Media Training Question #40 – Are You Cuckoo for CoCo?

Nov. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- I may lose a few friends today, but it is what it is.

Last night marked the readmittance of Conan O’Brien to late night talk club, joining David Letterman and Jay Leno, with his recent incarnation on TBS at 11 p.m.  After a year of what was clearly an amazing Public Relations nightmare for NBC, their decision to move Jay Leno back into his old time slot and the way it was handled was examined and dissected by media professionals for weeks. Whether you agreed or not with the decision, the process unfolded and Conan was the odd man out, no pun intended.

The opening of last night’s inaugural program was, well, it was OK.  The video I posted was how he began. Again, it is what it is.  Yeah, it was funny, but just funny.  Not hilarious, to me anyway and that’s my problem with Conan O’Brien, he’s just funny, but not that funny.

I’ll admit it; I don’t get him and never have.  He clearly did not resonate with the late night watchers on NBC as his ratings were historically the worst in that time slot ever.  He was losing audience to local reruns of The Simpsons or Family Guy.  David Letterman was trouncing him without trying.  It was actually sad for him and the Network.

Of course the Leno experiment at 10 p.m. didn’t work either, but that had nothing to do with Conan or anything else but a bad decision by NBC to think that those watching TV at 10 p.m. wanted talk.  They clearly did not.  Having both under contract and knowing that one host was failing and where the other one had succeeded, NBC made a business decision to try and salvage the coveted 11:35 p.m. slot.  It was clear the audience didn’t want Conan and it was clear NBC was screwed financially. They were going to have to pay millions of dollars either way so the decision was made and the results are well known:  Bye Bye Conan.

It ended up being the correct decision for NBC.  Ratings for The Tonight Show instantly rose and all was well in late night land.  

And Conan, seizing an opportunity, made a deal with basic cable channel TBS to bring his brand of humor to their network where the pressure to perform and the ratings don’t have the same importance as they do on the Big Four, if you include Fox who gives that hour to their local affiliates to do with as they please.

Interestingly, the X factor in this is comedian George Lopez who has been performing rather well in the 11 p.m. time slot pulling in a respectable audience.  He has now been moved to midnight and will assuredly lose a large percentage of his audience. But, Lopez had been a professional and has just let what is be what it is.  Smart guy.

Will Conan thrive on TBS?  Honestly it won’t matter.  He will do well enough to pay his salary and that of his staff and that’s all TBS can hope for.  There is no ratings war drama to be played out here and you will never be able to measure Conan against Letterman or Leno, it isn’t going to happen because they are not playing on the same field and that’s where Conan took the safe route and probably smartly so.

Had Fox been able to lure him, and I can promise you they tried, then the real heavy lifting would have started, and the ratings comparisons as well.  Conan knows he is not and never will be in the league of Letterman and Leno, and that is not a reflection of his talent, it’s a reflection of his appeal.  Late night watchers will not watch him in numbers that advertisers covet and never will.  TBS was his only option.

I know Conan took a large pay cut, but he is still making a ridiculous amount of money.  He is also an incredibly intelligent guy and he realized that in order to play at any level he had to take the no risk option, and TBS was the only option, period.

I wish him well and he will find enough audience to hang around as long as he desires.  Not having the pressure of performance he will quickly become just another late night option for viewers, like Family Guy and The Simpsons.  He will also never reach the iconic status that drives the egos of Letterman and Leno, not that he didn’t have that dream, but his failed NBC experiment proved if nothing else that we didn’t see him the way he saw himself.  That can be a tough pill to swallow, but as the opening bit reminded, he has to pay the bills.  Now he can.

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Tony has spent the better part of the past two decades in and around the media. As the host of his own nationally syndicated radio programs for 15 years, Tony has interviewed over 25,000 guests and appeared as a guest on over 800 radio and national television shows. He founded of his own public relations firm and he went on to author two books and became a “go to” authority on a myriad of issues from weight loss to self empowerment; from politics to pop culture. Tony’s list of media training clients number over 2000, many of them well known celebrities and authors. He often works under confidentially agreements and enjoys of the challenge of helping people discover their voice.
Tony is respected and well known for his honesty and willingness to do what it takes to get to a core message. He works tirelessly with his clients and advocates for his clients in finding the most passionate and profound tenets of their message and then giving them the tools to deliver that message.