Commentary
What Does NBC Tell Its Late-Night Viewers Now?
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 13, 2010
Over seven months ago, it began to tell viewers the long-term view of its late evening schedule would consist of Leno at 10 p.m. and O'Brien at 11:35 p.m. What will NBC now tell its viewers about its late-night schedule?
In a press release, O'Brien says he no longer wants to host NBC's "The Tonight Show" and intends to seek a way to end his contract with the network. Bets are on that should the O'Brien decision stick, Jay Leno will be back as full-time host of "The Tonight Show."
O'Brien doesn't have many choices other than to look for the millions of dollars in penalties his lawyer hopefully made airtight in his contract.
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He has no other deal -- and probably won't have one for a while. It's not as if Fox -- or another network -- can instantly give him a show and quickly take away its TV affiliates' late-night time periods. It doesn't work that way.
As Kevin Reilly, president of Fox Entertainment said, Fox stations already have programming committed from syndicators and other sources for months, if not years. But Reilly also believes O'Brien would be a perfect fit with Fox because he grabs many young viewers -- a demo that's been a hallmark of the Fox brand.
The rub for O'Brien is that NBC affiliates need an immediate solution to their problem -- which, ironically, doesn't really have anything to do with his show, but more with Jay Leno running at 10 p.m. as a lead-in to local TV newscasts.
NBC should have made an easier decision. Instead of looking to hoard talent -- first by extending late night into prime time (with Leno), and more recently by planning to shoehorn three late-night shows into essentially two time slots (including "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) -- it should simply have canceled Leno.
This wasn't because of Leno's ratings, which came in about expected -- but because of the lower than anticipated ratings of local affiliate late newscasts. That was the Leno show's responsibility, not O'Brien's.
NBC's business partners - its affiliates -- want immediate action. Immediate action means weeks - not months (or even a year). The bottom line: All this will probably cost NBC a lot of money -- a bad side effect of Plan B.
Without a big change, NBC will have 200 some-odd little rebellions around the country of its TV affiliates. That's the penalty of making drastic -- some would say crazy --- decision of putting Leno at 10 p.m.
Without a move, there might be mass preemptions - and not just in Boston, where a year ago, the rebel station NBC station affiliate threatened to pre-empt "Jay Leno" in prime time.
NBC has messed around with late-night talent before -- most times badly. In the early '90s the network had a deal with David Letterman to take over "The Tonight Show" -- but only after a brief, supposedly temporary run for Leno as host. Letterman rejected this.
From a historical perspective, Letterman didn't want to be the next "Tonight" host following Leno's stint, but to be the direct descendent of Johnny Carson. Even more important, Letterman (and others) believed NBC was hedging its bets -- if Leno was successful, the network would still have Letterman doing his "Late Night" show. Hoarding talent, again.
Now you don't have to wonder why Carson announced his retirement -- on stage at the upfronts in the early '90s -- without giving NBC executives any notice. He had control and used it.
O'Brien is not going quietly -- but he doesn't have the same clout.
In the age of giant media companies, with business dramatically changing in ever quicker intervals, talent rarely has the upper hand. But viewers do. They are quick to forget, and always looking for the next thing.
TV marketers can try and change viewer perception -- but it has become increasingly harder. Their biggest problem isn't how to construct a message or how to place media on their own airwaves or though paid efforts (radio, outdoor, or digital, for example). Instead, they need to handle the growing digital buzz that can wildly swing positive or negative sentiment over entertainment properties.
NBC has its work cut out for it -- not just finding the right combination of late-night programs and talent, but making savvy marketing explanations to its viewers.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
What Does NBC Tell Its Late-Night Viewers Now?
How about - Leno's 10pm rehash of old Tonight Show shtick sucked and Conan is annoying? Does that work for everybody?
What late-night viewers?
Obviously, the decision makers of this fiasco did not do their job. They had power, title, vast fortunes with no knowledge of how the company works from within. How many people saw this curtain drop before it happened? Another case of the Emperor has no clothes.
Jay comes close, but no one has the talent like Carson. This was a bad move on the part of NBC. I wonder if NBC checked with ther network of stations before making a move like this. Now that Conan doesn't want to move from the time he's on now, what does NBC programing plan. It will be interesting to see how they get out of this mess. When you have a media that programs 24/7/365 and an audience that has the ability to switch channels every time a commerical comes on.
The fact that the old days of how the FCC regulated how many commericals could run during the breaks, it seems that a commerical break now is 4 or 5 min or longer and a program can loose an audience very easy. If you have a winner don't change. ( OR IF IT'S NOT BROKEN WHY TRY TO FIX IT.)
Conan didn't say he wouldn't host the Tonight Show anymore, as the article states. He said he wouldn't allow his hosting of the Tonight Show to appear at 12:05. Perhaps its an irrelevant difference at this point, but Conan's not bailing on NBC. They bailed on him. Suck it up, NBC. What's broken is Jay's show, not Conan's.
As you said, viewers have short memories. It's just another scheduling change. Advertisers will adjust, viewers will adjust. The world will continue spinning. Many people already lost the network association after their Tivo arrived, and the time slot as well.
While I don't think it's a huge issue for the audience, NBC should do better handling their talent, however. In the long run, that's where they should be more careful to preserve the assets they have invested in, which can simply walk away under the right conditions.
NBC need simply apologize to Jay for arm-twisting his early retirement six years ago to prevent Conan from jumping ship. Having failed to make a dent in Letterman's audience, he failed anyway and is likely to leave.
While NBC is at it, they could produce a ratings analysis for the last dozen years showing that most people prefer Leno to Letterman, setting aide snarky comments to the contrary. NBC wants the King of Late Night comedy. Not the King of 18-34 men. Not the King of people living in coastal cities. But they want the host who delivers the most viewers. Yes, Dave and Conan are more "hip" but neither can bring viewers to the big tent like Jay Leno.
I remember back when Dan Akyroyd, Chevy Chase, John Belushi and others wanted more money to stay with NBC and SNL. The network refused. I am happy for that decision as it "forced" those stars to do other things. What the heck were they thinking with O'Brien?
I thought the decision NBC made over 5 years ago to placate O'Brien was as STUPID as it gets. If O'Brien really wanted to leave back then, they should have let him. I think it was just a ploy (that worked for him).
The latest decision to move the Leno Show to 11:35pm and The Tonight Show to 12:05am is a VERY GOOD IDEA to resolve the immediate situation. It is too bad Conan has such a big head (with bad hair) that he won't go with the flow.
FWIW, I like Leno at 10. I don't/won't watch scripted dramas and have been able to get to sleep before 11:30 (unless NightLine has a good story on).