Conan O' Brien moves to TBS

grimm2005

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/12/conan-obrien-host-show-tbs

Bit of surprise, as everyone assumed he'd go to Fox rather than a basic cable channel. It'll air at 11pm and his main competition will be John Stewart and Steven Colbert.
Here's hoping one of the digital channels over here will pick it up

amacachi

Colbert will kick his ****ing ass.

RichTea

Agghhh. I'm a huge Conan fan but I don't like this move at all. I'd have preferred a move to the major networks so he could at least try and compete against Leno and NBC.

He's great buddies with Colbert and Stewart, competing with them (if you can call it that) isn't a great idea. I'd wonder about the quality of guest he could attract on that show too.

FreudianSlippers

RichTea wrote: »

Agghhh. I'm a huge Conan fan but I don't like this move at all. I'd have preferred a move to the major networks so he could at least try and compete against Leno and NBC.

He's great buddies with Colbert and Stewart, competing with them (if you can call it that) isn't a great idea. I'd wonder about the quality of guest he could attract on that show too.

totally agree... this seems like a strange move and it's coming only days after news that Fox was having problems securing a contract because of NBC

RichTea

OisinT wrote: »

totally agree... this seems like a strange move and it's coming only days after news that Fox was having problems securing a contract because of NBC

Crazy move. I wonder what he's working on with TBS, I'm sure it'll be original and entertaining as everything he has worked on in the past has been. They must have fitted his ideas better than Fox maybe. If the contract didn't put TBS out then it surely wouldn't have caused a problem with Fox.

grimm2005

OisinT wrote: »

totally agree... this seems like a strange move and it's coming only days after news that Fox was having problems securing a contract because of NBC

Would have been better if he has moved to Fox alright but the major problem was with local affiliates not too keen to pick up the show, that it might not be profitable versus the syndicated repeats they were showing in that time slot. Still think they should have fought for the fox deal though.
Could work out in the end though, according to wikipedia "Among both adults 18–34 and 18–49, the first two weeks of Lopez Tonight out-delivered the season-to-date averages for The Colbert Report, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Last Call with Carson Daly (though all but Colbert air in later time slots than Lopez). In addition, Lopez Tonight out-delivered the season-to-date average for Late Show with David Letterman and The Wanda Sykes Show among adults 18–34" and the little of seen of his show, it's really awful (Conan will be taking his slot on the channel).
As RichTea says though, I hope the quality of guests doesn't take a nosedive due to the (by default) lower ratings

Brian CivilEng

I think this is great news, Conan will soon be back on our screens. I think that cable plus VOD is the way forward, so competing with Colbert and Stewart will not be a problem. Cable also mans plenty of reruns too.

Now hopefully some channel available to us this side of the pond will pick up the show, beter than relying on *cough* other means to get my Conan fix.

Laois_Man

How do some people over here know so much about American Chat-Show hosts and their shows?

Yeah, I've seen little bits of O'Brien, Leno and Letterman - and I have found their humour to be typical American humour....very different to ours....and dare I suggest, POSSIBLY far less intelligent (sorry).

I'm not sure why people here like them?

RichTea

Laois_Man wrote: »

How do some people over here know so much about American Chat-Show hosts and their shows?

Yeah, I've seen little bits of O'Brien, Leno and Letterman - and I have found their humour to be typical American humour....very different to ours....and dare I suggest, POSSIBLY far less intelligent (sorry).

I'm not sure why people here like them?

Mainly because we watch them.
If you're talking about Colbert and Stewart then I think you'll find that their humour is POSSIBLY far more intelligent than the stuff here. Letterman and Conan are/were on mainstream networks doing talkshows with a monologue and daft bits in the transitions. If you saw more of them I'd say you'll like it a lot more.
They're far superior to the Late Late and what not found in Ireland and Britain.

FreudianSlippers

RichTea wrote: »

Mainly because we watch them.
If you're talking about Colbert and Stewart then I think you'll find that their humour is POSSIBLY far more intelligent than the stuff here. Letterman and Conan are/were on mainstream networks doing talkshows with a monologue and daft bits in the transitions. If you saw more of them I'd say you'll like it a lot more.
They're far superior to the Late Late and what not found in Ireland and Britain.

