As I’ve written before, I’m a long time fan of late night TV. I learned as much from watching Johnny Carson as I did watching MacNeil/Lehrer on PBS. In seventh grade Letterman started his Late Show and I don’t think I missed an episode in the first five years.
Now NBC has announced the Leno prime time show failure will end and he will go back to the 10:35 slot. Conan issued a classy letter to the people of earth explaining why he would not take the half hour demotion.
Dave seems to have returned to true form in his commentary on this matter:
As I said, I basically grew up watching Dave. His deadpan joke a minute into this clip is the Dave I came to know, love and attempt to emulate.
While this war is in its infancy it is already easy to spot the winners and losers. The clear winner is Dave. The NBC debacle clearly helps him and it seems to have given him a new energy. The other winner is Conan. His defiant letter is a rallying cry for his fans... now whether that will lead NBC to play nice and let him go off to Fox is unclear. Good politics says they should, but NBC has proven time and again that ego weighs more than logic. I wish Conan luck.
There are two large losers in this fight: 1. Leno. He never wanted to leave The Tonight Show. Now he's got it back but has successfully alienated a chunk of his audience. 2. NBC. Affiliates are very angry that Leno's prime time show killed their news programs by being a bad lead-in. Tack on the pissed-off Conan fans and it's quite hard to see how NBC could have played this all out any worse than they did.
This is the same network that went from first to fourth in the network ratings in four short years. Unbelievably, the top management has remained intact.
Where did I go wrong that I never landed a multi-million dollar job to run a network? No matter how hard I tried I couldn't have screwed up NBC this badly.
I just recently discovered your blog and absolutely love it! I'm an Iowa native (living in DC these days) and love hearing your thoughts on these different issues/ideas. I hope you keep up the good work and the clever language.
ReplyDeleteThough to comment specifically on this post... I don't think Leno is anywhere near the comedian that Conan is. I don't watch late night tv much but Conan has impressed me every time I've seen him over the years. This whole situation is just silly.
Personally, I find no humor in Leno OR Conan. I just do not think they are funny. Now Letterman, even when he isn't funny....is funny. He knows how to climb out of a hole when a joke (or guest) tanks. Conan should go back to writing for comedians. He can put the humor on paper but cannot deliver it. And Leno is going to have to hustle to catch Letterman this time.
ReplyDeleteP.S. And with all due respect, Steve, you're no Dave Letterman.
ReplyDeleteP.S. And with all due respect, Steve, you're no Dave Letterman.
ReplyDeleteThen I guess it's a good thing I never claimed to be.
ReplyDeleteHello Andrew. Welcome. Feel free to comment away... I like comments.
ReplyDelete