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NBC Shakeup - Conan "Out" - Jay Back In

Leno is damaged goods now - even if he gets better ratings than Conan at 11:30 - the damage is done. His demographic is older, and he has a couple of good years left, at best. They should have canceled Leno, and left Conan where he is - retooled the Tonight Show and given it some time to work. Remember that Leno's Tonight Show got off to a slow start in the 90s, and didn't become #1 and beat Letterman for quite awhile..after they had changed the set, got better writers, came up with some clever material, and gave it time to work. Conan should have been given the same opportunity. Then if another year goes by without ratings improvement for Conan, then they could fire him a bring in a new host...not Leno.

Remember that one of the big justifications for giving Jay the 10:00 show was the threat that he'd go to ABC or Fox and beat the Tonight Show at 11:30. Now, at worst, ABC or Fox might give Jay a try, but after his failed 10:00 show, I think he'd get mediocre ratings.

Let 'em send Leno back to 11:30...his show is called 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'...he comes out and explains that the last few months were actually a dream, ala' bringing back Bobby Ewing from the dead on "Dallas."
 
kenrayc said:
If Jay only gets 30 minutes what will be cut, will he keep his comedy bits like Jay-walking and Headlines and have no guest or just have the monologue and have one guest.
I can see L&O Criminal Intent moving back to NBC from USA Network.
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In 30 minutes, Jay could have his monologue, one comedy bit, and one guest. It would be a great show with no awkward 2 minute music sequence at the end and no extended unfunny comedy bits.
 
She may be settling down with her new baby, but I think Sarah Michelle Gellar should let NBC look at the pilot of "The Wonderful Maladys" HBO passed on a while ago with the hopes of putting it on Thursdays at 10:00.

I know she had done some movies which didn't do well in the box office (including "Suburban Girl" which went straight-to-DVD), but let's face it: NBC has been in fourth place for so long, and if "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" saved ABC from going belly-up years ago, then SMG may work the same wonders for NBC!
 
What a mess NBC has caused. By contract they can air Conan as late as 12:05 without penalty. That is why they haven't talked about moving him back to 12:35 again. NBC would be breaking his contract by doing that. So in other words NBC is trying to move around people in a way to cause the least amount of financial damage. Not an easy thing to do.

I'm sure they would like to just put Jay back on at 11:35 and fly Conan back to New York again for 12:35. We are looking at a company who wants everything to be back the way it was before. To bad they didn't think of that in the first place.

They sure have created a mess!
 
My local paper had a brief article this morning about
the Leno/Conan shakeup. It's talking in terms of
Leno at 11:35, Conan at 12:05, with Conan's show
keeping the "Tonight Show" name (something I think
they got from the New York Times, since it's been
referred to on this thread). The article suggests that
NBC's affiliates are ecstatic, since most of them have
been taking a major hit at 11 due to Jay's weak ratings.
However, it says that nothing will be done until after
the Olympics (which some of you figured anyway).
Nothing, however, about what happens to Jimmy Fallon,
Carson Daly, or "Poker After Dark."

I keep thinking about ABC's primetime scheduling moves
in the 1979-80 season, when "Laverne & Shirley," "Mork
& Mindy," and "Fantasy Island" were moved to new nights,
dropped alarmingly in the ratings, and had to be moved back
to their old timeslots. Except for "Fantasy Island" it took some
time for the shows to regain even a large fraction of their former
audiences. I wonder if that could happen to Jay, especially since
Letterman was the big beneficiary of his moving to 10 PM.
 
With all due respect, this reminds me of what ABC is doing by keeping Dick Clark as the "host" of "New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest."
 
The best solution is to let Conan walk. Unreported with all this Leno news is the fact that Conan has lost half of Leno's Tonight Show audience. Half! He's even losing the younger 18-49 demos to Dave, and Nightline is hitting record highs. Leno is not "damaged goods." He owned late nights as recently as last year and can do it again, although it'll be tougher now that Dave, Nightline and especially Craig have caught on.
 
azumanga said:
Except that NBC affiliates would lose the right to compete with the 11PM newscasts. If Jay starts at 11, he still won't have great numbers, as there are some watching the 11PM news on ther stations. Even some Fox affiliates have an 11PM newscast, in addition to 10PM.
Click to expand...
The Fox affiliate here in Nashville has 90 minutes of news, beginning at 9:00 p.m.
 
