Pee Wee explains the fight between NBC and Conan

[rissababynta]

http://www.fancast.com/blogs/2010/tv-news/pee-wee-herman-explains-conan-obriens-fracas/

[tenni]

Damn
They took the video of it down!!!!

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

LOL Jeff Dunham's Peanut and Walter should have gotten up there and explained it. They would have done a hell of alot better, and funnier..lol
Cat

[rissababynta]

Damn
They took the video of it down!!!!

Crap, I watched it, like, 30 seconds before I posted it too haha.

[Realist]

Now, there's a guy that kids loved, but got his ass in one of the biggest rail-roading I've seen in years!

A friend's kids were very upset when his show was pulled. He was basically assassinated!

I was out of the country, at the time, and only got second hand info, but someone must have had a vendetta against Pee Wee.

I'm sure he wasn't the first one to masturbate in that theater...nor the last!

As for Conan, yes he got screwed, but I don't think Leno had anything to do with the decisions, though. Personally, I can't stay awake long enough to watch either of them!

[Samalina]

I had no problem watching the video. That was pretty funny! Pee Wee looks like he hasn't even aged a day...

[12voltman59]

The link worked fine for me--I had seen that when it first aired--it was funny---I am gonna kinda miss Conan---I hope he gets a show on another network soon.

[**Peg**]

Until this happened I hadn't seen Letterman in years so I made a point of watching him right around the time this all exploded and I was mightily disappointed. So I watched another 2-3 nights in a row....and remained disappointed. He used to be able to make me laugh to the point where I'd lose my breath; not so any more.

I also watched Conan cause I'd never heard of him until he took over the TonightShow. My first reaction was, and remains today that his mind works in mysterious ways... but he didn't make me laugh. (Unlike _JOE_ , whose mind is usually... well OUT THERE to say the least... he makes me PMSL sometimes). Anyhoo, "they" say that Conan's prime demographic is the 18-49 age group and yet he couldn't hold them even beyond the first week.

The fact that Conan's show lost 47% of the (previous) Tonight Show viewers seems to be lost on people (a fact which Jay was too polite to point out on "Oprah" yesterday). Fact is, NBC would never have shifted the hosts around if Conan had kept all of Jay's regular viewers, nor if Jay's numbers had been better.

http://tinyurl.com/yzapxyd

Jay was #1 on the Tonight Show before this and I believe he might very well be back to #1 in the ratings again.

In re-reading this prior to posting, another thing struck me as to why my preference is for Jay is the fact that the "co-hosts" on both Letterman and Conans' shows left me cold. Kevin Eubanks, on Jays' show.... well... he leaves me "warm" :tong:

JMO :2cents:

[rissababynta]

Peg, I doubt anyone could compare to Joe...

[allbimyself]

He can't get a show on another network until Sept at the earliest, part of the settlement.

I've been reading a lot of comments on stories about this on CNN. People really are clueless. Their opinions obviously colored by their preference for one personality or another. Many blame Leno for the fiasco. Unfortunately, facts don't support that opinion. Most of the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Conan with a big healthy portion going to NBC. In 2004, Conan's contract was up and a new one being negotiated. He was considering offers to go to another network that would allow him to air at the 11:35 time slot. NBC didn't want to lose him, so they approached Leno about retiring in 2009 so that they could say to Conan, "stay here and we'll give you The Tonight Show in 2009." Leno agreed, Conan agreed. Life went on. Keep in mind that for as long as Leno has hosted The Tonight Show, NBC led the ratings over Letterman and everyone else.

In 2009 this played out, however, Leno was still under contract to NBC. NBC wanted to try the prime time talk show. In actuality, this wasn't a bad idea from their viewpoint. They didn't expect stellar ratings but still made as much money as a higher rated show because production costs were much lower than a scripted drama that would traditionally hold the 10PM slot. The mistake was not considering the uproar this would cause among affiliates that were losing share without a stronger ratings generating show on before the late local news.

In the meantime, with Conan hosting, for the first time ever The Tonight Show was no longer the number one show in the 1135 slot. Conan was not delivering, and as we all know, if you don't do your job you can lose it.

NBC thought that maybe they could make everyone happy. By going back to scripted dramas at 10, they could make the affiliates happy and by putting Leno in a half hour slot at 1135 they could get back the ratings lead from Letterman and give a better lead in to Conan at 1205, improving his ratings as well.

Not a bad idea, except Conan didn't want to move to midnight. Oops.

Now, NBC still had a problem. They could fix the affiliates concerns but they would still be suffering 2nd or maybe 3rd place at 1135, something that hadn't happened in over 40 years. Leno was still under contract and wouldn't be doing anything. He had a proven record of being #1 at 1135. So, do you buy out the contract of the better performer or do you buy out the contract of the under performer? Not a hard decision.

If Conan had maintained NBC's dominance at 1135, he'd still have a job. NBC's mistakes were made in making a decision 5 years in advance when no one could really know what the consequences might be and not having a better place to put Leno when he left Tonight.

Most want to blame Leno, saying he forced Conan out and didn't want to honor his commitment to leave. In fact he did honor his commitment and was happy at 10. He performed as expected at 10, but Conan did not. When the affiliates forced the cancellation of Leno, he agreed willingly to go to a half hour show. But Conan refused that. Left with two hosts and one show, NBC opted for the one that had proven he could deliver more viewers. If Conan had held number 1, he would still be there and NBC would still be trying to figure out what to do with Leno.

[rissababynta]

I love you to death allbi, but this time, I liked pee wees version just a tad bit better;)

[allbimyself]

I love you to death allbi, but this time, I liked pee wees version just a tad bit better;)

OK, I'll try to remember to speak in an annoying voice and use props next time.;)

[rissababynta]

OK, I'll try to remember to speak in an annoying voice and use props next time.;)

Now you're getting it:bigrin:

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Oh Allbi, please dont do that!!! (Unless you're with Rissa) cuz I'd Really hate to have to boob bop you out of that chair...lol
Cat

[12voltman59]

I had actually liked Conan more on his later show than his stint on "The Tonight Show."

His comedy was a bit more "out there" and edgy---I especially loved the thing he did with the static pictures of celebs and politicians with the moving lips up on a big TV screen, going off on all kinds of things--especially the way they did "AHHHHNold" and back when Dole was running for president--I don't even remember what the hell year that was----they had "Dole" going off on some tangent about when he remembered "Quaxicoatal" or some Mayan God like that--it was sidesplitting crazy funny--the guy doing the voice just went way off the wall--maybe even off script because Conan was like "where did that come from??"

It was probably one of the funniest things I had ever seen on television before or since!!

Since Carson left "The Tonight Show"--I had become a big fan of Arsennio Hall when he did his show back in the 90s. I haven't really watched late night "talk/enertainment" shows all that much since Arsennio went off the air and the earlier days of Conan.

Letterman used to be funny---these days he is pretty much just another old, cranky white guy! (who obviously can't keep his hands off the young, nubile members of his staff!!)

[allbimyself]

Another thing to consider. One of the reasons NBC wanted 5 years ago to hold on to Conan was that they considered it necessary to get younger to establish and hold on to an aging demographic. The problem is that younger people were NOT watching Leno or Letterman, they were already watching Stewart and Colbert. All they did was chase away the audience Leno already had.

[allbimyself]

Oh Allbi, please dont do that!!! (Unless you're with Rissa) cuz I'd Really hate to have to boob bop you out of that chair...lol
CatI have no idea wtf you are talking about.