Conan signs with... TBS?

[Doug]

Oh, the subject matter is pretty offensive on his stand up show.  I doubt I'd feel comfortable watching it with my in-laws, but Michelle and I were laughing so loud we woke up the kids.

[Juliana]

You know, I was thinking that he couldn't be that bad, because he's done a bunch of movies, right?  Like "oh, no, he was really funny in that one movie...."
Wrong.  Was he really just a sand up comedian?  He hasn't done much of anything. I think I was getting him mixed up with Paul Rodriguiz (sorry Paul).  I mean, I've seen a few episodes of the George Lopez show, and parts of it are funny, but overall, I'd say that it's not funny.

[Nate]

On second thought, I think it's almost guaranteed Conan's show will be a smash.

[Kwyjibo]

Was he really just a sand up comedian? 

Yup, and he has been for like 30 years he just started getting traction in the last 10 or so.

[Doug]

I'm just catching up with some DVRed episodes of Conan.  All I have to say so far is I love the show and Julie Bowen's legs...Jeeebus!



I like the line, "Thanks for not wearing any pants."

[Butter]

Conan got about 1.4 million 18-49 year olds for his Thursday night show last week.  Leno and Letterman average somewhere just below 2 million.

If he can keep that up, he will be a huge hit for TBS.  Sure, he won't approach the same ratings he had on Tonight, but lucky for him, his threshold for success is a lot lower at TBS.

[Doug]

That's cool.  I would love nothing better than to see him beat Leno in the ratings.

[Nate]

I think if he got a million, TBS would be happy.  They have no identity outside of Family Guy reruns.

I was listening to a podcast with an interview by the guy who wrote the recent book about the late-night debacle between Jay and Conan.  Some really interesting stuff, there.  Basically, whomever is advising Conan has done a shit-tastic job.  In 2004, FOX wanted him to do a late-night show.  Rather than providing a great alternative to Jay and Letterman (and getting $21 million a year), he stuck it out with NBC for $8.5 and the promise he'd get the Tonight Show in 2009.  At the time, Conan was the hottest thing going, but by 2009, his ratings had slipped (Craig Ferguson was beating him a lot of nights) and Jay was still #1.  So, that's where the problem started.  If he had gone to FOX and when Jay decided to retire, he could have come back to NBC and the Tonight Show then.

Can we all admit now Conan's Tonight Show was terrible?  He changed who he was, and it didn't work.  I can see why NBC wanted to drop him, and hey, seven months on the air in this television economy was probably enough time to see how he was going to do.  NBC is this close to being a secondary network as it is (rumor has it they'll drop the 10 PM hour altogether in the next year because they can't develop any shows), and the affiliates were going to drop Jay at 10 PM in favor of Cheers reruns or whatever.
Conan should thank NBC in more ways than giving him a show in 1993, though.  If they hadn't decided to keep letting him do the Tonight Show for those three weeks in January after the announcement was made Jay was coming back, there's no Team Coco.  There's no groundswell of Conan being the "victim" in all of this.  Nothing.  He probably doesn't even get the TBS gig.

The second story revolved around his late night contract.  All the late night hosts have in their contracts something called 'Pay for Play.'  It means that the host CANNOT be removed from the late-night slot he or she is in for the length of the contract.  They also get a huge bonus whether or not the contract is violated.  Conan DID NOT have this deal when he signed the Tonight Show contract.  This was the impetus for firing him.  His agent(s) screwed him.

I think the book is called 'The War For Late Night.'  I'm definitely reading it.  It's by the same guy who wrote the Leno-Letterman book in the mid 90s. 

[Doug]

Did anyone see Harrison Ford on last night's show?  That guy makes me feel old.  He and Conan were pretty hilarious but Harrison spent a lot of time looking like he didn't know what was going on.

[foolsgold]

I didn't see the Conan interview, but I thought the same thing when he was on the Daily Show last week.  I wouldn't be surprised to read that he's checking himself into Betty Ford's soon.

And he really needs to lose the earring. 

[Dan]

I didn't see it, but ever since I saw Harrison Ford do an interview with Jon Stewart (like, 8 years ago or something) I felt like Ford wasn't that interesting of a guest. At the time I thought Stewart was one of the best interviewers out there and yet when Ford came on I was bored out of my mind. Soooooo, putting two and two together... maybe Ford was just good at playing someone else, but not good at being himself.

For the record, he didn't seem to know what was going on 8 years ago either.

[Kwyjibo]

He most certainly seemed stoned.