I am obviously a member of Team Coco, and will watch Conan wherever he goes. But TBS, seriously?
TBS, the Turner Broadcasting System, has had some riveting programming over the years. The Bill Engvall Show, Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Sex and the City, My Name is Earl, Tyler Perry's Meet the Brown's, My Boy's, The Office, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Frank TV, Family Guy, 10 Items or Less, Tyler Perry's Hey I'm a Black Dude-Watch My Show, King of Queens, and Funniest Commercials of the Year. Truly groundbreaking programming. I mean, Seinfeld alone...
Conan's new show will certainly be built to do nothing but succeed (fail) with the lineup on the Turner Broadcasting System. Let's see what a brief description of TBS might look like:
About TBS
TBS, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is television's top-rated comedy network. It serves as home to such original comedy series as My Boys, The Bill Engvall Show, Tyler Perry'sHouse of Payne, Frank TV and 10 Items or Less; hot contemporary comedies like The Office, Sex and the City, Everybody Loves Raymond, Family Guy, King of Queens, Seinfeld and Friends, withMy Name Is Earl joining the line-up in 2008; specials and special events, such as Funniest Commercials of the Year and The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas; blockbuster movies; and hosted movie showcases.
Okay, in all honesty, this isn't a terrible move. FOX would have been a bad move. On TBS, the ratings expectations are probably 1/2 that (maybe 1/4 that) of what the expectations would be on network television. There is certainly less pressure or Conan, and likely more freedom for him to be able to create his own show. I haven't watched much George Lopez (I don't speak spanish, and I can only take so many "Being a Mexican is like..." jokes), but from what I have seen it's quite unwatchable. The crowd was so loud it was a distraction, which made George yell even louder. Again, I really don't care for "Mexicans are like..." jokes.
With the move from Late Night to The Tonight Show, certain critics made a point (unfortunately which is logically valid) that with Conan's lack of success that he sold himself out as a late-night star, essentially proving that he couldn't hold an audience at the more "prime" time slots. Late Night with Conan O'Brien was more of a niche show. Conan had the 18-25 audience wrapped around his finger, something he referenced most of his shows that his primary audience was either drunk, high, or too busy eating to even know that his jokes were tanking (which they weren't). The question is whether Conan can hold a fan base at an earlier hour. Truth: in college I stayed up late. The earliest I had to be anywhere was 8am, and if I could avoid scheduling my semester that way, I would have. I was ALWAYS up until 2am at the earliest. If I'm up until 12:30am now, I'm just fucking up the rest of my week.
Beyond those factors that affect me, there are more options of the similar kind at the earlier hour. You used to be able to watch the Stewart/Colbert Power Hour and move right into the Conan Late Night show with no problem. When Conan moved to the earlier slot, the fan base had to choose. That dilemma is likely to remain. One interesting thing about Conan was that in the final few weeks of his Tonight Show time, his ratings increased by about 50%. I would argue that his fan base was altered around that time. His old fans made sure to check him out, and new viewers temporarily jumped other ships for Conan's. According to my research (which is essentially none, and by essentially, I mean my mother) those viewer's who watched Conan's final weeks and saw him for the first time were pleasantly surprised.
One thing Conan is sure to get at TBS is time. I mean, if George Lopez could last these few months, Conan should be able to phone in the rest of his career there if he wanted to. (Yeah, not a George Lopez fan, sorry) Personally I think the best move for Conan would be to have a primetime show on once a week. The nightly comedy talk show can be tiresome. I watch The Soup (and BuDaChick puts on The Dish) about two times a week, and I still enjoy it. I think Conan would thrive in that kind of situation, and I also think he could do well in primetime.
Any hoo, we'll see how it goes. Go CoCo.
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