Posted on 01/13/2010 12:03:26 PM PST by La Lydia
Edited on 01/13/2010 12:08:09 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
So there you have it,
“Jay Walking”
NBC would richly deserve it.
Correct on all counts.
Dennis Miller will never be able to draw a large audience. I think his radio show is about as good as he can hope for. Perhaps something in the wee hours on cable somewhere might bite enough audience to justify it, but he just can’t bring and hold the audience that networks are going to want for their money.
John Stewart would be the Coup Detat for a network, if someone could steal him from Comedy Central and stay out of his way, they’d have a late night juggernaught. Other than him though I’m just can’t think of anyone that is top tier material out there today.
If you like non-stop Eurotrashy bisexual humor. I liked him at first, but now it's all Hollyweird liberal politics and gay sex talk from a supposedly married man with a young son.
From your same reference, ew.com, Jay Walking:Sept, 27, 2004-[/i]Jay Leno has a famously Cal Ripken-esque work ethic, but on Monday, he announced his retirement — effective in five years. In 2009, he said, he’ll vacate his desk at The Tonight Show and pass the torch on to Late Night host Conan O’Brien.
Since he did not retire, one would assume that he did not WANT to retire and they gave him the new show so he would not jump networks.
Do you really want to argue over some idiot comedians?
It might be the way it went down, but whatever.
That's an idea I can love.
Seriously. Whenever I’ve seen his weekly rant on the O’Reilly Factor, I keep thinking “I bet you stayed up all night thinking that one up.” Endless streams of pop culture references is not comedy, or at least not good comedy. And don’t even get me started on Monday Night Football...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZWzX8Nt23U&feature=related
Glad to see others on this thread like Craig Fergusun.
Compared to the others he’s actually funny. He’s also proud to have become a US citizen recently. Have you folks seen his new ‘Join or die’ tattoo?
I meant NBC’s overall ratings as well as their future ad buy rates. Many long-time advertisers on Leno’s Tonight Show didn’t want to continue with O’Brian at the helm.
Conan was getting offers from other networks, so in order to keep Conan, they promised him the Tonight Show. You have to keep in mind that the NBC people remembered quite well the Letterman/Carson/Leno debacle before, and they definitely didn't want another repeat where the Late Night host split for another network because he felt like he got the shaft on the Tonight Show.
NBC has always been paranoid about ABC and, more recently, FOX. Promising the Tonight Show to Conan was to ensure that he didn't move to ABC or Fox. The idea was to prevent another Letterman.
Making a promise to Conan is one thing, making it PUBLIC is another matter entirely. They could have easily inked up a deal where when Jay left Conan would get the gig and make no announcements. By acting in haste they screwed themselves up.
I guess I really don’t see how making it public matters. If they made the deal, why not make it public? It’s not like Conan would be less upset if it were a private deal and they didn’t give him the Tonight Show—he’d still leave and go to Fox, which is what he is going to wind up doing anyway.
The funny thing is that NBC wanted to avoid another Letterman incident by setting it up this way and, in the process, wound up with the exact same thing. Within a couple of months, you’ll have two ex-NBC people on at 11:30 that are taking away eyeballs from the Tonight Show. That can’t make NBC happy.
Because making it public makes it something that viewers and advertisers react to. It also means that if in 2008 Jay Leno changes his mind about hanging it up (either on his own or because you don’t like how advertisers are reacting to the threat of his absence so you throw a bunch of money at him) you have to invent some other show to keep him on.
Really the smart thing to do is keep it all quiet. Don’t let Jay announce his retirement 5 years ahead of time, don’t announce his replacement 5 years ahead of time. Keep it all quiet until no more than 18 months out, so everybody has plenty of time to change their mind without embarrassing anybody or scaring advertisers.
Amen for Craig Ferguson...
I’d personally like to see him clean up his act just a teeny bit if he got the earlier 11:30PM slot, just a wee bit mind you... BUT he is really funny, his schtick is so naturally him, and authentic.
His delivery, his expressions - he is the best of this bunch in my opinion...
But again, the point of announcing the retirement was for Conan, not Jay. NBC likes Jay, and he’s been good for the network, but Conan was long-term for NBC while Jay was short term.
Using your example, let’s say the deal was kept quiet and Jay changed his mind in 2008. Conan goes to Fox (like Letterman went to CBS) and NBC (again) has a problem of filling the Tonight Show with a basically unproven host in a year or two. How does that help NBC?
This whole deal, going back five years, was all about keeping Conan at NBC.
But if Conan has a contract he doesn’t need an announcement. They could easily give Conan a conditional contract that says if Jay retires in X timeframe Conan gets the gig. The contract and the gig are what Conan wants, not the announcement.
If that scenario happens NBC gets to keep Jay, whose ratings are always much better than Conan’s, AND doesn’t have to deal with the embarassment of trying to find a show for a non-retiring Jay and this current mess. And they still have an opportunity to lure Conan into staying and waiting, because Jay is still 13 years older than Conan and sure to retire first.
We don't know that; they've never gone head-to-head. What you propose was the gamble that NBC took when it let Letterman go, when Letterman beat Jay for the first year and a half. It wound up OK for NBC in the end (thanks Hugh Grant), but they clearly didn't want to repeat that incident, which is why they did it the way they did this time. Who is to say that Conan wouldn't beat Jay on Fox at the same time slot>
There were a lot of mistakes here by NBC, but it seems that two are most prominient: (1) putting Jay's show on at 10. Should have been on earlier, like 8 or 9, where there would have been less backlash from the affiliates; and (2) caving to the affiliates.
Jay's prime time show is a good idea and was a money maker for NBC. It worked. It would have worked better if it had better leads, but it worked. Bailing after seven months is weak.
In any event, it's a disaster for NBC all around, and I'm sure one that will have finger-pointing for years to come. Anyhow, time for me to shuffle off--I'm sure we'll catch up later.
I hope all the late night hosts quit. We need to see some new talent, those guys are all stale.
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