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Author Topic: Late Night Host Smackdown Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 01-16-2010 03:57 PM                     A friend posted this elsewhere http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/01/15/why-some-comics-arent-laughing-at-jay-leno-essay/  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 01-16-2010 05:32 PM                     Very interesting article. Regarding Leno, I thought he wanted to leave The Tonight Show voluntarily and perhaps even retire. The guy has a fortune, isn't getting any younger, so why not go on a long-ass vacation and enjoy those riches? After all, you can't take a fortune with you once you're dead. I had a "WTF" reaction for NBC's announcement Leno would move to prime time 5 nights a week. That's a huge block of programming being eliminated in favor of an untested talk show concept. When the show turned out not to work it's no wonder many NBC affiliates across the country revolted. The affiliates are the real reason why Leno's prime time experiment has come to a quick end. The ratings of their late local newscasts were getting badly impacted and resulting in decreased ad sales. The lower ratings also impaired the lead ins to Conan's version of The Tonight Show and other NBC late night shows. Local TV stations are already having a tough time, but I think times are going to get even tougher in the years ahead. DVRs have done enormous damage to the traditional model of TV commercial sales. National networks are offering many of their shows online. In the years ahead more may offer HD quality downloads or video streams of their shows. This damages the local TV station's business because you won't see any local ads from that station on those downloads. In this challenging environment any network affiliate has to fight very hard to keep their business. That also means being extremely vocal when the parent network bosses make really stupid, short-sighted decisions.  |  IP: Logged Jonathan M. Crist Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 531 From: Hershey, PA, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-16-2010 06:12 PM                     The real losers here are the Comcast shareholders who now (as owners of NBC) get to pay for the hubris and mistakes of Zucker and other incompetent and overpaid NBC execs.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 01-16-2010 07:05 PM                        quote: Bobby Henderson The only bad thing about Ferguson is he burns up over half the show with his own on camera stuff leaving time for only one guest interview and the other guest stuck in the green room all night. That makes him a winner in my book. The guests are always boring on any talk show. I do think his accent is way too thick, though.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-16-2010 08:48 PM                        NBC just screwed up bigtime five years ago -- they figured Leno would be running on fumes by 2009 and it didn't happen. I suppose Leno thought he'd be ready to do something else by '09 and then that didn't happen either. I think Letterman is a better interviewer than Ferguson or Leno, especially when interviewing a political or news figure. He isn't afraid to ask tough questions and he also asks the questions the 'average joe' would ask. Ferguson is so goofy, he won't let a guest get a word in edgewise sometimes. His solo comedy spots are the best part of his show. As far as comedy, my favorite Letterman guest is when Jack Hanna comes on with the animals. Those segments are every bit as funny as Joan Embery's spots were in the Carson days. As others have noted Leno is just a kissup. The monologue is the best part of his show. Conan will come out OK in all of this. The big loser is going to be Leno, and the "Tonight Show" franchise -- one of the biggest moneymakers in TV history -- will probably wind up going down too.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 01-16-2010 09:41 PM                     quote: Bobby Henderson Regarding Leno, I thought he wanted to leave The Tonight Show voluntarily and perhaps even retire. I remember him making the announcement in 2004. The execs had a meeting telling him essentially "We want you for another 5 years and we want to give Conan the show after that since other stations are wooing him." He added bits about wanting to avoid the hurt/anger with stuff like what happened between him and Dave, but it sounds like it was originally a corporate decision to give the show to Conan.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 01-16-2010 10:54 PM                        That announcement is right here: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6d1caacad1/jay-s-2004-announcement I was always annoyed how whenever they came back from a commercial, Jay would be dancing and bopping around to the (horrible) music like he was super-hip. His band is only marginally better than Letterman's ultimately shitty band. Conan's band is by far the best.  