It's going to be very interesting to me what type of show Conan does on TBS. Lets face it, TBS isn't exactly the most high-brow network out there. I doubt he could do a show like Stewart/Colbert or like he may possibly want to do. Personally I'd be happy if he just started doing his old Late Night show again on TBS... hilarious!

TonyD79

Ross and now Tubirdy have tried to rip off these "typical american" shows for years and in the irish case badly. Used to watch Letterman when they had him on nightly on Sky1 in the 90's. Theres a v funny clip of Conan's visit to Ireland on utube.

blow69

I doubt it will be available on Sky over here or am I wrong?

Would prefer to watch it on TV instead of online.

Big coop for TBS though. Hope it all goes well. Who am i kidding? it's Conan. Of course it will do well.

FreudianSlippers

Here's the official promo. Nothing too special really.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rl7wP5aTKQ&feature=player_embedded

grimm2005

blow69 wrote: »

I doubt it will be available on Sky over here or am I wrong?

Who knows. although most american late night tv shows don't last long over here apart from the tonight show on cnbc. 3E showed jimmy kimmel live for a few months but they seemed to drop it. Same goes for letterman who was shown on some obscure digital channel.

RichTea

OisinT wrote: »

It's going to be very interesting to me what type of show Conan does on TBS. Lets face it, TBS isn't exactly the most high-brow network out there. I doubt he could do a show like Stewart/Colbert or like he may possibly want to do. Personally I'd be happy if he just started doing his old Late Night show again on TBS... hilarious!

Yeah, to be honest I hadn't heard of them before it was announced that Conan was joining them. I took a look at their website and they seem to specialise in re-runs of Family Guy, My Name is Earl etc, programmes made by different networks.

I know they had George Lopez on a late night show before this and the ratings for it were apparently good considering the disadvantage having a show on TBS is. Maybe this was a factor.

FreudianSlippers

to be honest, this is the type of crap that is usual for the George Lopez show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_TzUiHFU6o

It's really lowest common denominator stuff, which Conan is definitely not. The reason for his lack of success on the Tonight Show is that he was too intelligent and wry for middle America (the main bunch watching TBS). I have serious doubts that Conan will be able to do HIS show on TBS. Perhaps this is just his way of getting back on TV to maybe move to a network slot in the future.

On a side note, I don't know where TBS is getting the money to pay for Conan - sure, they're owned by Time Warner, but the actual TBS subsidiary has a low budget (as is pointed out by the fact that they mainly show syndications, old films, baseball... and Cops)

grimm2005

OisinT wrote: »

to be honest, this is the type of crap that is usual for the George Lopez show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_TzUiHFU6o

It's really lowest common denominator stuff, which Conan is definitely not. The reason for his lack of success on the Tonight Show is that he was too intelligent and wry for middle America (the main bunch watching TBS). I have serious doubts that Conan will be able to do HIS show on TBS. Perhaps this is just his way of getting back on TV to maybe move to a network slot in the future.

Wow, that is really awful, he's incredibly unfunny. The good thing about the deal though is that conan will 100% own his show, a deal which is similar to what David Letterman got when he joined CBS. I do think though that he will also be given more creative control and that it will hopefully be much like his late night show. Being on cable and the fact he doesn't have to compete with Letterman and Leno directly should help this

FreudianSlippers

grimm2005 wrote: »

Wow, that is really awful, he's incredibly unfunny. The good thing about the deal though is that conan will 100% own his show, a deal which is similar to what David Letterman got when he joined CBS. I do think though that he will also be given more creative control and that it will hopefully be much like his late night show. Being on cable and the fact he doesn't have to compete with Letterman and Leno directly should help this

The thing is you still have to get ratings and the right ratings for the network. Conan will bring in his loyal viewers, but they didn't save him on NBC and they won't stick around to watch other shows on TBS either.
Conan will have creative control, yes, but at the end of the day TBS wants to please their core audience and unfortunately it is not the same audience that is going to follow Conan.

blow69

OisinT wrote: »

to be honest, this is the type of crap that is usual for the George Lopez show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_TzUiHFU6o

It's really lowest common denominator stuff, which Conan is definitely not. The reason for his lack of success on the Tonight Show is that he was too intelligent and wry for middle America (the main bunch watching TBS). I have serious doubts that Conan will be able to do HIS show on TBS. Perhaps this is just his way of getting back on TV to maybe move to a network slot in the future.

