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Casualties Of The Late Night Wars
Reported by Jay Cochran - 12:11 PM 2010.01.16
 Even if you don’t spend much time watching late night television, it’s been pretty hard to miss the recent controversy surrounding “Tonight Show” current host Conan O’ Brien and previous-soon-to-be-current host Jay Leno. Just in case you did miss it, let me recap.It all started about a year ago when some NBC executive got a bright (or not-so-bright idea as it turns out) idea to move Jay Leno, at the time the host of the “Tonight Show” which consistently placed #1 in the rating for that 11:35 p.m. timeslot over competitors (such as David Letterman on CBS), to the 10 p.m. timeslot. Now the reason for the move (at least from what I have read) was that at the time the country was heading knee-deep into a major recession and ad-revenues were dropping across the board for everyone, and NBC was looking for ways to cut expenses. So instead of investing money to produce expensive prime-time dramas which is what is normally shown by networks in this timeslot, they opted to go with the variety format which is less expensive to produce (to the executives’ credit at least they didn’t try to squeeze in another stupid reality show which also offers savings). Of course moving Leno to 10 p.m. meant they had to replace him on the “Tonight Show”; enter Conan O’Brien who had his own show following Leno’s in the 12:30 a.m. timeslot (a timeslot made famous by David Letterman a decade earlier when NBC passed him over for a promotion to host the “Tonight Show” when Johnny Carson retired). So the deals were done; Leno was going to primetime five nights a week, the “Tonight Show” was moving from New York to Los Angeles, Conan O’Brien would be the next host in a long line of legendary hosts, and the network had found a way to save money so that everyone was happy…..right? Wrong. What happened instead is Leno’s new show under-performed and the “Tonight Show” ratings plummeted under the heel of Conan O’Brien. Local NBC affiliate channels were outraged at losing a strong lead-in for the local news broadcasts, and everything was in turmoil. Which brings us to the events of this week… The NBC executives decide to move Leno back to 11:35, move O’Brien to a 12:05 timeslot (still calling it the “Tonight Show”), and return a drama-themed show back to the 10 p.m. timeslot. So now everyone is happy, right? Wrong! Conan released a statement saying he does not agree to the move and that any such move would destroy the “Tonight Show”. All the late-night show hosts (Letterman, Kimmel, Leno and O’Brien) begin taking pot shots at one another and the NBC executives. NBC executives look like complete morons, and total chaos breaks out. So where does that leave things now? If reports are to be believed, it would seem that Jay Leno will return to the “Tonight Show” at its normal 11:35 timeslot. Conan O’Brien will leave NBC with a boatload of cash (although negotiations are ongoing between O’Brien and the network, current reports point to a settlement in the neighborhood of $30-$40 million) and likely will jump over to another network (Fox being the most likely) in a few months to start a new show that will compete with Leno and Letterman, and NBC will spend far more money than they ever would have if they had just left things alone. On top of that, NBA will need to run an unproven new drama at 10 p.m. and hope Leno doesn’t come away from all of this so damaged that he won’t be able to regain his #1 spot in the ratings at the 11:35 p.m. timeslot. What lessons did this whole fiasco teach us? First, I think it shows that dramas are preferred to variety shows, which seems like something NBC executives should have known before they tried any of this. It also shows how out of touch NBC executives seem to be with their audiences. There is little doubt that O’Brien appeals to a younger crowd of viewers than Leno, but there are far fewer of the younger crowd watching this type of variety show at 11:35 p.m. People that age tend to be single and out on the town or new parents who are exhausted and in bed after a long day of taking care of their young kids. The experience also shows a growing weakness in the variety format for the 11:35 p.m. timeslot. All these shows are the same. A quick comic monologue based on current events to start the show off, followed by celebrities plugging that week’s new movie or TV show. Back in the day, the variety show at 11:35 p.m. was the only source for this type of news. Today, you can get your latest Hollywood news or politician-mocking on the Internet and cable shows like “The Colbert” report and “Jon Stewart”. It seems to me this fiasco might serve as a wake-up call to all the networks about viewer demographics – as the Baby Boomer generation who grew up watching the variety show shrinks moves to an different timeslot, networks may want to start looking at new formats for this type of show instead of simply looking for new hosts. One more lesson we can take away from this week – people still love to watch controversy. I know I found myself tuning in once or twice this week to see what Leno and Conan had to say about all this, and the “Tonight Show” rating for Thursday night scored 1.9 among young adults in the metered markets, which is double its normal performance. I wouldn’t count on this rating holding though. Once the dust settles, people will move on to something else. That’s the problem with young people; we just don’t have long attention spans and are always looking for something new to entertain us. Update: Word is Conan will in fact be leaving NBC, with his last episode on "The Tonight Show" will be January 22, 2010. Though details are scarce on the deal NBC negotiated with Conan, word is the late night host will walk away with $30 million in his pocket. He also apparently is not aloud to speak badly of NBC over this incident and will have some type of no-compete clause in place for several months after he leaves the network. MORE editorials NEWS
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