Posted on 01/12/2010 12:28:04 PM PST by Beaten Valve
Conan O’Brien says he will not do “The Tonight Show” if it airs at 12:05 a.m. He released the following statement Tuesday afternoon:
People of Earth:
In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.
(excerpt of full announcement)
(Excerpt) Read more at mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Also to fill the non-male male status their looking for.
And why is that?
I think I know, but I 'd like to hear another opinion.
I’m impressed, too. Some of his bits were pretty funny....Triumph, In the Year..., and he took Andy Richter (?) back like the stray mutt he is.
That time slot on NBC was just not Conan’s best choice of venue for his gig and his audience. His audience is younger folks who are over watching Jon Stewart and Colbert. I don’t care for the guy because I’m too old to “get” the sort of nerdy, geeky stuff he does, but the late teen and early 20s crowd likes it well enough, but they ain’t coming over to a newtwork dinosaur slot while these other guys are on over at Comedy Cental. The demographic moved on him.
I stopped watching after Parr left...............
I grew up watching Carson, too. Used to watch Letterman when he was young and brash (though really, his show was sort of a knock-off of Steve Allen's Tonight Show).
I don't find these hosts funny, and I don't care to see guests promoting their latest POS movies, so I just don't care what happens with the Tonight show.
What you say is true.
That was my impression as well.
Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.LOL
Yours,
Conan
Actually, Leno and O’Brien have both shown real class. Leno has said all along he works at the pleasure of the network, and if he gets canned, he gets canned.
NBC has finally screwed themselves permanently. Zucker gets to wear this epic failure by himself. The man never once thought about going after the other 52% of the population that wasn’t socialist. That is very bad marketing.
The real villains are the programming executives that make these idiotic decisions in the first place. Jeff Zucker needs to go since he orchestrated this mess in the first place. Putting Leno in primetime was his decision. Leno was actually in first until Zucker fooled around with the program schedule.
I think he is wrong on both counts:
DVRing is killing local stations and networks. Who wants to
pay for ads that no one is watching?
The late news use to be nice to put on but if I want the
news/weather, I just look at it online.
Demographics are also driving things. The average US age is
now 52 and getting older. I think this was the original idea
for moving Leno to 10:00pm, so he could be on before the bed time of the average American.
My prediction is that in the next two years we will see
half of the local stations go under, and the networks will
be dwindled down to 2 major networks. One liberal and one conservative.
Ultimately, I think Leno should take the long walk, but NBC wants to keep both off other networks. Good luck with that.
Conan is a worthless talent with no other outlet to showcase his worthless worth but there....he'll take what he's offered and like it....just blustering for a bigger paycheck, that's all...
I always liked Conan. His performance was hilarious. I advise anyone to watch it on youtube, he was pulling some punches towards NBC. He isn’t always funny, and I knew this move would fail, but that is mostly due to NBC.
“It puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again”
“He really was baaaaaaad.”
That reminds me of a joke with the following punchline:
“That’s my daaaaaaaaad.”
What did Leno do wrong?
He has nothing to do with it.
If Zucker was a good leader and visionary like many in the industry say, he would have told Jay that him doing a show at 10PM was a bad idea for BOTH him and Conan, and reject everything associated with doing such a thing, and then none of this would have happened.
Your comment would be valid if NBC ran itself.
But the senior management has to be held responsible here, not the hosts.
Don't let the door hit you in the @ss on your way out.
In times like these, human beings are hardly in the position to say "do as I say, or else I am gone."
What an idiot and a jerk.
Maybe he can get a job selling hot dogs on the side of the street.
And your still alive God Bless oyu
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