A message from Conan O'Brien (He's leaving!)

[rubberdinghy]

That freebird was EPIC!

Will Farrell could make a career solely playing the cowbell...

[ollie]

[bouche]

there were many great moments in one of the greatest final shows ever. I thought that his speech was incredible. I loved his "be kind and amazing things will happen" advice. And damn, that freebird was incredible. We saw a side of Conan that was very special. Rocking and smiling on guitar. awesome!

[Booche]

I loved his "be kind and amazing things will happen" advice.

Sheeeesh. That was a plug for another NBC show.

When are you people going to think for yourselves?

[rubberdinghy]

Who's the broad Ferrell was making out with?

[ollie]

Apparently that's his wife.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/01/22/2010-01-22_will_ferrell_and_wife_viveca_paulin_perform_freebird_with_conan_obrien_on_last_t.html

[ollie]

[Kanada Kev]

Total CLASS ACT!!

Much respect for Conan. Talk about taking the high road and not letting the pettiness that has been the last couple of weeks overshadow his long and fantastic career with NBC.

Leno's a fuckwad

[localcrew]

Freebird was good but it needed MORE COWBELL BABY!

[bouche]

Will Farrell's wife is Linda McCartney?

[SaggyBalls]

Is that like saying that Will plays drums for the Chili Peppers?

[ollie]

Is that like saying that Will plays drums for the Chili Peppers?

:thumbup:

[zero]

I'm glad someone else commented on the resemblence I've found that hilarious for years and always figured if I met him randomly I'd freak out about meeting Chad Smith. I'm sure he's gotten that before but if you stuck the landing you might get a smile out of him.

[Cosmic ChrisC]

I'm glad someone else commented on the resemblence I've found that hilarious for years and always figured if I met him randomly I'd freak out about meeting Chad Smith. I'm sure he's gotten that before but if you stuck the landing you might get a smile out of him.

You've probably seen this before, right? Check out Chad's t-shirt.

6TT19cB0NTM&feature=player_embedded

[phishtaper]

Will Farrell could make a career solely playing the cowbell...

true, but he would starve.

robin williams was hilarious the night before. he should have been the final guest. farrell was just an actor pretending to be a singer. it wasn't very good.

[zero]

I know this one is dead in the ground but one thing hasn't been said beyond the spike in the ratings that Conan experienced in his home stretch. That is that with the fan support, campaigns, jubilation, hanging over every monologue- unexpectedly NBC managed (by way of damaging controversy) to make TV back into one thing 'Must See'.

Nowadays the object of satellite radio shows, TV gossip shows, tweets, TV appearances is to 'go viral'. Going viral seems to be the application of a 'click through' and potentially 'conversion' model of media metrics over typically audited readership, listenership or viewership. However there is no way, it is literally impossible to imbue an internet broadcast or re-broadcast with the immediacy, thrill or rush of a live broadcast.

The Super Bowl, the World Series, the insipid Stanley Cup, 60 Minutes, even a new episode of 30 Rock - it's just not quite the same without the sense that a global audience is gathering with you albeit remotely. I guess it's an extension of Faith Popcorn's dated notion of Cocooning:

Cocooning is the act of insulating or hiding oneself from the normal social environment, which may be perceived as distracting, unfriendly, dangerous, or otherwise unwelcome, at least for the present. Technology has made cocooning easier than ever before. The telephone and the Internet are inventions that made possible a kind of socialized cocooning in which one can live in physical isolation while maintaining contact with others through telecommunication.

I'm not sure what else can be said on this point accept that with all of the predictions of the death of the network broadcast model of advertising revenues there are glaring examples where the medium truly is the message.

[zero]

This article from today's NYTimes business section makes a subtler point of essentially where were the younger viewers when he needed them and the overall challenges of gathering those demographics around televisions during late night.

O'Brien Undone By Media Hopping Fans

But to NBC’s surprise and disappointment, Mr. O’Brien fell behind his predecessor, Jay Leno, even among those 18-to-34 viewers, the group expected to be his core constituency. (From his start in June through the end of 2009, Mr. O’Brien averaged 716,000 viewers in that age group, down from the 759,000 Mr. Leno averaged the previous six months.)

