Conan and Jay: Pitted against one another by NBC.
THE MEDIA has been abuzz this week with news that NBC will bump Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show up to midnight and move Jay Leno back to his 11:35 slot.
I think they’re making a big mistake.
I understand that the ratings for both men have been weak, and that Jay performed better than Conan against David Letterman as host of the Tonight Show. And Leno has been languishing with his new 10 p.m. show (and not delivering enough viewers to the local news that follows).
Still, booting Conan is a short-sighted move that could end up driving him and his talent into the arms of another network (Fox appears to be the likely suitor). Nothing against Leno here – he’s a funny guy – but far as I’m concerned, Conan is the future of late night; my generation’s Johnny Carson.
Not at NBC, apparently.
As David Carr noted in the New York Times: “The message to the younger talent is one thing — wait for a turn that may never come or may be taken back at any second — but the message to younger audiences is even clearer: a legacy industry will default to legacy assets and ride them down to the bitter end.”
I think viewers just needed a bit of time to get used to Conan in his new capacity. The poor guy has had less than a year to prove himself as Tonight Show host – he only started June 1, and already NBC is going to shuffle him along? He deserves better than that.
>>UPDATE (Jan. 12): Conan O’Brien says he won’t host ‘Tonight Show’ following Leno
It took Conan a while to catch on when he became host of Late Night back in the 90s. I remember when I first started watching his show; I felt I had made this incredible discovery because it seemed like nobody else was tuning in.
I marveled at how funny and original Conan was – and wacky, of course; he could be so out there sometimes (take the ‘Clive Clemmons Inappropriate Response Channel,’ for example… who comes up with this stuff?)
Conan wrote 'Marge v Monorail.' Nuff said.
Incidentally, the Simpsons episodes he wrote and/or produced were some of the best ever, including “Marge vs. the Monorail” and “Homer Goes to College”
Mr. Short Term Memory
Before that, Conan also created memorable sketches while working as a staff writer for Saturday Night Live in the late 80s. Some notable ones include “Mr. Short-Term Memory” (“He shouldn’t have stood under that pear tree…“) and” “The Girl Watchers,” memorably performed by Tom Hanks and Jon Lovitz: “He-llo… aaaand goodbye.”
Late Night with Conan O’Brien was great, too, obviously. Given the crappy time slot, Conan didn’t take himself too seriously; not seriously at all, in fact. This made for great television.
When he got the Tonight Show gig, though, I suppose he had to tone it down a bit. I admit, I didn’t watch him that much in his new new role (am I partly to blame for this whole poor ratings mess? Do they even count Canadian viewers?)
It seems like Conan has become a bit more debonair/less wacky to suit the Tonight Show. That maturing might have been inevitable. But it’s also what might have gone wrong for him. He messed with his formula for success; alienated his base. It’s just not the same.
On Twitter the other day, someone said, “If I were Conan O’Brien, I would have the Masturbating Bear as my only guest for an hour every night until NBC fired me.” He’s referring, of course, to one of Conan’s many, and might I add brilliant/ridiculous, recurring characters:
I’m with this guy. Forget NBC, Conan – you’re too good for them. Move to Fox, return to your roots, and take on Letterman and Leno directly. In addition to Masturbating Bear, I suggest you toss in a few more throwbacks:
Mercifully, Suri turned out not to be the scariest looking baby ever.
A momentary cultural phenomenon.
•More “lip” interviews with the likes of Mike Tyson, Arnold Schwarzenegger – and definitely Bill Clinton (Conan: Is it true that you asked Monica Lewinsky to lie in her deposition? Clinton: No, I told her to lie there in dat position.)
Here’s another good one:
•Last but not least, of course, bring back Pimp Bot 5000 (who combines “the classic stylings of a 1950s robot with the dynamic flair of a 1970s street pimp.”)
It was better when Pimpbot 5000 was around.
Let’s see who wins the ratings war then.
