Conan vs. Jay
The late night drama has been pretty exciting lately; in fact it has brought more relevancy to the entire late night market than anything else in recent memory. (Including Dave banging interns, that whole ordeal was entertaining for like five minutes until Tiger Woods increased the amount and whore factor.) The thing is people have been asking the wrong questions and debating the wrong things when it comes to all of this.
We need to make a few things clear first, for arguments sake let me call them established facts. First of all you can put up your team Coco stuff wherever you want; it isn’t going to change anything because all of these so called supporters didn’t actually watch Conan’s show. (Hey I like Conan but I don’t watch either.) Unfunny as he is Leno is going back to 11:30 and Conan is going to be gone. This leaves NBC with two of the least funny people on planet earth in back to back time slots. (My dream of having Jimmy Fallon hit by a taxi cab with Queen Latifah in the back hasn’t happened yet.)
I’ve never liked Leno, I’ve taken some shots at him in this blog in the past. And I think that is the prevailing opinion of anyone that appreciates comedy. Letterman and Conan are considered original thinkers and craftsmen, while Leno is considered a bit stealing hack.
Here are the questions that we should be asking yet nobody is.
Is the traditional talk show model relevant anymore?
I like Conan and Dave but I don’t watch them anymore. I know if anything significant happens I will hear about it the next day online and I will be able to watch it there. I don’t think any traditional late night talk shows are that consistently funny. Personally I choose to watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. If you have noticed both shows continue to get larger and larger guests. In the past these shows weren’t able to book larger name actors, you were only able to watch stars on these traditional talk outlets but this isn’t the case anymore. Has it gotten to the point with the internet, TV on Demand, and the rise of cable programming that these programs no longer matter?
Do you think Letterman has gone back to screwing interns?
With all the controversy do you think Letterman, who has the number one show again, has gone back to banging interns? He is on the top of the world why not roll with it? Did Letterman call up NBC and set this in motion so he could go back to bringing impressionable workers up to his “man cave” and rail the ever living shit out of them? Dave is a genius.
How horrible has NBC become?
I watch the Thursday night shows on NBC and football. Even with the Thursday night lineup I have been consistently disappointed with the Office. (Although Community and Parks and Recreation have been pretty solid.) Other than that I don’t watch a single other show on the network, they are all completely horrible. Wait I TIVO Saturday Night Live so I can fast forward through the entire thing and lament how it is no longer culturally relevant.
Is Jay Leno clueless or does he truly not care?
Leno has played it like him and Conan aren’t fighting NBC and that there is nothing really between them. Which we all know isn’t true. Jimmy Kimmel did his entire show one night last week as Leno, shitting all over him and his bits. Then he appeared on Leno the next night and destroyed Leno right to his face. Leno just played along and I don’t know if he felt like Kimmel was just playfully busting his balls or if he really felt he was shitting all over him.
That is what has driven me nuts about this whole thing. Every single day celebrities and people that have their own shows have just been destroying Leno and he acts like he doesn’t care. Now is it getting to him and he is just acting like it is sliding off his back or does he truly not think people despise him? Or even worse does he not care because he is getting his precious show back?
Does anyone actually like Jay Leno at this point?
Kimmel completely ran over him on the 10 at 10 spot…I couldnt tell if Leno was just trying to press through it once he saw the train coming down the tracks or what?? I think afterward during commercial he went back stage and flipped over a craft service table wasting bowlfuls of Cool Ranch Doritos.
I think Leno is just trying to keep his emotions out of it by hiding behind shitty and predictable humor…his digs at NBC seem like nothing more than pandering. Maybe he’s already afraid he lost his audience and doesn’t need any dark clouds raining on that warehouse full of cars and money, because if after the time switch he is still floundering…egg, meet face.
The sad thing is he will go back in second place behind Dave and within six to eight months be back in first. I want to vomit.
I honestly think Leno doesn’t care. Why should he? He’s probably pulling in more money than any one person can ever spend in a lifetime, and is probably surrounded by people who don’t/won’t tell him the truth.
Moving him to 10pm was a stupid idea and I prayed for his failure from the day it was announced. I’m just sorry it came at Conan’s defense.
You are so right. I love Conan and Letterman but only watch when “something is going on.” When McCain stood up Letterman, we watched every night thereafter just to see him rip on McCain. I will watch if there’s a guest I really want to see, but only if I happen to stay up. Otherwise, I hit up YouTube the next day. That said, there is obviously an audience out there watching faithfully and I’m sure it doesn’t make Conan feel any less screwed over.
I know they are able to track which shows are TiVo’d, watched and even how often certain programs are rewound. I will get a season pass to Conan’s new show just to be spiteful. I hate Jay Leno. He is so not funny.
