NBC to send Conan packing? WTF?

I think you misspelled "volunteer."

 

Yeah, those Northern Alliance folks were volunteer, all right.

 

dead on Zeke....thats exactly what his point was.

 

Except that at the time Maher made his unbelievably offensive comments, American soldiers were at risk. They were volunteers.

 

BRING BACK ARSENIO HALL!!!!!

 

Kimmel's the best at 11:30, without question, amongst the big three networks.

I fear the inevitable, when Jon and or Conan take that long walk to the 11:30 time slot. The shark will jump b/c of advertisers and their pressures alone.

 

Never understood the love for Conan. I mean, he's alright and definitely funnier than Leno, but most of his stuff is just nonsense. Stay, go -- who gives a shit?

Now, Stewart to NBC is interesting. And if NBC is making the pitch, I'm betting they're offering something that would make Stewart pay attention. I'm guessing a salary and a piece of the show. Plus, he'd still retain ownership of Colbert's program.

CC might recognize that it's got a good thing in Stewart and might be paying him a good deal of money for a cable program, but cable money ain't network money. Never has been, never will be. Perfect example: The Sopranos. After raises, the main players were hauling in around $600k per episode. And Gandolfini had to sue to get that much. The last year of Friends, all six cast members were making at least $1 million per show and they had been making at least $800k per show for the previous three seasons. Hell, they offered Seinfeld $5 million per episode.

Stewart might be getting paid handsomely, but I'm betting there are ways to up his pay and the pay of those around him -- especially the pay of those around him -- and make it very, very attractive to him. If it's a long-term deal, like 10 to 15 years, and an agreement over content and style (one that basically says NBC will leave him the hell alone), that's tough to turn down.

 

Conan rules! That is all.

 

Why the general lack of love here for Leno? He's a working stiff in much the same way a lot of us are -- no pinch-hitters and very little vacation time for him. His monlogues average 11 minutes, which is longer than anyone else, and though a lot of the comedy bits fall flat, Letterman and Conan also bomb fairly regularly.

Leno is running the NBC game plan exactly the way they want (and need) it run. His demographics skew old, but that's only a potential problem in prime time. He owns the older age group in that time slot, which makes a ton of money for the network.

I don't think Letterman changed his act quite enough in the move from 12:30 to 11:30, though he did make some fixes to broaden the audience. I really have trouble imagining Conan making a successful transition to 11:30 with his current schtick -- he won't be bringing a large enough audience of his own, nor will he retain Leno's audience -- and I don't see him succeeding in an effort to go more mainstream.

I rarely watch Jon Stewart, but I think he has a better chance to do well at 11:30 than Conan does.

No matter what, though, NBC screwed by by committing to Conan for 11:30 so soon.

 

Maybe Conan can go back and write for The Simpsons again. I believe he wrote the monorail episode, which is a classic.

 

They were volunteers. Your point? How many American troops besides special ops were involved in ground combat in Afghanistan? Our guys on the ground pretty much made milk and cookies for everyone, and they left the heavy lifting to the bomber pilots and anti-Taliban militias.

Maher's general point wasn't as off-base as the right-wing cabal would lead you to believe.