• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Jay Leno's last day as "Tonight Show Host" is...

Conan will never get "One Half" the audience that Jay Leno has now! And he's not funny either! NBC is really shooting themselves in the foot on this one! Monday July 21st 2008, Just look this post up on December 31st, 2009! Then we will see!
 
I think Conan hasn't shown if he can do a show similar to Leno. By this I mean, when Leno took over the "Tonight Show," he basically continued it as Carson had it. Oh sure he put his own feel into it, but Leno's show has a lot of Carson in it."

That was one of the reason's given for Joan Rivers not getting a shot at Carson. They felt Joan was great for the guest host but her spin on the show wouldn't hold up over the long haul. In other words it was perfect for a breath of air but not for continual breathing.

Conan's show is more "quirky" the way Letterman's is.

This is why I think both Letterman and Leno stayed afloat because the shows were not alike and they didn't go after the same people.

I don't think Conan will work if he continues his show exactly like it is for the 11:35pm hour. But that's not to say he can't change his show to deliver that audience. I don't think he's ever tried to go after that type of audience. Maybe he can do, maybe he can't, we'll find out in less than a year.
 
Kind of an earlier than expected exit if you ask me. I thought Leno was going to stick around through the summer.

As for Conan, my jaw dropped pretty low when I heard on the radio that Craig Ferguson (who I don't think is that bad) had surpassed him in the ratings recently. Is that really true? God help NBC if it is. This could be a disaster!
 
I can hear David Letterman laughing out loud from his office at the Ed Sullivan Theatre.
My prediction is that once Leno leaves, Letterman goes back to being number 1 and will stay there.
 
Leno hasn't been there long....just over half the time Carson was there. Why is he leaving so soon?
 
I like both Leno and Letterman. I concur that Letterman will return to #1. Conan the Barbarian just isn't in the same league as the two aforementioned.

Jay has made much more money from The Tonight Show than Carson ever did. Perhaps that is why he is bailing early: he wants to spend some of it at his leisure.
 
kyscott said:
Leno hasn't been there long....just over half the time Carson was there. Why is he leaving so soon?
Click to expand...
Because NBC executives want him gone; plain and simple. This same pencil-pusher figure that Conan will get better ratings. As I posted above, I bet Letterman is laughing is a$$ off.
 
Mark_Giardina said:
I can hear David Letterman laughing out loud from his office at the Ed Sullivan Theatre.
My prediction is that once Leno leaves, Letterman goes back to being number 1 and will stay there.
Click to expand...

He can laugh all he wants; he's still second best, and the only way he can climb is when the best leaves the scene.

He was smart to have Worldwide Pants in control of both The Late Show and The Late Late Show; otherwise, he'd have to be looking over his shoulder at Craig Ferguson.
 
Ferguson did pass him for a week if I remember...

As for Conan vs Jay? What will Conan have to do differently? How much of a difference is it being on an hour earlier? I mean, Conan is on at 11:30 in Chicago right?

I have read Conan can't adapt to the one hour earlier show but can people be more specific as to what he does now that WILL NOT work?
 
Word Life said:
I have read Conan can't adapt to the one hour earlier show but can people be more specific as to what he does now that WILL NOT work?
Click to expand...

Maybe he can go back to his roots and script live-action Simpsons sketches.
 
I don't find Conan funny, but I can see how other people would.

NBC wants to get the kind of audience that buys stuff. Leno delivers numbers but those numbers aren't buying.

In otherwords if you deliver a million viewers and only 10% buy anything that is the same as delivering an audience of 100,000 that buy things. The rest of the viewers aren't worth anything to a network.

In additon older people tend to think about their purchases and buy smaller items and not luxury. An older person is more likely to say "HDTV would be nice but I'll wait till set dies, the converter box is good enough." A younger viewer will say "I want that and I'll just charge it and pay it off $20.00 a month."

