I know that the controversy surrounding the departure of O'brien from NBC is old news, but there was a reason he was moved from the Tonight Show and Leno returned. He's not funny and he was floundering as the host of an NBC staple for late night television. Had there been no stirred controversy, Conan would have either been returned to his own successful late night slot which had also begun to lose ground before his move to the king of late night shows the Tonight Show to the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. It is also true that none of these guys are Johnny Carson. The point is how do these people become so famous?
Okay so why this rant? This won't be the last about much ado reporting. The fact is the whole scandal about Conan's loss of the Tonight Show and the involvement of Letterman into it was much ado. Like Brent Musburger's going gaga, the entire thing was way, way out of proportion. I don't know any of these folks. I have followed David Letterman since I was a kid and he had a short lived daytime talk show. I personally think he is still upset that he didn't get the job on the Tonight Show and Leno did. But that is ancient history and HBO has even made a movie of it. Does Dave really not like Jay? I don't know, and what is more, I don't care. Conan took the job from Leno after Leno made a really stupid deal involving an attempt at a primetime show and that he would move from the Tonight Show slot. Leno's show floundered, but so did Conan's. Why? Because he is really not that funny and NBC made a horrendous error in taking the top rated host, Jay Leno, out of the time slot. Had Leno not wanted the show back, Letterman would have quietly taken over the domination of late night television except for the fact that all of them were being out done in the ratings by Nightline.
And so Conan went to another network and did exactly what was done to him to another talk show host. Didn't hear much about that though because there were not two titanic-sized television personalities involved and I am not referring to Conan O'brien. He has near zero power, and his new network was counting on the over-hyped scandal to draw viewers hoping that enough would stay afterwards to keep the show alive. Has any one wondered what happened to George Lopez whose time slot Team Coco took? It was quietly canceled.
This is the nature of the business. If you do not succeed you will be canceled or replaced. O'Brien knows this. Letterman knows this. Leno knows this. Lopez knows this. In fact, the entire entertainment industry knows this, including the press that made this much ado. By the way, Craig Ferguson decided to stay out of the fray and do no jokes about the supposed battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment