13/01/2010
MUST READ: Late Shift 2 Breakdown and Analysis
I watch Conan several times a week, but I get your point. My question is, do you know anyone who’s watched an entire episode of either of Jay’s shows?
Even if you have watched Jay, have you ever watched two in a month? 6 in year? I can honestly say in the 19 years he’s had a full-time gig, I can never recall watching Jay for more than a few minutes. He’s is virtually incapable of holding my attention.
I know the pat answer is old people like him, but the old people I know don’t like him at all and have never watched him. Even my parents vaguely talk about some of their lamest friends who they “think” watch Jay. I think the reality might be that he has an extremely fragmented audience that crosses demographic lines. These are people who like being able to complete the punchline of inane jokes before the host can get them out of his mouth. It’s not about comedy, it’s about feeling smart because you can anticipate the “answer” to every setup — it’s the intellectual equivalent to watching Jeopardy on high school week. If you can’t figure out the answer, you probably aren’t a junior high graduate like the contestants.
My overall conclusion is less that Conan failed (which in this compressed time frame, he clearly has) and more that the late night talk show format is in serious decline, edging towards complete irrelevance and likely in need of a serious re-boot or a reason ignite interest against a TV landscape with thousands of other choices after 11pm.
This situation is edging closer (let’s make sure to include Dave and Jimmy here too) to the Tonight Show conundrum of the late ‘80’s where a stagnating Carson began inexplicably losing viewers to an upstart Arsenio Hall.
This ignited the networks to action that culminated in failures of massive proportion (Chevy Chase), the successes of Leno and Letterman and the quiet development of Conan.
The form needs a kick in the ass and it’ll probably take more than moving Conan to Fox.
Of course, Grambo would be the only one speaking the truth. I want Conan to be the uncompromising martyr who normal people just don’t understand. But I didn’t watch the new tonight show. I didn’t. neither did you.
How Conan O’Brien Went From “King Of Late Night” To Network Outcast In Less Than Seven Months
Text posted at 10:10
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