Conan O'Brien Taking Late-Night Show to Basic Cable (TBS)

[Brian Damage]

Conan O'Brien has emerged from the late-night war with Jay Leno at NBC with a new show beginning in November on TBS.

“In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly," O'Brien said in a statement.

On his Twitter page, he joked: "The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November! The bad news: I'll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show."

His new show will air Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m., taking the current slot of George Lopez's show Lopez Tonight, which will then move to midnight

http://www.people.com/people/news/0,,,00.html

[catlover79]

I just read that. I never saw TBS coming. I was sure it was going to be either FOX or Comedy Central. It'll be interesting to see what happens!

[ryan423]

I can't wait!

[Adamantium]

George Lopez was doing his monologue about the Conan/Jay thing thinking he was unaffected by any of that. I love this! I can't stand Lopez, and the evil in me wishes his show would go off altogether, but this is nice too.

Way to go Conan! TV is TV, and he's got the millions for leaving NBC. How much money do ya need really?

[70s show watcher]

its great news

[BillCullen1]

Originally Posted by catlover79

I just read that. I never saw TBS coming. I was sure it was going to be either FOX or Comedy Central. It'll be interesting to see what happens!

I thought the same thing. But hey, Conan will attract viewers, and he will be a good lead in for George Lopez. And TBS is wisely giving him a half-hour head start over Dave and Jay (35 minutes, if you want to be technical).

[TJL]

Originally Posted by catlover79

I just read that. I never saw TBS coming. I was sure it was going to be either FOX or Comedy Central. It'll be interesting to see what happens!

Ditto. TBS must have thrown more money at him.

[MrCleveland]

Looks like Cable is the best way to go.

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by BillCullen1

I thought the same thing. But hey, Conan will attract viewers, and he will be a good lead in for George Lopez. And TBS is wisely giving him a half-hour head start over Dave and Jay (35 minutes, if you want to be technical).

Because they know he can't succeed head to head against them!!!!

[TMC]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...oryid=14&cs= 1

Network ceded latenight time slot to affiliates
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

Fox was ready and willing to make a deal with Conan O'Brien.
The network knew O'Brien repped its best chance to establish a latenight beachhead. Per its deal with affiliates, the network was allowed to take back the 11 p.m. timeslot once it had a late night talker ready to go.

The year was 2004.

But Fox ultimately didn't get a chance to woo O'Brien back then. Instead, NBC convinced the "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" host to stick around for five more years -- with the promise that he'd take over "The Tonight Show" in 2009.

NBC's decision in January to move Jay Leno back to the 11:35 p.m. slot sent O'Brien packing -- and most assumed that his bags would be unloaded at Fox.

But with Fox's inability to make a deal work with O'Brien, who's now destined for TBS, the network appears to have blown its last chance for a late night franchise. The reason had less to do with Fox's desire for O'Brien -- but instead a critical decision by Fox and its stations made it nearly impossible for the network to clear a latenight timeslot.

Unfortunately for Fox Entertainment execs like chairman Peter Rice and president Kevin Reilly, both of whom had high hopes that they might land O'Brien this time around, a lot had changed since 2004.

The key difference came down to a clause that no longer existed in Fox's arrangement with its affiliates.

When Fox abandoned its weekday afternoon Fox Kids Network block in 2001, the network retained the right to take back and program those two hours again -- as long as it informed affiliates six months ahead of time.

It's believed that Fox held a similar deal with affils for late night, or, at the very least, that the net had the ability to trade its right to take back afternoons in exchange for an 11 p.m. show. Under such a deal, Fox could have easily cleared O'Brien across the country.

But at some point during the past five years, in renegotiating its affiliate deals (including new digital revenue sharing provisos), Fox gave up the ability to grab a late night slot back.

Such a concession didn't cause much of a ripple, as there was no indication that a late night show was on the horizon at Fox -- which last programmed the daypart with 1993's disastrous "Chevy Chase Show."

What's more, programs like Fox's "Talkshow with Spike Feresten" and FX's "Orlando Jones Show," once considered potential latenight plays for Fox, went nowhere.

With no such franchise in the offing, Fox's owned stations and affiliates gave late-night commitments to off-net syndicated comedies.

Then suddenly in January O'Brien became available. It's no surprise that Fox came into play as the most logical new home for the host: Not only did the network have no late-night franchise, but it had gone after O'Brien six years before.

Fox sent out plenty of hints that it would be interested in O'Brien, starting with a statement during the height of the January late-night wars. "We've always been interested in late night and we're always looking to bring great new talent to Fox," a network source said at the time. "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."

At the January TV Critics Assn. press tour, Reilly was much more cautious.

"That becomes a very sensitive business discussion," he said. "But with a top piece of talent, that makes it a conversation to have."