On a side note, I don't know where TBS is getting the money to pay for Conan - sure, they're owned by Time Warner, but the actual TBS subsidiary has a low budget (as is pointed out by the fact that they mainly show syndications, old films, baseball... and Cops)

It could prove to be a worthwhile investment for TBS though. Conan is very popular and all this publicity he has been getting this past few months could really generate a lot of interest for the show, plus the majority of his original fans are going to tune into TBS now. This could easily be their highest-rated show. Won't compete with Letterman/Leno but we know that anyway.

dRNk SAnTA

TBS is a surprising choice for Conan, but I'm excited!

I'm hoping he'll try something a bit different to his previous shows. He's best when he's doing his own sketches and whatnot, and wasted during the B-list celeb interviews.

robby^5

Allow me to speculate but I reckon Conan just wants to hold down a steady job without having to play the networks ratings game for a few years, then If I had to guess I can see him returning to a big network...possibly replacing Letterman in a few years time.

I think the big question is what skits and gags does Conan retain ownership of? Would be sad to see a lot of them gone if NBC hold the rights.

It will be great to see him back on TV though.

RichTea

robby^5 wrote: »

then If I had to guess I can see him returning to a big network...possibly replacing Letterman in a few years time.

That's actually an intriguing thought. Good post. I think that's a definite possibility. He'd be perfect for succeeding Dave. Maybe he'll get another crack at the Tonight Show :P

the whole year inn

I think this is a great move,he can basically do what he wants on the show and not worry about ratings with leno,letterman,so just have a good time with it.

Doubt he wants to hold down a steady job,just say he wants to make sure his staff are secure.I presume he is using the same staff from the tonight show.Either way Ill give this a good chance.

Going to see him in his stand up show aswell so might get some insight there.

Team COCO FTW

RichTea

gob_smacked wrote: »

I think this is a great move,he can basically do what he wants on the show and not worry about ratings with leno,letterman,so just have a good time with it.

Doubt he wants to hold down a steady job,just say he wants to make sure his staff are secure.I presume he is using the same staff from the tonight show.Either way Ill give this a good chance.

Going to see him in his stand up show aswell so might get some insight there.

Team COCO FTW

Yep, it's the same staff. Max Weinberg reportedly won't be involved.

FreudianSlippers

RichTea wrote: »

Yep, it's the same staff. Max Weinberg reportedly won't be involved.

Any word on Andy?

grimm2005

RichTea wrote: »

Yep, it's the same staff. Max Weinberg reportedly won't be involved.

Damn, hope this isn't true, although he's the only tonight show band member not on conan's tour which dosn't sound like a good sign

RichTea

OisinT wrote: »

Any word on Andy?

He's expected to be a part of it. No official word on it yet, let's hope he is. He was very much jilted by NBC.

grimm2005 wrote: »

Damn, hope this isn't true, although he's the only tonight show band member not on conan's tour which dosn't sound like a good sign

I almost prefer him as Conan's right hand man over Andy. It'd be a huge loss but Max already has a lucrative career, it would be understandable if he just threw in the television game. The sourceless gossip in the United States says he's applied for the job of band leader for Leno's Tonight Show :eek: I would be very surprised if that actually happened but it would be very hard to take for Team Coco.

Brian CivilEng

RichTea wrote: »

I almost prefer him as Conan's right hand man over Andy. It'd be a huge loss but Max already has a lucrative career, it would be understandable if he just threw in the television game. The sourceless gossip in the United States says he's applied for the job of band leader for Leno's Tonight Show :eek: I would be very surprised if that actually happened but it would be very hard to take for Team Coco.

NBC has already announced the replacement for Eubanks, some guy from American Idol see here. Any stories on Weinberg going back to the Tonight Show or joining Conan are just gossip from "insiders", "pals" or "fellow diners" at this stage, nothing has been confirmed. Although I wouldn't be surprised if Weinberg left, he still lives in New Jersey but was commuting for The Tonight Show.

RichTea

abitofacomedian wrote: »

NBC has already announced the replacement for Eubanks, some guy from American Idol see here. Any stories on Weinberg going back to the Tonight Show or joining Conan are just gossip from "insiders", "pals" or "fellow diners" at this stage, nothing has been confirmed. Although I wouldn't be surprised if Weinberg left, he still lives in New Jersey but was commuting for The Tonight Show.

