Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Conan O'Brien: Will he be replaced by guest hosts?

TVMoJoe just Twittered that NBC may be looking for guest hosts for "The Tonight Show," though earlier reports indicated that Conan will indeed be taping a new episode to be broadcast tonight. Perhaps if Conan "goes rogue" and continues to burn his bridges with the network, NBC will yank him off rather than endure another month of O'Brien barbs before the Olympics begin airing.

In any event, the ratings for tonight's show should be sensational. The scheduled guests, not that anyone will be tuning in to see them, are Tom Brokaw, Zachary Levi and Rosanne Cash.

Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that there is nothing in Conan's contract that prevents NBC from moving "Tonight" to 12:05. "Talks between O'Brien and NBC are ongoing, with the two sides debating whether the network is voiding his contract by moving the show," wrote Company Town blogger Joe Flint. "Unfortunately for O'Brien, during negotiations for his original deal to host 'The Tonight Show' his management apparently forgot to get it in writing that the show's time slot would always start at 11:35 p.m."

Not surprisingly, the Internet has spoken and they're on Team Conan. According to the New York Times, "Twitter’s search engine shows thousands of results for the hash tag #teamconan, from users taking Mr. O’Brien’s side in the public standoff. The opposing hashtag #teamjay has had only a handful of mentions."

3 comments :

  1. Keonyn said...

    NBC never ceases to amaze me. They can't keep a prime time line-up to save their lives. They dump all their good shows, and they screw up all the ones they keep. Then they blow it with this show for Jay, and in an attempt to save face they start playing musical shows and, pissing off the other hosts in the line up and the fans.

    Frankly, I don't blame Conan in the least for all this, if I was getting screwed by the network like this I'd be making a stink over it too. This type of thing doesn't surprise me from NBC, I lost respect for that network long ago.

  2. Anonymous said...

    The ratings were NOT sensational. Letterman beat Conan again, by the same margin as usual. The tribe has spoken.

  3. Talk Show News said...

    Actually, Conan's ratings were up in the Coveted Demographic, according to TV by the Numbers:
    "Last night’s Tonight Show saw nearly a 42% gain in adults 18-49 versus Monday night’s show. Conan’s 1.7 adults 18-49 rating in local People Meter markets dominated the .9 18-49 rating for David Letterman’s Late Show. On Monday, Tonight Show averaged a 1.2 18-49 rating in those same local people meter markets."