Letterman and Conan deploy smart humor. Like Colbert and Stewart. Often, you won’t even see the joke coming. Their timing and delivery are spot-on. Leno might as well be telling knock-knock jokes.
Defense = expense.
Everything Leno does seems so formulaic. From headlines to the Jay Walking to the typical (insert sports team) here is bad jokes.
To some extent I think Letterman is kind of the same way but at least he has some bite to it once and awhile.
I support Leno. There was a reason he was chosen over Dave for the Tonight Show. This mess with Conan is why. Dave and Conan are popular with a vocal but smaller part of America. Dave has been doing the same stall act forever (kinda the SNL of talk) and I never thought Conan was funny.
Jay appealed to Ma and Pa kettle, the taregt for that show. He was successful and will most likely be so again. Having said all of that none of this is Leno’s fault in the end.
NBC wouldn’t be doing what they are doing if they thought for a second Conan could pull it off or that Jay wouldn’t be able to put them back on top in the late night talk game.
I hate to say it but I know you are right about Jay’s appeal. It pains me.
Eventually when his audience dies off because of old age NBC might be in trouble with that late night spot.
Exactly. There is obviously a demographic of the country that does stay up and watch nightly and for whatever reason, Leno appeals to that crowd. The crowd that watched (and were young) when it was Carson’s show.
Thankfully, they’ll be dead soon.
once the dust settles one set of cojones will remain standing: chelsea handler. stewart and colbert will share the backup set. i agree conan and letterman are original, but we can watch their original bits the next day online.
I don’t know about that. The “I use to be a slut” bit can only stretch out so far.
talk shows are no longer relevant. i spend more time on the web than i do watching tv for my celeb fix. i laugh more with Funny or Die dot com as opposed to conan and jay’s monologues, or skits. i blog about NBC from time to time. the network has never fully recovered from losing Seinfeld and Friends. yes, the office, parks & rec, and 30 rock are funny, but i prefer CBS’s comedy night on mondays {big bang theory} and The League on Fx. instead of trying to come up with original programming, NBC just recycles old ideas. ever since the writer’s strike, television hasn’t been the same. thank goodness for Mad Men. i am really upset about the previews of NBC’s new show, Parenthood. another recycled program off of one of my favorite movies, Parenthood. it will tank. i think conan is funnier than jay, but that is not saying {writing} much. i liked jimmy on SNL, but don’t watch his show. i am not up that late, so i catch highlights of celebs i like on the web. same goes for conan and jay. i think jay is playing dumb in order to not seem like the “bad guy” in all this drama. i think he has a big part in it. who wants to be a failure? he is a big, fat failure. he should have just retired, and NBC shouldn’t have spent so much money on him when they were laying people off left and right due to the economy. NBC didn’t want to lose Jay to another network. they didn’t have enough confidence in conan to begin with. conan got a contract and moved his entire life to LA. he deserves a fair shot at the show, not just 7 months. the ratings will not return when jay returns. i read that the amount of viewers/ratings when his tonight show ended were the same numbers as his variety show. i think dave will still stay on top, even if conan goes to fox. i wrote too much. sorry. you can just delete this comment. take care.
Delete this comment? No way, it was a great comment thanks for taking the time to write it.
Wait you liked Jimmy on SNL? How is that possible? I wanted to beat him to death every time he mugged at the camera or started laughing with that unfunny fat ass Horatio Sanz.
jimmy had a few good characters that made me laugh. yes, it was annoying that he could never contain his own laughter, but he did have some good sets with other snl castmates. i heard tonight that Conan is getting a $40mil payout for himself and his staff. i think it’s great that everyone will be taken care of. jay is still a jerk. About 4 years ago, i think he said on his show that conan could have his seat, and that he would be 60 and retiring, or something. i think he has gone back on his word and is acting like he is a victim. it will be interesting to see how this all plays out for NBC. i am also curious as to what conan will do next. take care.
I had a sense that Leno’s writers had given Kimmel’s writers the list of questions so they could play that out just as they did.
Other than the Kimmel 10 at 10 thing, I had never watched 10 pm leno. I get my entire fix from the hilarious Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I do occasionally watch Letterman as I think he’s pretty funny.
I don’t know. I mean I wouldn’t be shocked but that was pretty mean spirited. I hope that it wasn’t planned.
The difference between Conan/Letterman and Leno is humility. From day one Conan and Letterman have known how to be a part of their audience. If something doesn’t work, they let you know and you can tell it really bothers them to tell a bad joke; like they’re not just wasting your time but theirs as well. Leno has even tried to steal this but it’s not something you can buy.
Like him or not, Fallon also has that quality.