Early this morning I received dozens of emails, Facebook notifications, and Twitter @-replies about my beloved Conan O’Brien. I’m not sure how the other half lives (the non-Conan obsessed) so if you aren’t signed up for a scary number of newsletters documenting O’Brien’s every move, let it be known: a decision has been made.
Despite incessant rumors since before “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” even went off air to an update even this morning, O’Brien will not be moving to FOX late night.
He WILL, however, make his return to late night television in November, with basic cable channel TBS.
So, what does this mean? Well first of all it means TBS is finally going to be good for something other than syndicated reruns when there’s nothing else on TV.
It also means that O’Brien’s 11:00pm show will bump George Lopez’s show to midnight. Now I know you might be saying, “Well wait a minute, that doesn’t sound so nice…” and my natural CoCo defense instincts would make me say “Shut up, shut your mouth, Conan can do no wrong and this still doesn’t make him any less of a person, like a certain someone, rhymes with Shmay Shmeno.” And then you’d narrow your eyes a bit, unconvinced, and I’d resort to my second defense, a swift kick to the shins.
But in all seriousness, O’Brien’s show bumping Lopez to midnight may actually help Lopez. Let’s take a quick poll: who is watching George Lopez’s late night show? No one.
In the television programming business, there is a scheduling tactic called lead-ins, in which a stronger show will air before a less popular show in the hopes that viewers will continue to watch what is on after their show of choice. O’Brien’s loyal followers may in fact boost Lopez’s ratings. Lopez himself stated his excitement with the new lineup: “I can’t think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as my lead-in. It’s the beginning of a new era in late-night comedy.”
See? Everybody’s hunky-dory.
O’Brien’s switch from broadcast to basic cable is also quite significant. On the downside, he will no longer be competing with the big boys of late-night television (Leno, Letterman, Kimmel, etc), and his fellow basic cable competition will be Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Many viewers are fans of all three and may have to make a choice.
He’ll also lose a whole chunk of late-night broadcast viewers and those without pay cable channels.
However, being on basic cable as opposed to network television will allow O’Brien’s style and sense of humor to be let out of the box a whole lot more. There had been complaints when O’Brien moved to “The Tonight Show” claiming he had toned it down a bit since “Late Night” in order to appeal to an older crowd. With the massive amounts of Team CoCo supporters sure to be following O’Brien to his new home, I’m sure TBS will be more than happy to let O’Brien do whatever he so desires.
Tonight is also the first night of his live tour, “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.” So congratulations Conan, it’s been quite an exciting day for you!
This article is awesome. the end.