Then reality set in. Some Fox execs, unaware that they no longer had the ability to take back 11 p.m., were optimistic that an O'Brien deal might happen -- until they realized an O'Brien show would have to be cleared market-by-market.

Then there was the question of the Fox stations' sitcom commitments. Fox's owned-and-operated outlets, for example, were committed to carry "30 Rock" repeats in the 11 p.m. hour on WNYW New York and KTTV Los Angeles, among others.

In losing local ad time, and perhaps facing a penalty for moving off-net fare out of guaranteed slots, Fox-owned stations could have faced losses of as much as $40 million to $50 million, one observer said.

"In addition, there was an enormous reticence on behalf of the affiliates on their ability to monetize it and the losses they were going to incur," the insider said.

Fox stations also are fairly competitive in late night with their repeats, and might have found it difficult to alter the status quo.

During the first quarter of 2010, Fox outlets averaged a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49 and 3.2 million viewers in the 11 p.m. hour. In comparison, during the month of March, NBC's "Tonight Show" averaged a 1.3 in the demo and 4.9 million viewers at 11:35, while CBS' "Late Show" posted a 1.0 rating with 18-49 and 3.7 million viewers.

One insider noted that station managers, who are generally not in O'Brien's target demo, also weren't clamoring for the host. That older-skewing group of execs might have worked harder to make room for Jay Leno even though Leno wouldn't have been a logical fit for Fox.

Over the past three months, Fox execs kept trying to find different ways to stick a square peg in a round hole -- and it never fit.

"In my mind, it didn't make a lot of sense for Fox," said one rival exec. "From what I understand, the only people at Fox who really wanted to do it were Kevin Reilly and the network people. They were myopically focused on it."

In the end, the decision was going to come down to one person: News Corp. honcho Rupert Murdoch.

"There was one question that mattered," one observer said. "Is Rupert Murdoch going to tell (Fox TV stations toppers) Roger Ailes and Jack Abernethy that all of their stations are going to put Conan on at 11, and they're going to lose a ton of money?"

Murdoch, after all, had shown plenty of willingness in the past to lose money to make a big acquisition (the Wall Street Journal or NFL rights). And if Fox ever wanted to get into the late night game, O'Brien repped the best opportunity. In the long term, he might even have led Fox to No. 1 in the daypart, once the aging Leno and Letterman retired.

With the Fox-owned stations on board, the network would have cleared O'Brien in 40% of the country right off the bat. At least another 20% would have followed, with the remaining 40% a hodgepodge of clearances -- still good enough to get an O'Brien yakker off the ground.

But Murdoch ultimately didn't have a vested interest in the late night game. TBS did, and sealed a deal Friday night to launch an O'Brien show this November.

In the end, Fox -- which launched in 1986 with "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers" -- doesn't appear destined to get back into the late weeknight game.

[catlover79]

This should be interesting!!!

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

Conan O'Brien has emerged from the late-night war with Jay Leno at NBC with a new show beginning in November on TBS.

“In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly," O'Brien said in a statement.

On his Twitter page, he joked: "The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November! The bad news: I'll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show."

His new show will air Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m., taking the current slot of George Lopez's show Lopez Tonight, which will then move to midnight

http://www.people.com/people/news/0,,,00.html

He is still going to fail because 11pm is not a good slot and they just did George Lopz a FAVOR with the 12pm slot

[JamesG]

Conan O'Brien to Host New Talk Show from Historic Soundstage
by Catherine Lawson
posted May 17th 2010


Conan O'Brien is set to host his new late-night TBS talk show from a historic soundstage in Burbank, CA.



According to the Hollywood Reporter, O'Brien will film his show on Stage 15 at the Warner Bros. lot.

Stage 15, which was used to film such classic movies as Golddiggers of 1935, Giant, Ghostbusters and Oceans 12.

It currently houses "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and O'Brien's soon-to-be TBS cohort, "Lopez Tonight".


Jon Gilbert, President of Studio Facilities, said Warner Bros. was "absolutely thrilled" to have Conan onboard.





The new, as yet untitled hour-long talk show debuts in November.

Airing Monday through Thursday nights, it will mark Conan's return to late-night television after he was ousted in January by Jay Leno as the host of "The Tonight Show" after only a few months in the job.




Following a very public falling out with both Leno and NBC, Conan embraced Twitter, grew a beard and embarked on a cross-country comedy tour, pointedly titled "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour", which stops in Minneapolis, Minnesota tomorrow.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/05/17/co...rner-bros-lot/

[JamesG]

New Conan O'Brien Talk Show to Premiere November 8 on TBS
by Andrew Scott
posted May 19th 2010


Conan O'Brien's new late-night talk show will make its official TBS debut on Nov. 8.


The start date was announced today via press release.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/05/19/co...vember-8-2011/