NBC wanted a smooth transition and didn't want the mess they had with Leno/Letteman so they did this deal a long while back. NBC is at the lowest ratings point it has been since the early 80s. Back then the "Tonight Show" was pulling in 25% of all NBC revenue. So between Johnny and Gary Coleman, NBC didn't have much then. Remember how NBC outbid ABC for the Olympics then the USA didn't show up. NBC really can't afford to lose a great franchise like the "Tonight Show," has always been. It's been a steady source of revenue for the network for decades.
 
The only hope NBC has of me watching Conan once he takes over is to bring back Andy Richter as the sidekick. I personally quit watching after Andy left because I feel the show lost a lot of it "funny." Conan is alright on his own but I felt that the two of them did a great job together. And let's be honest, its not as if Richter has a whole lot going on right now if they asked him back.
 
I'm not sure why folks are doubtful of Conan O'Brien's ability to do well with "The Tonight Show". Given his competition from network TV (Kimmel & Ferguson) and cable (Stewart, Colbert, and the animation of [adult swim]), his brand of humor holds up pretty well. I wouldn't say O'Brien has been copied, but its clear to me that others have found success in offbeat humor outside of the one-liner yuk-yuk.

Meanwhile, Media Life Magazine has a column explaining why nabbing Jay Leno wouldn't necessarily be a slam dunk for ABC:
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/ar...te_51/How_Jay_Leno_would_likely_do_on_ABC.asp
 
Mark said:
Well do you all think Conan could modify his style to be more in line with Leno and Carson's style?
Click to expand...

Why would he need to? O'Brien made it this far with his writers doing his kind of humor, and there isn't anything he needs to change. He's earned his stripes as a host doing it his way and shouldn't consider tweaking it to fit some notion of "Carson style".
 
dhett said:
Mark_Giardina said:
I can hear David Letterman laughing out loud from his office at the Ed Sullivan Theatre.
My prediction is that once Leno leaves, Letterman goes back to being number 1 and will stay there.
Click to expand...

He can laugh all he wants; he's still second best, and the only way he can climb is when the best leaves the scene.

He was smart to have Worldwide Pants in control of both The Late Show and The Late Late Show; otherwise, he'd have to be looking over his shoulder at Craig Ferguson.
Click to expand...

I doubt Letterman is "laughing his a__ off. I imagine he got over not being chosen for the Tonight Show, and being number two a long time ago. Last I heard he was making more money than Leno, so he has a lot of dollars thrown at him he can use to wipe his tears away.

This is only my speculation, but I wonder if NBC is responding to the criticism they got during the first few years of Leno's reign - that they took the easy way out and picked the "white-bread" host over the edgier Letterman. Conan is certainly edgier and more off the wall than Leno.

Letterman may very well become number one, but in my opinion, the Late Show has become stale - repeating the same bits and skits over and over, ad nauseum.

I think many of the viewers looking for edgier late night entertainment will flip from Letterman to Conan. Leno's traditional audience (more "middle America") will probably make the switch to Letterman...who, in my opinion, has become more mainstream over the last decade.

It will be interesting.
 
Lkeller said:
Letterman may very well become number one, but in my opinion, the Late Show has become stale - repeating the same bits and skits over and over, ad nauseum.
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree with this point. I don't ever watch Tonight, and I can't stand Kimmel. So I'm one of those who gives Nightline its ratings to beat Letterman.
 
Nate Wesley said:
Mark said:
Well do you all think Conan could modify his style to be more in line with Leno and Carson's style?
Click to expand...

Why would he need to? O'Brien made it this far with his writers doing his kind of humor, and there isn't anything he needs to change. He's earned his stripes as a host doing it his way and shouldn't consider tweaking it to fit some notion of "Carson style".
Click to expand...

Because the people that find him funny at 12:35am are different from the people who tune in at 11:35pm. Plus Letterman's humour is the same type as Conan's. He will need to change his style or have the burden of pulling his audience in an hour earlier AND not losing the audience that is already there.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom