I personally think it will work out well. Leno has a strong following and I also think Conan is very good. So in my opinion NBC made the right moves. I'm really looking forward to the new Tonight Show. I've seen the set and it looks great. Max will be there and Andy Richter is back. This time as the announcer. I'll miss Joel Goddard, but he had a good run. I still have a problem with Jimmy Fallon though. He's weak. But hopefully he'll grow into something great like Conan did. Carson Daly is even a lot better now since NBC tweaked the show. NBC will still remain the king of Late Night.
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Did NBC make the right move by moving Conan and Leno?
- Thread starter Skynet74
- Start date
I am seriously excited about Leno moving to prime time. It is something that TV hasn't seen in a long time, if ever, and I think it could be just the ticket for NBC. Leno is hilarious without getting dirty; his comedy remains spot-on after 17 years on the Tonight Show, and it's something that, in my opinion, would serve to grow his audience. Will it kill Grey's Anatomy's numbers? Doubtful...but it just might make a good dent in them.
whitfm said:
A talk show in prime time is not totally unheard of - In the mid 1960s thru early 70s, the Metromedia stations in Los Angeles (KTTV) and New York (WNEW) ran the Merv Griffin Show from 8:30 to 10:00 weeknights. I'm guessing that in smaller markets with only the 3 network affiliates, Griffin ran in the afternoons. But in LA and NY, Griffin got decent ratings in prime-time, and it was a good counter-programming move by Metromedia, since the other independent stations in both cities were running mostly old theatrical movies or off-network reruns in prime time.
This ended when Merv went to CBS late-night against Carson. But after his show on CBS was cancelled, Metromedia brought Griffin back - again in prime-time.
I'll predict that the ratings for Leno will be mixed - good on some nights, not so hot on others. People will opt for Leno if there's nothing else they want to see at 10:00 - or if Leno has a hot guest. On nights when the other networks are running popular shows, and Leno's guest line-up is not stellar, he won't do so well.
I think it was a great move by NBC, I am so freaking excited about Conan tonight! Unfort. I'll be at work, so I have to tape it.
Skynet74 said:
Am I the only one to see the Leno and Conan getting their old time slots back if the Leno prime-time experiment fails? NBC is so loyal to Jay that they will find a place for him if his new show doesn't work. If that happened, I would think that Conan would get so mad that he would end up trying to convince FOX into re-entering late-night programming (or even make a deal to replace Letterman if he decides to retire).
I personally hope that Conan succeeds as host of Tonight. It should be a good, friendly rivalry between him and Letterman on CBS (unlike the ugly bitterness which was Leno vs. Letterman).
I was always a Letterman type guy. Unfortunately Dave started to get stale. So I found myself tuning into Leno more and more frequently. I'm glad he'll be back. Conan starts tonight and this will be the first time in about 35 years that the Tonight Show will not be taping at the NBC studios in Burbank. So this is really the start of something new!
Skynet74 said:
Same here. I always preferred Letterman to Leno, but I found Dave got stale and repetitive to an irritating degree. He seems to think there is something inherently funny about repetition of jokes and bits. The best example of this was the "Oprah-Uma" bit he kept repeating ad nauseum the year he hosted the Oscars, but his show got the same way for me. Another was "Will It Float." C'mon - a couple dozen times is enough, already.
That doesn't mean I got into Leno - I just stopped watching late night talk show. I'll be checking out Conan's Tonight Show though.
I have never been a fan of the Top 10 Lists. I personally think it is something they should have done once or twice and then just stopped. It always seemed like a one time bit to me. Not something that should be done every night. They arn't even funny most of the time and Dave just races through them as if he doesn't even like them anymore himself.
Lkeller said:
It wasn't just smaller markets where Merv aired in afternoons. I can think of two large markets in the Northeast -- Philadelphia (no. 4) and Hartford-New Haven (low 20s back then) -- where Griffin came on at 4:00 PM on WPVI-TV and WTNH-TV (respectively) when both stations were owned by Capital Cities.
The format of the show was versatile for any key PM time slot, whether it was late afternoon, primetime, or late night (another CapCities station, Buffalo's WKBW-TV, ran Merv at 11:30 PM). It was kind of like the Mike Douglas show, which could also be scheduled in mornings or afternoons. And there were a few stations that carried both programs, such as the aforementioned WTNH (in the late 1970s and early '80s, Douglas aired at 10:00 AM after Donahue).
I too think Dave got stale after that little debacle he did called "The 67th Annual Academy Awards."
But in between Dave's ratings fall (and CBS' in general by the 1995-96 season) and Jay's sudden rise, ABC's Nightline was at the top of the late night heap for a while. I remember a promo about Nightline being #1 with them saying "No band, no sidekick", which was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Letterman and Leno.
By the way...one of my co-workers at work hates Conan, so she'll be tuning in to Dave until Leno's return at 10:00; his competition here in Fairbanks other than CBS? Dr. Phil on Fox 7 and the late news/Nightline on ABC (which is seen by what, eight viewers?).
But in between Dave's ratings fall (and CBS' in general by the 1995-96 season) and Jay's sudden rise, ABC's Nightline was at the top of the late night heap for a while. I remember a promo about Nightline being #1 with them saying "No band, no sidekick", which was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Letterman and Leno.
By the way...one of my co-workers at work hates Conan, so she'll be tuning in to Dave until Leno's return at 10:00; his competition here in Fairbanks other than CBS? Dr. Phil on Fox 7 and the late news/Nightline on ABC (which is seen by what, eight viewers?).
During the election cycle, Nightline often outrated Letterman. I don't think that's happened much since. But Nightline is well-rated enough to prevent ABC from dumping it.
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