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 01-17-2010 09:42 AM                        "...But I realized, I'm not spending enough time with my cars." Funniest Leno line ever. I HATED Leno's "Tonight Show". I was a regular Carson viewer since about the age of four. Letterman should have gotten the show. Period. I watched Leno initially, but just got angrier and angrier. I watched Letterman on CBS for awhile. And I watched the absolute train wreck that was Conan O' Brien, who delivered some of the most embarrassingly bad television in the history of the business in his first couple of years. It was mind boggling that they kept him on the air. Eventually, I quit watching late night completely. But Conan got better. Good enough to use the leverage of other networks wooing him to force NBC's hand to ask Leno to retire. But Conan wasn't really going anywhere...he absolutely wanted the Tonight Show. Make no mistake about it...Conan started this whole mess. When NBC's hand was forced, my opinion was that NBC should let Conan go. He either wouldn't, or he'd go to another network at 11:35 and fractionalize his and Letterman's audience. Leno's fans don't watch Conan...Leno's fans watch him and "Wheel of Fortune". NBC would be the clear winner. The problem now is...I like Conan's "Tonight Show". He's actually got me watching late night again. And I've become a big Ferguson fan as a direct result. So I guess I wish Leno really would retire and NBC would let Conan's Tonight Show grow. But it's probably best for NBC if they keep Leno, assuming his audience can be trained into the habit of tuning in again.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 01-17-2010 10:30 AM                        Choice of signature theme music for these shows is critical. The music chosen for Leno's recent primetime show is godawful. I've watched the show a few times and I wouldn't be able to hum that song if someone was holding a gun to my head. I hate how Leno high-fives the chosen few in his audience when he takes the stage. That gimmick is very old. Just stop it. Leno's monolog delivery always bugs me because he's so obviously reading cue cards held just below the camera, more obviously so than his competitors. Do not dismiss the possibility that all or at least parts of this controversy were deliberately cooked up by NBC and certain participants to boost ratings.  |  IP: Logged Chad Souder Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 962 From: Waterloo, IA, USA Registered: Feb 2000 posted 01-25-2010 09:29 AM                     quote: Greg Anderson It's not always about who's funniest. Exactly right. Leno has never been funny; not as a stand-up or host or anything. But he's safe. And the writers work with that. His down-to-earth, milk-toast presentation appeals to an older audience. Masturbating bears and insulting dog puppets appeal to a juvenile sense of humor typically found in drunk college boys. That's why Conan didn't get, and would never have got, the ratings. He didn't appeal to a wide enough audience. He was a funnier person than Leno, no doubt about it, but he has a much smaller demographic. quote: Bobby Henderson Fucking Conan O'Brien over and sticking Jay back into the 11:30/10:30CST time slot isn't going to work. What wasn't working was O'Brien as the host of The Tonight Show. Like you said, so many other people don't get his sense of humor. He didn't get screwed, it was just business - and I would love to get screwed with a $40 mil payoff. NBC looks foolish, but you can't fault them completely. Letterman was beating The Tonight Show badly for the first time since the infamous Hugh Grant interview and NBC wasn't pleased. They called up a guy from the minors that couldn't play in the big leagues, so they sent him back down. Happens all the time.  |  IP: Logged Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 01-25-2010 01:00 PM                        How is that any average guy who watches TV could see this coming for years already but the "experts" who actually run the network didn't? And none of the bosses at NBC lost his job. Incredible.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-25-2010 02:40 PM                        quote: Chad Souder Masturbating bears and insulting dog puppets appeal to a juvenile sense of humor typically found in drunk college boys. Yeah, why is it that to be funny to today's youngish audience, something has to be borderline-filthy? What ever happened to "just plain funny?"  |  IP: Logged Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 01-25-2010 02:59 PM                        Exactly! When was the last time you ran a comedy movie that wasn't either A) a "family" movie which only tried to appeal to the 8-year-old-and-under crowd or B) An "edgy" movie which was either "borderline filthy" or full-on filthy? Doesn't anyone know how to be just plain funny without trying to be "shocking"? I seem to recall that Jay Leno was a lot less filthy before his parents died and/or before Lorena Bobbitt and Bill Clinton turned him into a "penis joke machine."  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 01-25-2010 03:32 PM                     It wasn't about who's the better performer, strictly ratings. Leno finished "Tonight" with higher ratings than Letterman and by the end, Conan's ratings were less than half of Letterman and still falling, the affiliates were screaming, something had to change. Conan had the opportunity to prove himself and failed to make it in the big time.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 01-25-2010 04:07 PM                        The affiliates weren't screaming about Conan, they were screaming about Jay's piss-poor (lower than Conan's) ratings. Jay was a shitty lead in. It would be funny to see him get booed on the Tonight Show upon his return.  |  IP: Logged

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