Sunday, January 10, 2010
NBC ending Leno's nightly prime-time show
It's obvious Letterman enjoys being "king." Dave's been very spry the past few months (the affair revelations actually helped), & it carries over to Craig Ferguson. Although Craig built his audience based on being the low budget #2 in his slot.
Leno's making money for NBC, but he's driving away viewers & advertisers for local newscasts.
It didn't take long to figure out what went wrong with Conan. His sound stage set lacks intimacy. The old Tonight Show set was like a nightclub. The Ed Sullivan is a Broadway theater with a history in a neighborhood with an identity. Ferguson's set feels like a broom closet - the desk is rolled out of the way to put a band on stage. But Conan's house band looks like it's at the other end of a football field. Andy Richter, talented enough to have his own talk show, assumed the role of resident sycophant. Conan's egotistical, self-referential talk show host humor - kept in check by the squashed confines of 30 Rock & the cheap-looking prop gags - expanded to fill the new space. He became, or thought he had become, a Universal Studio "star." The transformation was premature. I didn't like Conan's Late Show broadcasts from large theaters in Chicago & San Francisco, which predicted what he's doing now with The Tonight Show. From the time Conan was announced as the new TS host, I thought there would be problems.
NBC blew it with its most profitable property. Neither Leno nor O'Brien are "victims." The only one getting screwed is maybe Jimmy Fallon. But Fallon doesn't even attempt to reach an older demographic. Conan could invent a late night show for Fox better than one he has now.
It's obvious Letterman enjoys being "king." Dave's been very spry the past few months (the affair revelations actually helped), & it carries over to Craig Ferguson. Although Craig built his audience based on being the low budget #2 in his slot.
Leno's making money for NBC, but he's driving away viewers & advertisers for local newscasts.
It didn't take long to figure out what went wrong with Conan. His sound stage set lacks intimacy. The old Tonight Show set was like a nightclub. The Ed Sullivan is a Broadway theater with a history in a neighborhood with an identity. Ferguson's set feels like a broom closet - the desk is rolled out of the way to put a band on stage. But Conan's house band looks like it's at the other end of a football field. Andy Richter, talented enough to have his own talk show, assumed the role of resident sycophant. Conan's egotistical, self-referential talk show host humor - kept in check by the squashed confines of 30 Rock & the cheap-looking prop gags - expanded to fill the new space. He became, or thought he had become, a Universal Studio "star." The transformation was premature. I didn't like Conan's Late Show broadcasts from large theaters in Chicago & San Francisco, which predicted what he's doing now with The Tonight Show. From the time Conan was announced as the new TS host, I thought there would be problems.
NBC blew it with its most profitable property. Neither Leno nor O'Brien are "victims." The only one getting screwed is maybe Jimmy Fallon. But Fallon doesn't even attempt to reach an older demographic. Conan could invent a late night show for Fox better than one he has now.
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
I have never liked Jay Leno. I don't find him funny, his stand up routines are lame, and he has never had the panache that Carson had. On the other hand, I started watching Dave Letterman back in the 1980's when he was on late night.
I thought it was a given that when Johnny retired, Dave would take his place. That NBC went with Leno, and even more surprising, that Leno beat Dave in the ratings continuously, surprised me.
There will never, ever, be anyone that was a master at the talk show as Johnny was, but I still will watch (when I have the occasion to watch) Letterman over Leno.
Conan is a boob, and it's no wonder his show failed. And putting Leno on at prime time, hell, even I knew he was going to suck at it. No one is going to watch that egotistical megalomaniac five times a week, prime time, when there are shows such as CSI (pick a city) and all those other cable 10:00 p.m. shows available for viewing.
I watched Johnny religiously since I was a teenager in the 1970's until his last show, with Bette Midler singing to him. Late night has never been the same since he retired.
I thought it was a given that when Johnny retired, Dave would take his place. That NBC went with Leno, and even more surprising, that Leno beat Dave in the ratings continuously, surprised me.
There will never, ever, be anyone that was a master at the talk show as Johnny was, but I still will watch (when I have the occasion to watch) Letterman over Leno.
Conan is a boob, and it's no wonder his show failed. And putting Leno on at prime time, hell, even I knew he was going to suck at it. No one is going to watch that egotistical megalomaniac five times a week, prime time, when there are shows such as CSI (pick a city) and all those other cable 10:00 p.m. shows available for viewing.
I watched Johnny religiously since I was a teenager in the 1970's until his last show, with Bette Midler singing to him. Late night has never been the same since he retired.
I rarely watched Carson beyond the monologue. My main gripe is that all except Letterman short circuit interviews by rushing jokes just as the guest is about to say something interesting. Ferguson, a fine interviewer when he wants to be (if he has, say, Desmond Tutu), frequently throws away good guests with forced, jokey digressions. Since Letterman owns his own show, when he has a serious guest he just says, "I'm an ignorant boob so I'm asking serious questions."
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