New Thoughts Regarding The Shakeup at NBC's Entertainment Department

NBC's Tonight Show Blunder. It is such a cultural non-iconic thing, that is all you have to say now. But there are a couple of massively over-looked points even within the trades. They play a stronger role to one degree or another because of the way NBC marketed their 2 series.

1.) Demographical Shifts.

When Conan got the job in 1993 to replace David Letterman, no one knew who he was. Late Night was then, as it is now an audience comprised mostly of viewers 30+. He was beaten nightly by Tom Snyder, when he arrived in 1995. And it wasn't until Tom Snyder retired 3 years later that Conan's younger audience hit the right age-range(my age group).

When Craig Kilbourn, and later Craig Ferguson were on CBS they couldn't gain any foothold. That is because their lead-in, Letterman is a totally different demo and ideally they would be following Conan rather than Dave, Ferguson started gaining traction shortly before Conan left for the Tonight Show and is currently punishing Jimmy Fallon.

By putting Conan on the Tonight Show that is anointing him to a place that the market that he didn't belong. David Letterman wasn't Conan's rival, or contemporary even. Those are Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel(who single-handedly took 2/3 of The Tonight Show's Ratings), Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert. And the biggest viewers of that 11:35 slot are the 35-55 Female Demo. (45+ Male)

By putting Fallon in that slot NBC gave up on its bread and butter and tried the best of both worlds. It of course failed.

2.) His product just wasn't as good on The Tonight Show.

Ever restrained Conan produced segments and bits that felt watered down. As if someone from Standards and Practices stood behind him at every turn. Jimmy Kimmel during that same stretch put together some of the sharpest strongest comedy of his 7-year-show, and earned more fans. And after the debacle he finds himself in second-place with help from the number one lead in Nightline. The Tonight Show should never be behind Jimmy Kimmel, but maybe it speaks to quality that it is. Letterman over that stretch had his own personal issues and grew as a comedian from them, while Conan and Leno made pot-shots and turned off viewers(Kimmel, Stewart and Colbert never made one joke).

3.) The Marketing. And Conan's Late Night Audience.

The marketing of The Tonight Show, pitching it to the same audience as did the originating Tonight Show with Leno. If we have established that Conan works well with a younger audience than why are we doing this? Did they rework his approach? Somewhat, but they lessened his skits for sure. At the end of the day, watered down Conan died, and as a result, his audience that killed at 12:35 wasn't DVRing his Tonight Show. If his show had ratings, the ratings Leno was pulling in that spot even with the disastrous lead-in... NBC would have never thought of this.

Then they marched in Anger when NBC wanted to undo what they did do, as if the fans who didn't watch the show had any input at that point.

So what now? Well, whenever Leno comes back on The Tonight Show after the Olympics he is going to try to cut into the public perception that he stole someone's job. In this economy, that is a rough sell. Inside of 18 months The Tonight Show which was on for nearly 50 years will be cancelled as a result of NBC's poor planning. There isn't a way he can cross that divide and then add onto that, Conan on Fox, Jimmy doing as well as he is...

The only question one has looking at this mess is, what personally damaging photos does Jeff Zucker have to be retaining his job. Inside of this past decade NBC was the #1 Network and he has single-handedly overseen its destruction. It has gone from Must See TV- to Fox in the late 1980's.... Pathetic really....

On a related note, Southland, which NBC cancelled because it had no room for(Comedy 10PM every weeknight, Splendid!) is doing VERY well on TNT. 2.1 Mil in it's first week, 3Mil in its second, and onward and upward.