Let 'em send Leno back to 11:30...his show is called 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'...he comes out and explains that the last few months were actually a dream...
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a la Bob Newhart, whose earlier show was also better.


Just watch all NBC's late nite promotions during the Olympics ("win-win situation for all...", "getting so much more...", etc.), and late nite viewers will be happy. NBC will try to make viewers think "we fixed late night for you, watch us fix prime time..." (Of course, don't mention who creaed the problem. :D)


I'm just wondering who let Clear Channel Radio run NBC... ???
 
What do you guys think of Conan going to FOX?

But is it even possible? ???
 
mime257 said:
What do you guys think of Conan going to FOX?

But is it even possible? ???
Click to expand...

It is indeed possible, if the stories are true that NBC will release him with no penalty. One complication, as has been mentioned above, is some Fox affiliates have expanded their late night news into the 11:00 eastern hour. Would they go back on that move if Conan joined?
 
mime257 said:
What do you guys think of Conan going to FOX?

But is it even possible? ???
Click to expand...

It's possible but most stations would rather air a rerun and keep all the money themselves. FOX in Chicago does exceptionally well with reruns of the Simpsons. WGN also does well with Two and a Half Men.

It would be hard to convince FOX affiliates to give back the time.

Skynet74 said:
What a mess NBC has caused. By contract they can air Conan as late as 12:05 without penalty. That is why they haven't talked about moving him back to 12:35 again.
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That's interesting to know as it seems this way they can screw over Conan and get him to quit first, thus not having to buy him out.

Conan now is damaged goods coming in third to "Letterman" and "Nightline" and in someplaces behind a sitcom rerun. So while ABC or FOX may not have wanted him before, his price will have radically dropped.

College kids make up a nice chunk of Conan's audience and they don't have a lot of income to part with so they aren't the greatest demographic to sell to advertisers.

It'll be interesting to see. Conan should just suck it up and take it. It's not like they aren't paying him enough. It's all about an ego.
 
Here's what should happen:

NBC admits it's mistake, moves Leno back to the Tonight Show and cuts Conan loose.

Another thing... NBC has the crazy thought that moving Leno back to 11:30 & Conan at 12 is immediately going to solve this mess. Leno's 30 minute show could turn out to be a bomb and end up worse than his 10pm stint! NBC should not take the 30 minute Leno risk right now.


Conan can jump to FOX, but he needs to have TOTAL creative control of his show in order for it to be funny and sucessful. FOX executives will need to keep their hands off.
 
Did anyone notice that on Conan's Friday night show, he went a little further than usual with his opening schtick (jump, cut, cut, etc., like on his 12:30 show)...I thought that was somewhat rebellious.
But good for him.
 
If Conan went to Fox, you can bet he would be put on at 11:30 eastern. Fox's O&O stations have added 11pm news. Many other Fox affiliates make a lot of money with sitcom reruns at 11pm. Putting Conan on at 11pm would be a mistake. It would hurt the affiliates who have good ratings with sitcoms and would hurt the others by taking away news time that attracts advertisers.
 
trusty said:
Let 'em send Leno back to 11:30...his show is called 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'...he comes out and explains that the last few months were actually a dream...
Click to expand...

a la Bob Newhart, whose earlier show was also better.
Click to expand...

And like The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, both were broadcast on CBS. Far away from the stupidity of the feathered friends with their colorful plumage.

Brandon Tartikoff saved NBC from the brink and since his death the network has spun wildly without a heading, a purpose or a Captain (almost like Gilligan's Island, also a CBS show). The halcyon days of the National Broadcasting Corporation are over. It's simply a organism that broke off from it's original host cell a long long time ago.
 
Might be a good time for FOX to enter into Late Night. With an 11:30 start time it would give Conan a 5 minute advantage over Leno and Letterman too. It might seem like NBC has screwed over Conan, but NBC has screwed themselves even worse. If Conan chooses to leave they will still have to pay him 45 Million. If I were Conan I think I might take the cash and run. I would sit home and do some other projects. Maybe kick off a radio show. Stay off Television for a while. Then return to do a Late Night talk show on Fox if the offer was still on the table. He's got options.
 
NBC has a habit of screwing over late night hosts.... Anybody see a trend?

Carson forced out.
Letterman passed over for the Tonight Show.
Leno forced out.
Conan's probably gonna be forced out.
Then Leno will probably be forced out again in a few years.

Can't wait to see the executives' heads roll when Comcast takes over!
 
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