Fox: Conan would be a "great fit"
The New York Times and many other sources are reporting that if Conan O'Brien walks away from NBC, he may eventually be fielding an offer from Fox. "We’ve always been interested in late night and we’re always looking to bring great new talent to Fox," an anonymous source at the network told the Times' Bill Carter. "While Conan would be a great fit for Fox, he’s still under contract with NBC, so we’ll just see how all of this plays out."
Of course, one potential problem is that Fox doesn't currently program the 11 PM time slot, which means it (and all the lucrative advertising revenue) belongs to local stations. Here in the San Francisco area, our local Fox affiliate shows "Seinfeld" reruns at 11 -- and, I would suspect, probably does pretty well with them.
Also, as the Los Angeles Times' Company Town blog points out, Fox parent company NewsCorp might not be interested in paying big bucks for O'Brien. "It's true the network made a run at Conan six years ago (a move that led NBC to anoint Conan as Jay Leno's eventual successor, which led NBC to put Leno in prime time, which led to the mess NBC currently finds itself in), but the company may have different priorities now."
3 comments :
This is ridiculous. Conan, Fallon, and Carson are all getting screwed because of Jay Leno? What the hell, just take Leno off of TV if his show sucks that much, apparently not many people will care to see it go. Why does NBC feel the absolute need to keep Leno? Uhg, this sucks. I almost wouldn't mind Conan telling NBC off and quiting, and moving somewhere else, where he's appreciated.
I think the theory is that if NBC can only get back to the way things were -- Leno at 11:30, Conan following -- they can return to the glory days of, uh, a year ago, when NBC dominated late night and Jay beat Dave handily in the ratings. My personal perspective is that at this point, Leno is damaged goods and Conan seems like he's been hung up to dry by NBC. The network can't snap its fingers and return to the way things were.
I totally agree with Shane. Its like NBC was/still-is so hell bent on keeping Leno for some reason that eludes me. They tried him at 10pm. Didnt work. MOVE ON! Say goodbye to him once and for all damnit!
Santiago
Post a Comment