Posted on 01/15/2010 11:08:29 AM PST by iowamark
BREAKING NEWS! EXCLUSIVE! 9TH UPDATE, FRIDAY 7 AM: I can confirm that Team Conan reassembled in Los Angeles last night, and O'Brien's reps are still "figuring out how to settle" but at the same time still lobbying NBCU chief Jeff Zucker to keep Conan as host of The Tonight Show. Their negotiations continued with NBC. Unlike the network which wants a resolution by end of today, the agents-lawyers-managers are in no hurry to accept what NBC is offering to end this late night crisis and the resulting PR nightmare. Team Conan is banking on it getting worse, not better, with every passing hour and day as the media and public stay obsessed with the network vs Tonight Show host story and all its drama. "This will get off the front pages," NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker predicted to Team Conan. "You are 100% wrong," one of O'Brien's reps shot back. Stay tuned...
(Excerpt) Read more at deadline.com ...
I sure do miss Johnny Carson.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=9555450
“”...a study emerged Wednesday illustrating just how damaging Leno’s prime-time show was to NBC’s local stations.
The research firm Harmelin Media said local NBC stations saw their late news audience drop by an average of 25 percent in November compared with the previous year among 25- to 54-year-old viewers. That’s the demographic upon which news advertising rates are based.
The decline was particularly steep in some of the largest markets: 48 percent in New York, 43 percent in Los Angeles and 47 percent in Philadelphia...
“We all knew it was going to go down,” Shimkus said. “But I don’t think anyone forecast anything in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 percent.”
Harmelin used data on the number of ads run in late local news programs and their cost to calculate that over a three-month period, the Leno experiment would cost these stations collectively $22 million. The 10 stations that NBC owns and operates would lose something like $570,000 per week, the report said.””
sick of this already. Make them all go away...and take that Kate Gosselin woman with you on the way out.
I think what they did to Conan is a disgrace.....and Leno should be ashamed of himself for making jokes about Conan.
That Jeff Zucker sure is a shrewd businessman.
Conan is now and has always been the most physically repulsive host in the history of television. Many, many people begged Zucker not to bring him to the network where he sent women screaming into the bathroom.
Conan should be grateful for the money he's gotten over the years entertaining stoned, frat-boys who light their gaseous emissions and not make the mistake of thinking he will be missed.
The Leno lead-in killed the Local News ratings which in turn handicapped Conan’s chances to get the same ratings Leno got at 11:35.
He never had the same opportunity Jay had to beat Letterman.
NBC
NothingButCrazies
I’m surprised they let Wanda Sykes go to FoX.
“Conan is now and has always been the most physically repulsive host in the history of television.”
No; Letterman still holds that title. Ugly as sin. he and Helen Thomas should’ve been paired.
But Conan IS weird-looking.
Conan is now and has always been the most physically repulsive host in the history of television.That's saying something for a medium whose signature hosts have included Arthur Godfrey (he looked somewhat like a leprechaun on steroids), Ed Sullivan (there was a reason why his original Sunday night offering, Toast of the Town, was needled as Toast of the Tomb), Jackie Gleason, Jack Paar (see Arthur Godfrey), Chuck Barris (he resembled a gnome on amphetamines), and Larry King (don't ask, there are ladies present).
This is NBC’s New Coke episode.
We're talking MIke Douglas, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Letterman, Arsenio Hall, Chevy Chase, Phil Donohue, Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson...even Jon Stewart. All pretty good-lookin' guys and even the ones who weren't that attractive, had a sexuality Conan is completely devoid of. He's creepy. He's gone because he couldn't bring in women.
Could it simply be that the MSM network news has become irrelevant? Maybe the ratings declines had nothing to do these so-called comedians, but more to do with the overall decline in MSM relevance. Just saying.
I wasn’t compartmentalising or segregating hosts by category. My personal take is that Conan O’Brien was doomed not because of his actual or alleged sex appeal but because, with one or two exceptions, he wasn’t all that funny. And come to think of it, Jay Leno-—who hasn’t been funny in a very long time himself-—isn’t exactly the face that launched a thousand slips, either.
Actually, O’Brien is a great comedy writer (The Simpsons, SNL) which is how he got the gig in the first place. But Jeff Zucker refused to listen to anyone when they were telling him Conan is funny, on camera, to guys 18 to 25. No one else. Don’t give him a long term contract.
Actually, O’Brien is a great comedy writerThat's just it. He was funnier when he was only a comedy writer. It's still his best weapon. His writing is a good model for anyone trying to conjugate the craft. He would have made an excellent comedy writer in the days of radio comedy, too.
Conan is a waste of space, he is just an overage 4th grader still telling potty jokes!
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