Delighted. I did say it was gossip sites. He doesn't need to do television but he might actually find it useful for the time being. Springsteen has finished his tour and is taking a break from tours for the time being.

Brian CivilEng

You said "sourceless", I was just pointing out that the sources were "Team Coco insiders", "a pal of Weinberg" and some "fellow diners" thrown in for good measure

I am hopeful that this will work out for Conan, I was afraid that if he went to Fox he would be under huge ratings pressure and comparisons to Leno. Now he should have time to find his own feet, then move the show to CBS when Letterman retires

The great thing is that there will only be four shows a week, Monday through Thursday, leaving Fridays free to record his outside skits. Some of these were legendary, Apple picking with Mr. T, Olde Time Baseball, birdwatching. These were where Conan came into his own.

"Why Drew, why?????"

RichTea

abitofacomedian wrote: »

You said "sourceless", I was just pointing out that the sources were "Team Coco insiders", "a pal of Weinberg" and some "fellow diners" thrown in for good measure

I am hopeful that this will work out for Conan, I was afraid that if he went to Fox he would be under huge ratings pressure and comparisons to Leno. Now he should have time to find his own feet, then move the show to CBS when Letterman retires

The great thing is that there will only be four shows a week, Monday through Thursday, leaving Fridays free to record his outside skits. Some of these were legendary, Apple picking with Mr. T, Olde Time Baseball, birdwatching. These were where Conan came into his own.

"Why Drew, why?????"

'Fellow diners' are the source for every good news story

That's a good point about Fox. Perhaps he'd try too hard to prove himself against Leno and wouldn't get a chance to let his own humour shine through as much.

Ah, the outside and on location skits were always brilliant. The one during the civic strike where he taxied people around New York was class too. Good memories, hopefully many more to come.

FreudianSlippers

According to Deadline Hollywood this is the deal Conan would have gotten had he gone to the Fox Entertainment Group

By most accounts, Conan O’Brien made a very good deal at TBS. But on Deal Or No Deal, a contestant who takes the banker’s offer gets to open the suitcase on the table to see if he indeed made a good deal. O’Brien never got to see what was in Fox’s suitcase waiting for him at the meeting that were to be held today but was thwarted by the Monday announcement of the comedian’s deal with TBS for a new late-night talk show.

Here’s a peek at what was inside. Sources said that in addition to a nightly talk show on FX, the proposal included O’Brien hosting the Emmys every time the awards show airs on Fox as well as primetime specials on the broadcast network and a show on Super Bowl Sunday when the football event is on Fox.

This marks the second time in six years that O’Brien jilted Fox after flirting with the idea of launching a late-night show there. But the circumstances are far different. Back in 2004, Fox had been planning its play for the “Late Night” host, whose contract with NBC was coming up, for a long time and had laid the groundwork, getting the 11 p.m. time slot cleared and everyone on board with the idea.

This time around, because O’Brien’s availability was so sudden and unexpected, Fox didn’t have its ducks in a row to attempt another late-night show launch. There were three major obstacles that the company and its affiliates couldn’t overcome:

1. The financial impact from stations having to break the long-term off-network contracts for the comedy series airing from 11 PM-midnight, which was estimated to be “many millions of dollars.”
2. The potential effect on the landscape in late fringe that would’ve left the Tribune stations with a monopoly on running off-network comedies in the 11 PM hour.
3. The losses News Corp.’s syndication division Twentieth Television would’ve incurred by not having an hour of prime station real estate on Fox stations available for its series.

While there was a strong creative support for an O’Brien-hosted talk show at Fox, there was less enthusiasm on the financial side. The network searched for people within the Fox station groups to champion the plan but couldn’t find any as station owners felt O’Brien’s appeal might be too narrow for a major broadcast network. Ultimately, a deal didn’t make sense for either side: Fox couldn’t make the numbers work and O’Brien couldn’t get what he wanted – a nightly talk show that he owns and that airs in pattern around the country.

