Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I actually don't think Leno was all that funny. He had better mechanics, by a mile.

I want Conan to succeed because I like the Tonight Show as Americana.

I was lol'ing at those lame excuses. The NBA Finals? Colbert? Oh, the humanity! As if there were no NBA Finals, World Series, Olympics, MLB playoffs, or other competition when Leno was on air.

I guess it is possible that in the 13 years that Leno was beating letterman every single week, he never faced the juggernaut that Conan faced last week...Lakers vs Orlando Magic. Much more compelling than Jay competing with Lakers Celtics last season.

The ratings gap is precisely what you are describing...different demos. Conan will have to adjust, because young people are not going to start coming home 90 minutes earlier to watch him. They will just start watching Fallon or whomever else fills that later slot.

I think NBC had something planned for Leno all along. Their success in the 10 PM time slot has been limited for years. If I'm sitting at home at 10 PM, do I watch one the countless crime dramas on CBS or whatever ABC broadcasts, or do I watch Leno if he has some kind of interesting interview? I would choose Leno. Leno's show in the 10 PM slot provides an interesting alternative to everything else that is on. Add in the fact that it's cheap to produce and it's a smart risk by NBC. Leno's show at 10 PM may also provide a solid lead in for Conan.

Conan clearly won't be as successful as Leno early on in that time slot. Leno wasn't as successful as Carson when he first started. As was said earlier in the thread, David Letterman beat Leno in the later time slot on NBC. Then Letterman moves to CBS and beats Leno handily for the first couple years. Leno obviously had broader appeal than Letterman over time.

I personally don't know a single person my age that ever made it a point to watch Leno. My parents were habitual watchers of Letterman back in the 90s and I think my Dad still tunes in to that show. But I also don't know anyone my age that is a big Letterman fan (the same couldn't be said back in the mid 90s when Letterman started.

Conan is popular in the younger demographic and I think he'll build a following. Conan is somewhat of an acquired taste. Old people will probably never acquire it. True, college age kids won't make it a point to come home at 11:30 to watch Conan and they'll be out many nights. But Conan will dominate the 25-45 age group who certainly aren't partying every night.

[LiveCoug]

Wait, I thought Conan was getting beat by Letterman and that his rating sucked?

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2009/06/conan-national-ratings-tonight.php

[TripletDaddy]

Wait, I thought Conan was getting beat by Letterman and that his rating sucked?

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwir...gs-tonight.php

I think those were demos, not overall ratings.

[MartyFunkhouser]

I think those were demos, not overall ratings.

Demos are what matters, not overall ratings. I'm sure NBC will be happy to concede all the 50+ viewers to Letterman.

[smokymountainrain]

I rarely read Scott Pierce, so I don't know if he knows what the hell he's talking about, but apparently he feels like NBC is reeling a bit while Letterman is fairly confident based on what has transpired so far...

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...gs-battle.html

[DU Ute]

Triumph was on tonight. Hilarious! I recommend you all check it out on Hulu when it comes up, about as funny as you can get.

[Fiyero]

Drew Barrymore may have flashed her breasts to Letterman.... but William Shatner gave Conan the finger.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7875119&affil=WJLA

[SteelBlue]

Triumph was on tonight. Hilarious! I recommend you all check it out on Hulu when it comes up, about as funny as you can get.

Caught it on my dvr last night and it was very funny. He followed almost his exact script from the Star Wars routine but it was still hilarious. I couldn't help but think of Robin when he was talking about the childrens activities. "This will allow them to remember the exact moment that they became Republicans"

[BigPiney]

Pete Yorn will be on tonight to perform.

[TripletDaddy]

I've been following this weekly since the debut and while it does appear that Conan's monologue skills have been improving (mostly because he is abandoning the frequency of his nervous/insecure schtick, and his writers seem to be capping him at around 7-9 jokes), the ratings are not following.

For the first time in about 15 years, Dave has beaten the Tonight Show for a month straight.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ghA2OvKSmFj_kELHUlTzCQ1P8KYAD99VFI4G0

I think Conan is close....really close, but he needs to be willing to adapt a bit more. He has already begun that process but if he wants to have 15 year staying power in his new time slot, he is going to have to change a little bit. I think he can get the job done. Most comedians evolve over time and there is no reason to think that Conan can't do the same. Hopefully he ditched the human cannonball crap pretty quickly, though.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I think Conan is close....really close, but he needs to be willing to adapt a bit more. He has already begun that process but if he wants to have 15 year staying power in his new time slot, he is going to have to change a little bit. I think he can get the job done. Most comedians evolve over time and there is no reason to think that Conan can't do the same. Hopefully he ditched the human cannonball crap pretty quickly, though.

I haven't watched since the first night, so has Conan stopped doing all the annoying unfunny stuff that used to be his trademark? Is that what you mean by really close?

[TripletDaddy]

I haven't watched since the first night, so has Conan stopped doing all the annoying unfunny stuff that used to be his trademark? Is that what you mean by really close?

well, he seems to be doing less of his affected overacting. He will simply tell his joke, deliver the punchline, let the audience laugh, and then move on.

Old Conan would drag it out for a minute or so, overacting audience reactions, making contorted facial gestures, etc...it was all pretty amateur and annoying, at least as far as monologues go.

The fact that he has corrected bad habits in such a short period of time shows that he has the chops, he just needs the coaching. This is probably much like a MLBer hiring a private hitting coach or Tiger hiring a coach for his swing.

NBC is a business, not unlike any other. They want the highest ratings to charge the most for ad space. And late night was the last bastion of top ratings that NBC programming was enjoying. They will not want to lose that foothold nor will they react casually to losing the top spot after having it for 15 years. Conan will have some pressure put on him to get the ratings crown back somehow. He just has to keep working at it. I think he can do it.

[TripletDaddy]

2 nights in, Leno has beaten Letterman both nights.

Looks like everything has returned to normal in late night.

by last fall, Conan's ratings had slid to 2.0, so Leno is already beating that by 170 percent. If he can hold on to even a fraction of that lead and continue to beat David Letterman (which he did routinely for 14 years until the end of his first 'Tonight' tenure), he'll be doing what NBC (re-)hired him to do, and the network will feel vindicated over the way it unceremoniously dumped Conan to bring Jay back.

[MarkGrace]

Leno holds his lead for 6 days. You had to figure that some of his early numbers would come on the strength of people curious to see his first few shows back, so I guess it will be interesting to see how this shakes out over the long run.

[MarkGrace]

TBS? Wow.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/conan-obrien-will-do-a-late-night-show-on-tbs/?hp