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Jay Leno is kicking Conan O'Brien out of NBC
- Thread starter iOrlando
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Why would they do that? He probably earns more for the network than any other of their personalities. Do you really think they would be trying to keep him for 11:30 if he wasn't a cash cow?
Exactly. He's been making money for NBC for a long time and he showed no signs of stopping. Two things to remember here: first, Leno was forced to agree to step aside for Conan in 2009 years ago because NBC was worried that Conan would be a competitor in the same time slot on another network. They were trying to avoid what happened in 1993 when Letterman jumped to CBS. Second, NBC was still making money off his 10:00 pm show, but that money was not trickling down to the affiliates, whose profits were getting slammed. A network can't survive if it alienates too many of its affiliates.
The fact of the matter is that Conan and Leno have always had mostly separate audiences. Few people seem to like both of them. This means that if NBC had let Conan leave, Leno's ratings probably wouldn't have been dramatically affected. NBC would have continued making big money on "The Tonight Show", Conan would have made more money at Fox or wherever, and the both sets of fans would have been fine with it.
This was all just a colossal gamble by NBC executives and it didn't work. Now they're going to have to pay Conan off to go to another network anyway.
As aloofman states, he wasn't doing that badly - he was generating cash for NBC, which is all they hoped for when they went with the idea of dropping big budget dramas at 10:00pm and going with Leno 5 nights a week. By some accounts, they would have been happy if they just broke even at the time slot.
The trouble was with the affiliates being unhappy with the reduced lead-in audience to their late night news. I'm sure less eyeballs also didn't help Conan's numbers, but they probably did make a big enough difference to account for his truly dismal ratings.
Exactly. Leno’s prime time show was generating roughly 6 million viewers per night.
From Wikipedia,
"As of November 1, 2009, The Jay Leno Show has averaged a 1.98 in the adults 18–49 ratings and 6.594 million viewers.”
That’s roughly 1 million more than they promised advertisers during their ad sale event last Spring, and a little above what Leno was generating on The Tonight Show.
But popular scripted dramas that normally air during that time slot generate 10+ million viewers per night. For NBC, you could see how putting a talk show in prime time would be cost effective. You’re talking 1/8 of the cost of a scripted drama for 60 percent of the viewers of such drama AND you get to run the show with new episodes 45 weeks out of the year compared to only 22 weeks for dramas.
The Jay Leno Show is a gold mine for NBC. There’s been some discussion about Conan going to Fox. However, I don’t think it’ll happen since many Fox affiliates are now rolling out two hours of local news at 10 and 11 p.m. Fox is not going to screw that up for their affiliates. If Conan goes to Fox, it’ll be the same time slot NBC is currently offering him to move to and he would lose The Tonight Show branding/franchise.
I'm guessing Leno goes back to the Tonight Show at 11:30 and Conan goes to FOX at 11:30. Conan has worked with FOX before and they do want to jump into the late-night show business.
I agree, but I don't know much about Ferguson -better check him/her out soon.
Leno had his run and he has become too predictable. He's great to use as a sleeping pill though.
Craig Ferguson. He's funny initially. Then after a year or so it gets old. Real old.
Ferguson is great, most of his comedy is of the cuff and not on cue cards.
Letterman took a few shots at NBC as well.
I don't know if Conan goes to Fox. The locals run syndicated programing after the news and make good money off of that. Would they be willing to give up ad space for a hour comedy show. ABC might do it if they can convince Kimmel to go to 12:30.
The other issue is will Conan want to up root his show and staff again to move to another network. NBC really screwed up again, this is going to be like Leno Letterman fighting all over.
The other issue is will Conan want to up root his show and staff again to move to another network. NBC really screwed up again, this is going to be like Leno Letterman fighting all over.
Conan OBrien Says He Wont Do Tonight Show Following Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno again. I'd imagine that no talent former SNL hack is pretty happy now. He would definitely have been odd man out.
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno again. I'd imagine that no talent former SNL hack is pretty happy now. He would definitely have been odd man out.
What a clusterf***. If there were any brains at NBC, they would can Jay and leave Conan and Fallon alone.
They have completely different demographics. It won't hurt him. It will hurt Nightline which has seen its rating grow quite a bit since Leno left the time slot..
Just wait until Comcast gets their filthy hands on them.
I'm not so sure about that. Most of that syndicated programming run during the 11:30-12:30 block is old reruns. In the case of my local affiliate, it's Seinfeld reruns (and from 10:30-11:30 central time). Sure, Seinfeld has a a large fanbase and all, but are people really staying up until 11/12:30 each night to watch 15 year old episodes of Seinfeld?
Conan has a huge following and people will stay up late to watch. Also, I think part of the reason Conan hasn't done well in the 11:30 slot is because his comedy has to be a little bit cleaner than at 12:30, it's rather bland and dumbed down compared to what people were used to and loved. But Fox lets its shows get away with a lot more, look at Family Guy. It has some very adult humor in a prime-time slot, and if Family Guy was on NBC, I don't think Seth McFarlane could get away with what he does. I think Conan would be able to do his old show that was so popular on Fox in the 11:30 timeslot. It's not like Fox has any standards, just look at their news department
If I were Fox, I'd be trying like hell to sign Conan into a long contract.
The real irony here, of course, is that it looks like when the dust settles, NBC will be left with exactly what it was trying to avoid by promising The Tonight Show to Conan in the first place and later giving Jay the 10 o'clock slot: Jay will still be hosting The Tonight Show at 11:30 and Conan will be competing directly with him on FOX at 11:30.
To make matters worse, that scenario would probably have lead to Jay retaining his late night leading ratings over CBS, ABC and FOX if NBC had just let it happen organically. Sure, Conan may have gotten some eyeballs out of curiosity, but Jay's lead in viewers would have probably stuck. Now, a Conan show on FOX would get so much press and so many sympathy viewers that it might pull enough ratings from Letterman and Leno to make it #1. This may not be sustainable, but even now Conan has started kicking Letterman's behind in the ratings since all this controversy started, so it's only logical it would continue over to a new network.
Leno is a little hurt by looking like a bad guy, even though NBC are the real villains here. They bascially crafted a situation where they only had two choices:
1. Get rid of Leno and let Conan keep The Tonight Show.
2. Get rid of Conan and move Leno back to The Tonight Show.
There's no way any compromise they craft would satisfy both. And no matter which why they go, they can't win because even if they went with 1 instead of 2, Leno would probably get all the press and sympathy viewers that I predicted Conan would get - basically, it's anti-NBC sentiment that will bring them down even further.
To make matters worse, that scenario would probably have lead to Jay retaining his late night leading ratings over CBS, ABC and FOX if NBC had just let it happen organically. Sure, Conan may have gotten some eyeballs out of curiosity, but Jay's lead in viewers would have probably stuck. Now, a Conan show on FOX would get so much press and so many sympathy viewers that it might pull enough ratings from Letterman and Leno to make it #1. This may not be sustainable, but even now Conan has started kicking Letterman's behind in the ratings since all this controversy started, so it's only logical it would continue over to a new network.
Leno is a little hurt by looking like a bad guy, even though NBC are the real villains here. They bascially crafted a situation where they only had two choices:
1. Get rid of Leno and let Conan keep The Tonight Show.
2. Get rid of Conan and move Leno back to The Tonight Show.
There's no way any compromise they craft would satisfy both. And no matter which why they go, they can't win because even if they went with 1 instead of 2, Leno would probably get all the press and sympathy viewers that I predicted Conan would get - basically, it's anti-NBC sentiment that will bring them down even further.