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ABC Moving Kimmel To Compete Directly With Leno, Letterman

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by BNWriter, Aug 22, 2012.

  1. Bradley Guire

    Bradley Guire Well-Known Member

    Not surprising. ABC has wanted a late night show for years. Didn't Letterman almost go to ABC at one point?

    Anyway, reportedly Letterman's contract is up in 2014. How much longer does he go? I wouldn't miss the guy. I quit watching him a while ago. He's showing his age, and I'm just not connecting anymore. I check out Ferguson from time to time, but I'm not sure his style will play well at 11:30. That's the time for the ho-hum, conventional stuff. 12:30 is the time to do whatever you want.

    Leno will quit Tonight when he's dead.
     
  2. crimsonace

    crimsonace Well-Known Member

    This surprises me only because Nightline has been No. 1 in the 11:30-12:00 time slot when Johnny Carson was the main competition.

    Kimmel might have that appeal, but he's starting out 3rd. However, it's much cheaper to do a talk show than a news program, and ABC must be banking on the fact that Nightline can still carry at 12:30.
     
  3. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    Either Kimmel or Bill Simmons or Adam Carolla mentioned that there were a lot of logistical problems doing the show live-live, as opposed to live to tape. Specifically, the liquor would flow freely to the guests and the studio audience, so you'd get a lot of bad scenes like have to drop the audio as someone in the studio audience got sick. They eventually toned down the booze because they were worried about liability. (For similar reasons, The Man Show crowd was always pretty raucous, even beyond the theme, because they were getting tons of drinks. However, it was less of a problem because it was taped in the middle of the day, and not at night.)
     
  4. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Counting his time at NBC, Letterman has been doing late-night TV for 30 years. That's how long Johnny Carson did The Tonight Show.

    By comparison, Leno's only been hosting TTS for 20 years.
     
  5. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    It just FEELS like he's been there 100 years :D
     
  6. ifilus

    ifilus Well-Known Member

    NBC has a little over a year to decide whether to stick with "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno or make the switch to Jimmy Fallon, the host of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

    Although Leno's contract isn't up until September 2013, ABC's decision to move "Jimmy Kimmel Live" from midnight to 11:35 a.m. starting early next year may have NBC executives thinking about the future. After all, Leno is 62 and his audience isn't getting any younger either...

    The average age of Leno's audience is 58, according to Nielsen, while Fallon's average viewer is 53.


    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-lenofallon-20120822,0,4702541.story
     
  7. Norrin Radd

    Norrin Radd New Member

    [​IMG]

    The Mighty Hetfield has chunks of guys like Chad Kroeger in his stool.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  8. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    On that basis it makes sense, try and get Kimmel established before Letterman and Leno call it quits. I remember when everyone and their brother started launching late-night shows a year or two ahead of Carson's retirement.
     
  9. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    The LA Times have had several good articles on the move. They basically say it's a no-brainer for ABC to move Kimmel up. The article also basically said that Fallon is likely to get the Tonight Show when Leno retires. They think he will have a more broad appeal than Conan did.
     
  10. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

    I can't stand The Tonight Show. I like Letterman and Ferguson. Stewart can be very funny. Kimmell is very good provided Boston Bill hasn't been swallowing his seed all day long.
     
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