Several television researchers said in interviews that this outcome might have been easily predicted, not because Mr. O’Brien does not appeal to younger viewers — he clearly does, as evidenced by the large numbers he attracted for his closing shows — but because regularly assembling those young adult viewers in significant numbers in the late-night hours has become a daunting, if not impossible, task.

“The 18-to-34 group is so difficult to attract and the lower half, 18 to 25, is the hardest of all,†said Jack MacKenzie, the president of the millennial strategy program for the research firm Frank N. Magid Associates.

Compounding the problem, said a senior research executive for another company, was the fact that Mr. O’Brien was especially appealing to young men. “And that group doesn’t watch television very regularly,†said the executive, who asked not to be named because his business competes with NBC.

[Booche]

My favorite part of the final episode came immediately following on Jimmy Fallon when he and the Roots payed tribute to Conan by doing a musical number and visiting his old studio.

Neil Young thanking Conan for all he's done for new music was my second favorite.

[Kanada Kev]

TV is not fair

[Kanada Kev]

Conan is going to TBS

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/12/conan-obrien-sign-with-tb_n_534222.html

[Esau.]

I like Conan and all, but TBS (Peachtree) seems like an odd spot for him to end up. They edit/censor so much I can't imagine what'll be like, he'd probably have an edgier show with Disney.

[Kanada Kev]

TBS promo:

Conan does "I Will Survive" at his first stage/theater show:

"Conan has returned. For months, we've been teased with Conan tweets, Cheetos, and billboards. But yesterday was a big day for the real deal. First, the TBS news. And then, the opening night of his live tour.

According The Comic's Comic, the show kicked off with appearances by Andy Richter, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and Masturbating Bear, who has been rechristened "Self-Pleasuring Bear" to avoid a sticky situation with NBC over intellectual property.

Here's a clip of Conan fronting his band for a rousing rendition of "I Will Survive." Fitting song selection. No sign of Max Weinberg, but La Bamba's definitely in tow. "

[zero]

I went to bed thinking Congrats Conan- you're still at 12:00 only on cable and instead of having Jay Leno as your lead-in you've got George Lopez, who is almost to Latino Comedy what Rick Sanchez is to Latino Broadcasting. Christ. Or Hey-sus I should say.

I looked at the mechanics of the deal a bit closer though and they're going to launch him in November due to their baseball coverage and after his non-compete lapses in September. Conan was down about 2 million viewers a night from Leno and Leno is above his old numbers I believe but still skewing 10 years older. I don't think it's the Lopez thing at all as much as, and this comes in part from Bill Carter (NYTimes TV critic and the most astute Conan watcher) who said a few minutes ago on CNN that cable makes sense to Conan because he can appeal to his core audience and 'be a weird and wild and crazy as he can be'. Effectively that Conan's efforts to translate his humour to Jay's Tonight Show (notably not Carson's Tonight Show or The Tonight Show) were in fact a failure and here he can play to his strengths. Plus he retains ownership, plus they got the budget they wanted and needed (likely to retain the bulk of their staff, or what they can, particularly those that made the move or have tenure). The fact that the deal came together in 90 hours is telling as well, and that the executive optimistically said he could see it holding together for the next decade (it'd be very interesting to no the renewal dates on the contract).

"Hopefully, this will be something that lasts for the next decade," said Koonin.

The deal happened quickly, so there was no discussion about how many staff O'Brien could keep.

"In the 90 hours we had to do this, we didn't get into that," Koonin said. He declined to reveal the budget for the show. "They told us what they needed to make the show, and we said, `Let's go make the show.'"

If you want a musical analogy it's almost like Jay Bennett leaving Wilco and going back to playing theatres except Conan's not a self-involved prickly character with limited skill sets- he could very easily write screenplays or produce major motion pictures, write and produce network or more likely HBO features, even (don't laugh) dramatic acting. He's a creature of late night though and much like Letterman years before him he's cutting a deal where he retains ownership and you can bet he has an eye towards long term syndication.

[Kanada Kev]

And in other late night news:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/13/kevin-eubanks-leaving-ton_0_n_535071.html

"After 18 years of playing America into commercials, I'm gonna go somewhere where I can finish a song," Eubanks said when Leno asked what he planned to do first.

[Basher]

zero, Conan will be on at 11 and Lopez at 12.