TBS???
Looks like he’ll be starting his new show on the network in November. M-F 11pm EST.
Pretty surprising news as it had been reported lately that he was close to a deal w/ Fox. Guess they couldn’t make it work… Or maybe couldn’t get the affiliates on board as it would have eaten into their profitable late fringe programming.
Heh, I was all ready to start a new thread titled “Conan moves to… TBS?” I guess the incredulousness is fairly universal. Kinda sorry I don’t have cable now.
So now Conan is to George Lopez what Jay Leno was to him?
What the hell? This doesn’t make any sense at all. And the executives at Fox must be PISSED.
The first thing I thought when I heard this was that it will be a shame if the Indians make the playoffs (that would be baseball, y’all)…because I remember the last time we were in the playoffs and the games were on TBS they rammed Frank Caliendo down our throats the entire series.
Since Conan would be premiering right after the playoffs, his mug is going to piss off a lot of baseball fans. I hope the Tribe is in the playoffs and I also hope that it doesn’t make me hate Conan.
I wonder if it is because he will get more freedom on basic cable, althogh TBS is fairyl family friendly, isn’t it?
I guess they’re family friendly by default with their endless sitcoms and baseball games.
The TBS deal came about just in the last week or so as a result of any potential deal with Fox falling through. Fox could not justify the hit the syndicates would take by replacing sitcom reruns with Conan.
I read in a story elsewhere (sorry no link) that Lopez actually called Conan to convince him, after Conan originally rejected taking Lopez’s time slot for exactly the reason you give. I imagine Lopez is expecting a bump from having Conan as the lead in.
So I’ll buy that, although a cynic might point out that this could all be manufactured to make Conan and Lopez look good.
Yeah wonder how often Conan will be prempted by baseball games?
I don’t have cable, haven’t for years. But I didn’t watch Conan anyway, although I appreciated him as a comedian.
Poor George got the shaft and had to make room for a bigger star. It’s sort of ironic isn’t it? That’s how tv works.
My reaction when I heard the news: 
It’s pretty sad for Conan. To go from a national broadcast audience to TBS is a huge step down. This is like Beckham going to Galaxy a few years ago. Neither has the power to lift a small brand.
Maybe he should have waited for the situation at Fox to become more favorable, even if it meant more months off the air?
What could possibly change at Fox in the next few months?
The affiliates said that reruns of old sitcoms would give them more revenue. That’s the only reason to put a show on the air. You don’t do it because a bunch of internet fanboys like someone. If Conan could being in revenue he’d still have his old job.
What this move says is that Conan’s real-world value is slightly higher than a ShamWow infomercial. Reality 1, Internet 0.
I like him and I’m a little surprised about this news, but I can’t find a way to be sad about it. He just got a contract for a new TV show and he’ll be paid handsomely for it. It’s not like he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and then had to hock his Emmys to buy medicine. He’ll be fine. Maybe he’ll enjoy the looseness of cable and possibly work his way back to a network show in time.
I think Conan is making a big mistake. He’s already done the late night talk show gig.
This would have been a great chance for Conan to do something new. Jerry Seinfeld and Garry Shandling were smart and made the move from stand up.
Conan should have tried a series too.
I think it’s not as simple as that, e.g. the affiliates already “bought” the time slots for the next year or so and have sold the ads for the syndicated shows. So, changing to Conan would mean, I think, Fox giving money to the affiliates to get out of whatever contracts they had. From a NYT article, it seems that Fox could promise something like 70% of affiliates on day 1 and 100% in three years.
I’m not sure if you’re referring to me as a fanboy, but I don’t really like Conan that much, almost never watched him or any of the other guys, and in general I think the late-night talk show format is very stale. Someone needs to come up with a new formula for these types of shows (instead of making them more “edgy” by having stupider and stupider skits and gags)
What I’m sad about is not me the viewer, but about Conan the person. (Even though it’s hard to feel sad about someone making millions, in life there are more important things than money, one of them being pride)
Not necessarily. NPR has an interesting take and they point out that cable really isn’t the step down that it used to be.
I think Conan is going to have a lot more creative freedom because he will own the show, something NBC would never have done. He won’t have the pressure to bring in huge numbers, so he’s free to be a weirdo. His main competition will be The Daily Show and Colbert. I usually only watch the first 15 minutes of TDS anyway, so I’m happy to flip over to Conan.
I like how respectfully TBS and George Lopez have handled it too. What a difference from NBC.
Three years is not a few months. It’s an eternity in television time. There have been plenty of examples of shows that started without full clearance. They’ve all failed.
No, a general comment. I got so tired of the incredibly stupid internet lemming pile-on. Conan failed because he failed and because the people clamoring for him never bothered to watch him in the first place.
He’s been doing it for almost 20 years. Clearly at this point it’s his chosen career.
I don’t see the comparison here. Seinfeld and Shandling went from standup gigs to doing sitcoms. That’s the standard life cycle of the N. American comicus Standupus. Many years later, Jerry Seinfeld is doing a reality show. Conan never did standup and he’s never been an actor. He was a writer and then he became a talk show host. So now (after a short tour) he’s hosting another talk show. I can’t imagine anyone believing him as an actor and he’s never really done it. Why start now?
I’ll buy it. It’s good for George’s floundering ratings. Conan will start a half hour before all the other late night shows, so he’ll get a jump on them. And TBS is going on about how it’s all about the funny now. Well, I think Conan is pretty funny. Makes sense.