I guess I should comment on the whole late night talk show situation as it is one of the few interesting things going on in the pop cultural landscape at the moment. I’ll start off by saying that I really don’t watch the talk shows and I certainly don’t watch them live. Being on the East Coast an 11:30 start time is just too damn late for me. That is really sad but it is just the case. The only show I tend to watch is The Daily Show and even that I watch the rerun of the next day.
Basically NBC screwed up things so royally that one would almost believe that they did it intentionally in a New Coke sort of way. There is really no other way to explain it. In a nutshell, around five years ago when Conan O’Brien was up for a contract renewal he had it written in that he would become the host of the Tonight Show in five years without really anyone informing Jay Leno of this. Surprisingly, Jay Leno spent the next five years upping his game and getting to the point where he was actually momentarily funny. When the date came NBC decided to not buy Conan out of his contract, force Leno off the show but give him his own prime time, five nights a week show. This may go down as one of the worst ideas in television history.
It really isn’t Leno’s fault. I’m not a fan but he was drawing big numbers in the Tonight Show slot and can do the formula in his sleep. The problem is there is no need for a prime time talk show. We have all been trained to have those shows on after the news. By having two on with the news sandwiched in between all you are doing is cannibalizing your own viewers. Your stealing guests and eyeballs and taking original programming on the air and replace it with monologue jokes that will essentially be repeated ninety minutes later. NBC thought that it would save money by doing this but all they were doing was setting up a ratings nightmare.
This brings us to where we are now. They are cancelling Leno’s prime time show and replacing it with about three dozen Law and Order franchises. With Leno under contract NBC was going to give him a 30 minute show before Conan and the Tonight Show. Conan rightfully called bullshit (and is right in claiming that it would ruin the Tonight Show brand) and decided to quit and take his ball elsewhere. Leno will end up back as host of the Tonight Show while Letterman is happy that no one is no longer paying attention to the fact that he slept with half his staff. Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon both have shows for reasons that are inexplicable. Craig Ferguson just happens to be really funny so he escapes unscathed.
I side with Conan on this. He is basically being screwed in the entire deal and did not have a chance to make the show his own. From the very beginning he had this huge Leno shadow hanging over him and now it was going to be made even worse. I hope he gets his chance on another network to have his show, his way.
5th Best Album of the Decade: Josh Ritter “The Animal Years” (2006): I first found out about Josh as he performed as the opening act for The Frames. I don’t know if I had even heard of him before then and if I did it was just as one of about three dozen musicians named Josh. But after one set I was sold that this guy was going to be huge. Everyone compares him to Dylan and Springsteen and for once I don’t consider that to be hyperbole. All you have to do is listen to his lyrics and you know why people make those statements.
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