buck. Yes, less money today by giving up the profitable repeats (and the penalties for breaking those contracts) would have been a financial burden. But the Fox affiliates would have been in position a few years from now to be where the NBC affiliates were from the 1960's to right before the Leno-in-primetime-experiment: carries of a profitable late night franchise that makes them much more money in the long run than the year-in, year-out syndicacted business of trying to pick the right hit show repeats.

TBS has the long vision thing and the fat corporate wallet to act quickly and without concern for FCC, affiliates and broadcast-caliber ratings. It's not the optimal solution for Conan (Fox was the clear path back to restore his broadcast TV prominence) but, given the ever-changing circumstances and landscape of the industry, it's not as bad as it would have seemed had "Lopez Tonight" not already proven that a late night comedy/talk show at 11PM can work. All Conan has to do now to be considered a success is to improve "Lopez Tonight's" performance in the time slot (which is an almost-certain lock to happen) and then it can only grow from there.

I guess all those big offers from the major networks never came through? He should feel right at home with all the other mediocre original "comedy" shows brought to us by TBS: Frank TV, The Bill Engvall Show, Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Lopez Tonight, Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns, My Boys, The Real Gilligan's Island, etc.

PS - I love all the spin in this thread by Team Conan

That's TEAM COCO to you sir!

Network TV has been slowly dying....

And FOX was screwed by its own affiliates.

What other 'major network' is out there? In Cable Land -> TBS = Time Warner - the biggest cable network owner of them all.

Yes and 10%-15% less potential audience. Should have done deal with Fox.

except there was no final deal with FOX.... and he gets to own the show... and be on at the same time nationwide as opposed to dealyed to all sorts of time slots as affiliates dealt with their individual syndicated show deals.

it's 11C

TV Notes
How the Conan O'Brien-TBS Deal Happened
By Bill Carter, The New York Times - April 12th, 2010

Conan O'Brien's manager, Gavin Polone, said that a whirlwind negotiation of only about 10 days led the late-night star to leave network television and jump to the cable network, TBS.

They called us about a week and a half ago, Mr. Polone said, in outlining how the negotiations began.

The Turner Entertainment president, Steve Koonin, laid out the network's offer to give Mr. O'Brien a show at 11 p.m. weeknights, but Mr. Polone said that the Conan team had an immediate reaction: You guys already have an 11 p.m. show.

He was referring to the current 11 p.m. late-night show on TBS, hosted by the comedian George Lopez. Mr. Polone said that Mr. Koonin told him everything had been worked out, and that Mr. Lopez had agreed to slide his show back to midnight to make room for Mr. O'Brien.

But that script was awfully familiar to the Conan O'Brien side. That sounded very similar to Jeff Gaspin coming to Conan and asking him to move back to midnight to make room for Jay, Mr. Polone said.

In the turbulent early weeks of January, NBC's entertainment chief, Mr. Gaspin, went to Mr. O'Brien to ask him to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m. to free up the preceding half hour for Jay Leno to move back to late night (in a 30-minute show) after the quick failure of his 10 p.m. comedy hour.

Mr. O'Brien refused and negotiated his exit from NBC. In the months since, his representatives were known to be speaking mainly to Fox Broadcasting about a new show for that network.

Mr. Polone said he went to Mr. O'Brien to inform him of the TBS offer. Conan said, We're not putting ourselves in the position of shoving somebody out of his show.' That blocked the potential deal for a brief time.

But that position changed after another phone call. Mr. Polone said that Mr. Lopez himself called Mr. O'Brien personally. George called Conan to sell Conan on this idea. He was all for it. It really was George who made this happen.

With Mr. Lopez on board, talks became serious very quickly with TBS, Mr. Polone said. TBS emphasized how young their audience was, a match with Mr. O'Brien's core viewers. The lead-ins would be shows like Family Guy' and The Office,' which is great for Conan, Mr. Polone said. Mr. Lopez has the youngest audience in late night, with a median age of 33.

The negotiations moved rapidly because, Mr. Polone said, TBS agreed quickly to almost every request. We'd come back with complex details and they'd apologize and say they might not be able to get back to us for two hours.

TBS also promised the biggest promotional campaign in television history for Mr. O'Brien, using some of TBS's most popular properties, including this year's NBA playoffs and the Major League Baseball playoffs.

Mr. O'Brien will continue to produce his show in Los Angeles, Mr. Polone said.

He declined to comment on what happened with the negotiations with the Fox network, except to say that they had been continuing. But several executives who have been familiar with that process said that complications had made those negotiations difficult to conclude.

Mainly Fox's affiliated stations have deals in place for syndicated programs mostly repeats of shows like The Simpsons and the same two comedies that play on TBS, The Office and Family Guy. The stations have already paid for those shows and sold advertising for them.

The stations have also been through a financially crippling year because of the national recession and many were resistant to giving up the profits they would experience with the syndicated repeats. (Fox and the affiliates were also facing contentious negotiations over retransmission rights to cable networks, a source of income the two entities will battle over in terms of who gets how much.)

Mr. O'Brien was likely to reach only about 60 percent of the country with a first broadcast at 11 p.m. The rest of the country would be reached at later hours, diminishing his chances to hit a big rating - at least initially. Fox was promising to expand the coverage to full clearance at 11 p.m. in about three years, several parties to the talks said.

But with TBS, Mr. O'Brien will reach almost every home in the nation immediately. That made the deal more attractive.

Stepping away from a broadcast network may mean that he will not get a full chance to face off with Mr. Leno and NBC, a prospect he might have liked given the circumstances of his departure.

But what it does set up is a new kind of heavyweight match in late night. Now Mr. O'Brien will be face to face with the two big stars of late night in cable, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central.

All three men are close friends; now they will be measured directly against each other in the ratings.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...ed/#more-32199

looking forward to it..this isn't going to be a watered down "cater to middle america" tonight show..he'll actually get to do the skits that he wants.

My daughters go to Uof Oregon in Eugene. I asked them if they heard about his comedy tour being talked about on campus. They have heard nothing. If something is big enough or generates enough buzz in Eugene or on campus most would hear or know about it.

Regardless if people have cable or not, I am sure most are going to hang in the ABC, NBC CBS range late night, not surf much and only those who really want to see it will go "out of their way" to view it. If by some chance he puts on the best tv show of all time and talk gets going then he will get people to head over to TBS. If he doesn't, within reason, his ratings will be poor and in a year or two it will be gone. I don't see any middle road here. Conan really has to tear it up IMO or it is over...that is until he gets asked to take over some late night talk show spot.

^^^ Which you know he'll do in an instance and then drop TBS like a bad habit. The alure of network TV is too strong for a tradionalist like O'Brien, and the only reason he's going with TBS now is that Fox took its sweet time wooing him with restrictions. With TBS he gets less restrictions, a half-hour head-start to Leno/Letterman/Nightline and a boatload of cash. Plenty of good things to pass the time until Letterman retires and/or Leno dies clutching that "Tonight Show" desk he's obviously holding onto for dear life. Of course the onus is on him and his people to put on a show that will make network executives and affiliate managers say to themselves 'we want that on our air and we're willing to pay top dollar for it.' If nothing else the new Conan O'Brien show on TBS will be the most widely-seen and expensive casting (series of) tapes the industry (and normal TV viewers) has ever seen, with network decision-making people the real target audience for what Conan will be doing.

And don't forget the NBA playoffs - a few folks watch those.