The latest on Conan, Leno and NBC (1 Viewer)

[Edwin-S]

Oprah must be Leno's biggest fan, because she sure spends a lot of time defending him. It was almost enough to make me want to puke. I am no big fan of Conan O'Brian, but I found Leno disingenuous when he made it sound like affiliates were complaining about Conan's rating drop instead of his show bombing in prime time, resulting in their late night news programs getting creamed in the ratings. Leno didn't even have the grace to admit that his show was the affiliates sore spot. He just tried to lay the whole thing at O'Brian's feet and make it sound like he is the White Knight riding to the rescue. Sad.

 

[Hanson]

Oprah routinely does not challenge guests and allows to say anything they want. For example, The Secret. Total claptrap. And yet a best seller in no small part due to the authors being allowed free reign to spout their nonsense.

 

[Mike Frezon]

As interested as I am in the late night situation, it's not enough to get me to watch Oprah.

 

[Steve_Pannell]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon /forum/thread/296775/the-latest-on-conan-leno-and-nbc/420#post_3655086

 

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by Brent M

Leno did absolutely NOTHING in that interview to change my opinion of him. He certainly didn't come off as contrite or apologetic and I don't think he helped himself in any way. I was shocked and utterly delighted to hear that 96% of the people that voted in Oprah's poll were on Conan's side.

Apologetic? He doesn't have anything to apologize for.

 

[Brent M]

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood




Apologetic? He doesn't have anything to apologize for.

Please stop trying to argue about this with me. It's obvious we'll never agree on this topic so let's just leave it at that. You're obviously in Leno's corner and I'm on Conan's side so nothing more needs to be said.

 

[Edwin-S]

So when does Leno resume his "Tonight Show" duties? And what does NBC do if Leno's ratings drop when all of Conan O'Brien's fans tune out and a good chunk of Leno's former audience don't return after getting used to watching Letterman? I used to watch Leno off and on. After watching his response and actions during this fiasco, I would probably watch Letterman or O'Brien more often. I don't think I could ever watch Leno again and not continually see him as a backstabbeing opportunist: whether he really deserves that moniker or not.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S

So when does Leno resume his "Tonight Show" duties?

March 1.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by Brent M



Please stop trying to argue about this with me.

Not arguing, just stating facts.

 

[Arild]

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

Not arguing, just stating facts.

Are you for real?

 

[TonyD]

He is just baiting you guys, why keep responding.

 

[Diallo B]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S

So when does Leno resume his "Tonight Show" duties? And what does NBC do if Leno's ratings drop when all of Conan O'Brien's fans tune out and a good chunk of Leno's former audience don't return after getting used to watching Letterman? I used to watch Leno off and on. After watching his response and actions during this fiasco, I would probably watch Letterman or O'Brien more often. I don't think I could ever watch Leno again and not continually see him as a backstabbeing opportunist: whether he really deserves that moniker or not.

well the tonight show under conan lost half of its audience. if leno does worse than that then lol.

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by TravisR




well the tonight show under conan lost half of its audience. if leno does worse than that then lol.

Well, as I understand it O'Brien was beating Letterman in the important 18-49 demographic. Being number one is meaningless if the majority of your viewers are falling outside of that important spending demographic. Older people tend to spend less as they have pretty well acquired a lot of the major goods that younger people are still in the process of getting; however, that may not necessarily hold true for "baby boomers" since they are more addicted to spending than their parents were.

Either way, any network executive that didn't expect a ratings drop when a new host took over was in la-la land. At the start of a new regime, I would expect a quite a drop in in viewership, followed by an extended period of rebuilding as new viewers discovered the show. Seven months hardly seems like enough time for that rebuilding process to take place. How long did it take Leno to recover the lost viewership that occurred when he took over from Carson?

 

[Brandon Conway]

And the focus on Leno returning in the Fall certainly didn't help the new Tonight Show's chances. They gave people little reason to warm up to O'Brien.

But that's water under the bridge at this point. I would hope that those naive young people on Team Coco that never watched his Tonight Show will tune in for his new show, but ultimately it only really matters if they have a Nielson box.

 

[Brent M]

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood /forum/thread/296775/the-latest-on-conan-leno-and-nbc/420#post_3655975

 

[Hanson]

If he truly has dementia, he'll deny it.

 

[Brent M]

Or blame it on Conan.

 

[Diallo B]

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway



But that's water under the bridge at this point. I would hope that those naive young people on Team Coco that never watched his Tonight Show will tune in for his new show, but ultimately it only really matters if they have a Nielson box.

this mirrors my thoughts. if there were this many team coco fans why were they not watching. because according to all of the anecdotal evidence in this thread there are more team coco fans than leno fans. and they are younger and hipper to boot!!!

oh, i forgot. they dvr and watch online, etc.....

 

[Edwin-S]

Originally Posted by Diallo B

oh, i forgot. they dvr and watch online, etc.....

Is that so hard to believe? A lot of people in the 18 - 35 bracket are highly mobile and travel light. I, personally, worked with a fellow that fell in that demo and most of his viewing was via his laptop. I'm definitely not in the 18 - 35 bracket and even I don't have any satellite or cable connection. I cancelled my TV subscription over a year ago. If something interests me enough to watch it, I'll look it up on the net and watch it online.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Edwin-S

Is that so hard to believe?

I don't think it's hard to believe but advertisers don't care about people who aren't seeing their commercials.