Jay Leno going back to 11:30... Conan's future unclear

[octothorp]

A bit more analysis on the potential move to Fox: the difficulty is that the affiliates basically own that 11:00 slot right now, meaning that they pay for syndicated reruns and then get all of the profits for it. By having Conan on that timeslot, they'd essentially be giving that slot back to Fox: even if the ratings are better, they get a smaller percentage of the revenue.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/art...it_for_Fox.php

The other side of it is that because Fox does have a very strong owned-and-operated base (stations that they own and get the profits from), it's possible that they could start with Conan just on the owned-and-operated stations, and allow him to work on building ratings and brand, until it becomes a better proposition for the affiliates.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

The only good thing to come out of NBC (besides Conan) is Heroes.

All else is crap.

Heroes is still around because of its syndication potential, relative international success and DVD sales. Its ratings right now are horrible... it's not even NBC's #2 Monday show.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

what was Leno thinking having Kimmel on? man did he get roasted, and not in a "Haha, lets laugh together roast". it was a "You're a dick, Leno" roast, and he didn't look happy

I'd be extremely surprised if that whole segment wasn't pre-orchestrated. Jimmy had prepared responses to each question, he wasn't shooting off the cuff. And Jay actually didn't look upset at all as far as I could tell.

This 'issue' is a ratings dream... why wouldn't they talk about it?

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by Acey

Heroes is still around because of its syndication potential, relative international success and DVD sales. Its ratings right now are horrible... it's not even NBC's #2 Monday show.

That and its a sponsors dream. Someone point out to me once it was as follows: "Quick, lets run to our Nissan Cube"

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by koop

http://tv.gawker.com/5448615/late-ni...?autoplay=true

here's the link

Missed er last night, thanks that was awesome! I watched that George Lopez one at the bottom, terrible! I didn't know he even had his own show, and more importantly I don't know HOW he has his own show.

[browna]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

I'd be extremely surprised if that whole segment wasn't pre-orchestrated. Jimmy had prepared responses to each question, he wasn't shooting off the cuff. And Jay actually didn't look upset at all as far as I could tell.

Absolutely it is. Leno and his show needs a boost and if its to get him lit up jokingly to do so, he'll do that.

As in most celeb interviews (in order to set up their stories) the guests either tell the host what to ask them, or have a fairly good idea before they go out there, what questions are going to be asked.

No different here as far as being pre-rehearsed, Leno was serving them up for Kimmell to knock them out of the park.

In a few months, Kimmell will be on Leno's show and people will give it a bump in ratings to tune in to see Jay get back at Kimmell.

As an aside, The Larry Sanders Show was a fantastic show and was pretty much bang on with the dynamics and drama of late night talk show production (so those in the industry have said) behind the scenes.

[gargamel]

To you guys who are saying it was staged, have you seen the clip? Leno seemed to be genuinly upset as far as I could tell. He seemed to be completely serious when he responded to Kimmel's "I don't think anyone care what I have to say" with, "I agree with that." Also, Kimmel was fumbling through an answer to the biggest prank question before thinking of the dig about promising to give someone a show. If it was a stunt, Leno is a better actor than I thought.

[Prototype]

Things that happen in TV only provide more ratings if people know that they are going to happen. The only reason I watched last night was because someone posted on their Facebook page that it happened on the West Coast feed.

NBC didn't promote it, I didn't watch the Leno before to see if they talked about it. Only saw clips of the Wednesday monolouge.

I don't think that added any kind of boost to Jay's numbers, at all.

[Hack&Lube]

Kimmel had it all written down, you can see him looking at his cue cards

[opendoor]

Obviously Kimmel had the questions beforehand, but that doesn't mean that Leno knew or expected what he was going to say.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Prototype

NBC didn't promote it, I didn't watch the Leno before to see if they talked about it. Only saw clips of the Wednesday monolouge.

They showed a clip of Leno and Kimmel during 30 Rock just before the Leno show aired.

[Flaming Choy]

Here is a pretty interesting article suggesting that Conan could start an internet show as one of his options. It probably won't work, but is an interesting idea.

http://cinemablend.com/television/Th...n-t-22268.html

[WindomURL]

Oh the hypocrisy!

From a 1992 article,
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/23/ar...l?pagewanted=1

[Playfair]

[RW99]

I tried to order a couple of items off the tonight show website, but it's broken for me (using paypal). I really don't want to give NBC money, but I wouldn't mind a souvenir t-shirt or something.

[ClubFlames]

So in tonight's episode Conan is auctioning off a carry on bag on ebay and the starting bid was $399.99 but within 6 hours its upto $999,999.00

Here's the link to ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=320475391533

[Hack&Lube]

Wow and looking at the bidders, these aren't regular flakers. They have real feedback.

[drewboy12]

Thats unreal... Ya they all have good status... 999k for the bag... thats unreal... Wow....

[cal_guy]

Originally Posted by WindomURL

Oh the hypocrisy!

From a 1992 article,
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/23/ar...l?pagewanted=1

The difference is that Leno at most lost about 600,000 viewers from Johnny Carson. Conan has lost around 3 million viewers.

Oh and this is what Letterman had to say about Leno before.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/ar...on/03lett.html

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by cal_guy

The difference is that Leno at most lost about 600,000 viewers from Johnny Carson. Conan has lost around 3 million viewers.l

And Carson didn't stay on the network, forcing his fans to convert to the new host.


Why is the "low ratings" of Conan even a factor here? The whole reason this thing started is because Leno absolutely sucked and wasn't keeping people on the channel so they watched the news. NBC given the choice between old and true and newer and growing, decided to go with the guy that goes down on his knees easier. You compare numbers from Carson to Conan... tell me... what percentage do those numbers reflect? And where did those people go to?