So, following the Monday’s announcement of O’Brien’s TBS deal, the Fox affiliates largely ignored the topic at their meeting with Fox brass Tuesday at NAB. After touching upon the subject for about two minutes, the two sides proceeded with discussing the network’s fall sports schedule, spectrum and retransmission consent fee issues (Fox has been pressing its affiliates to share the retransmission fees they are getting from cable and satellite providers) as well as the Mobile TV venture announced the same day at NAB. The venture, called Pearl Mobile DTV Company, includes 12 TV station groups, Belo, Cox, Fox, Gannett, Scripps, Hearst, ION, Media General, Meredith Corp., NBC, Post-Newsweek and Raycom, joining forces to provide content and spectrum for a national mobile DTV service.

Interesting that I assumed when people were talking about Conan going to "Fox" I didn't think of the parent company, rather the broadcast channel Fox Broadcasting Company (a national broadcast network similar to NBC, ABC and CBS).
Looks like Conan was never going to Fox to go head to head with Leno/Letterman, rather he was going to FX which is a basic cable network.

The whole thing about hosting the Emmys all the time is a bit stupid. Good pay, but it'd probably get really old quite quickly.
When I thought Conan could be going to Fox (network) I thought he was crazy to go to TBS, but the difference is much smaller when you compare TBS to FX.
I still don't know if Conan is going to get the ratings from the core viewers of TBS... but we shall see.

eth0_

Laois_Man wrote: »

How do some people over here know so much about American Chat-Show hosts and their shows?

Yeah, I've seen little bits of O'Brien, Leno and Letterman - and I have found their humour to be typical American humour....very different to ours....and dare I suggest, POSSIBLY far less intelligent (sorry).

I'm not sure why people here like them?

I can see your point about Leno and Letterman, but Conan's show is always entertaining and doesn't feel as rigidly scripted. I'm glad he'll be back on TV soon!

FreudianSlippers

eth0_ wrote: »

I can see your point about Leno and Letterman, but Conan's show is always entertaining and doesn't feel as rigidly scripted. I'm glad he'll be back on TV soon!

Letterman and Leno are just throwbacks to oldschool talk shows. They came up under the likes of Steve Allen and Johnny Carson and it's them who they emulated and still do today.
The thing is that that what the modern audience finds funny has changed a lot. People are more willing to accept subtle humour now and the old one-liners and punchline jokes are really cheesy (as they have always been - that's just what they used to like in the US in the old days).

RichTea

OisinT wrote: »

Letterman and Leno are just throwbacks to oldschool talk shows. They came up under the likes of Steve Allen and Johnny Carson and it's them who they emulated and still do today.
The thing is that that what the modern audience finds funny has changed a lot. People are more willing to accept less subtle humour now and the old one-liners and punchline jokes are really cheesy (as they have always been - that's just what they used to like in the US in the old days).

They are definitely a separate generation. The success of more political shows like Colbert and Stewart are indicative of that (as opposed to Leno's lame and endless Lewinski jokes). Carson actually wasn't such a huge fan of Leno though, Letterman was his choice and would be a more credible modern comedian than Jay.

JONJO THE MISER

grimm2005 wrote: »

Here's hoping one of the digital channels over here will pick it up

You can watch TBS live online.
Ive been doing it for years:D.

grimm2005

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

You can watch TBS live online.
Ive been doing it for years:D.

I know but I don't think i'd be up for staying up till 3 or 4 in the morning to watch Conan on a pixellated stream on my computer!

grimm2005

Conan's first interview since his tv appearance embargo:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6453980n&tag=api

Benny Lava

At least Conan won't have to bite his tongue at all on TBS, unlike on The Tonight Show.

He promised not to clean up his act at all when he left Late Night, but he most certainly did which is understandable considering his time slot and network.

Mr.Nice Guy

He sounded hurt in that interview. I feel he got a tough time but the pay-off was immense and I would have thought he'd be over most of it by now.

grimm2005

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

He sounded hurt in that interview. I feel he got a tough time but the pay-off was immense and I would have thought he'd be over most of it by now.

True, he did get a massive pay off, but by the sounds of it, it was less about the money and more the fact that he'd been kicked off one of the most respected/loved franchises in america. Fox were all ready to pick him up in '04, but he stuck with NBC knowing he'd be on the tonight show in 5 years time. To be kicked off that show after 7 months and worse, to be replaced by the man he was replacing, would have to leave him pretty p!ssed

expectationlost

he got screwed!