Less than one year from "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien"

I do not doubt Nightline's days are numbered. But is the late-night arms race a battle worth continuing to fight for the networks?

The demographic that grew up watching Carson is sound asleep by 11:30. The generation that followed also watched Carson in his later years and is still watching, but us Gen-XYZers are either a) TiVoing the late shows, b) getting our bedtime comedy elsewhere (like Comedy Central); or c) still out partying.

 

Tying together this thread with the one below it as I type:

"Comedy ain't funny anymore! Instead of time-tested jokes about women drivers and doctor bills, you've got some big-chinned schlub reading typos from the Palookaville Post! Well here's a headline for you: NOBODY CARES!"--Krusty the Clown

 

I like Conan's late-night goofiness. I'm hoping he continues his schtick at the new time and doesn't have to change too much.

 

Two questions...
1) Will Andy Richter come back to Conan to be his sidekick on the Tonight Show?(remember he was there the first few seasons Conan was in his current timeslot, left for his own TV show which bombed and I don't recall anything he's done since)

2) Will NBC continue give Max Weinberg the freedom to tour with Springsteen or will they tell Max you can't tour with Bruce anymore the Tonight Show is more important?

 

My grandma's told me repeatedly she's going to have to get her "news" elsewhere once Conan switches into Leno's time slot.

"I tried, Mike. I really did. But I can't stand that guy and his stupid, little dances."

 

The only thing that will be missed ... "Headlines" is the best segment on late-night TV.

Leno's monologue is hit-and-miss. But once Headlines (or his roving reporter stuff) is over, the clicker goes to Letterman.

Jimmy Fallon will be unwatchable.

 

I get the feeling the only reason they went to Fallon to replace Conan is because he's been an NBC shill and they're hoping he can promote the network brand.
If they were going that route, they should've given the winner of Last Comic Standing the Late Night gig.
Fallon's horribly unfunny -- I don't see how anything between now and 2009 is going to change that.
Then I hope they let Conan be Conan on the Tonight Show. When he tones downs his act, everyone loses.

 

Fallon's gonna be doing a bunch of webcasts to test-run his show.

Jay Leno sucks harder than the love child of Linda Lovelace and an Oreck vacuum cleaner.

 

The eight-pound Oreck?

 

He's already changed.

Since mid-April or so, and I'm someone who watches very closely, the show has been completely different, and I'm not even talking about the extended first act bits.

The tone has changed, much more to the middle of the road, some of the quirkiness has been dumped in favor of go-to bits that offer belly laughs and little else ("NBC has decided to a made-for-TV movie on it, and we think Cindy McCain looks a little like ..."), there's less band, more repeat bits (Brian McCann in front of the green screen, etc), and the show hasn't been nearly as good.

I'm a big, big fan, and have put up with some bad, bad nights. But I've gone a week without watching the show, and haven't cared much. I haven't been able to say that I've done that since 1993, and outside of the rough summer of 2000 (when Richter leaving had O'Brien acting borderline unwatchable as he grew used to being on the stage by himself for the first two acts), this has been a low point. Early years included.

 

If I'm Leno, I do something totally different after leaving the Tonight show.
I doubt ABC would dump Nightline which is doing pretty well and mess with the Kimmell show which seems to finally have found its niche.
CNN was rumored to be pitching Leno, who could host a personality driven show, somewhat similar to Fox's Red Eye, incorporating his man on the street and headlines stuff.

 

Jay Leno will do whatever the money tells him to do.

Sure, he turned down a chance to do the US Top Gear, but that's about as high as his moral tone goes.

The jokes about him shilling for Doritos or doing a buddy cop movie with Pat Morita still hold, because you can see that ideal in every monologue, every "hey, America, you're stupid!" Jaywalking-segment, and every smirking lascivious non-joke he throws into those "interviews."