Why should Jaywalking depress you when it’s clearly fake?
“Jay Leno is working up to me on the street with a camera crew! And he’s asking me who the President is! If I say Obama he’ll shake my hand and walk away, but if I say something stupid I’ll get on the TeeVee!”
This is a very basic version of what happened, but it’s amazingly accurate. The book “The War For Late Night” tells the whole story about Leno doing everything he could do to force Conan out. He really came across as a child.
Justin-Why do you think “Jaywalking” is fake? I agree that people who answer correctly won’t get on the show, but I doubt people “play dumb”.
Really? While I bet some people answering the Jaywalking questions don’t actually know the answer, I guarantee all the really wacky responses are people playing it up for the camera.
Yes, because negotiating to become the host of a TV show in contradiction to the old host’s wishes is somehow equivalent to beating up on a mentally ill man who is obviously confused about what’s going on.
And, of course, making fun of me while obscuring my username is somehow vital to the topic of this thread. Posts like this are the reason I do what I do. They stop, I stop.
What are you going on about? Leno or Conan is supposed to have beaten up a mentally ill man?
If you have a problem with another poster, take it to the Pit, don’t hijack this thread.
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
Funny how you just sent me an email telling me that it was okay for them to do this to me, but then tell me I can’t do it back to them. I only do back to people what they do to me, which cannot be against the rules.
The poster referenced a post I made in the Pit, and pretended like there was some equivalence to what I said in that thread to what Jay Leno did to Johnny Carson.
The intent was to attack me, so I had to point out how poorly formed the attack was. Twickster notwithstanding, doing so it not against the rules.
Since you’ve started anATMB thread about this, let’s have this conversation there. The topic is not relevant to this thread.
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
I think Leno pokes fun at everyone. Sure, some of the anti-Obama jabs are a bit below the belt, but it’s fucking comedy for goodness sakes. He made fun of Bush, Palin, Cheney, McCain, etc.
Of Letterman, Leno, and Conan, I like Leno best. Letterman’s a bitter old man. He has his funny moments but I always wonder why someone making 10x more than what most of us could ever dream of has such a persecution complex. Much the same for Conan. People didn’t watch his show and ad revenue tanked. If you can’t get viewers, you get canceled- simple as that. If Conan were such a big fucking deal, he’d be on one of the major networks, not TBS.
Sorry to say - George Lopez is Back - on a dating show no less.
George Lopez is actually extremely cool. If a network had carried his show, jaw-bone-of-an-ass would be soaking his hemorrhoids in West Palm and hitting on nurses with stories of his Good Old Days while George had the network TV spot he’s deserved for years.
I don’t care Who hates me; the above is true. May good things & better opportunities come your way, George. fist-bump
That’s an overly-simplistic summary of what happened. Conan’s ratings were fine for the first three months of his Tonight Show. (Not spectacular, but well within expectations, many weeks neck-and-neck with Letterman.) They only tanked after NBC changed the lead-in to the local news from scripted dramas to Jay’s 10pm show. It was the affiliates, who were losing money from their local newscasts, that demanded NBC remove Leno from 10pm. NBC responded with their ill-advised plan to bump the Tonight Show and move Leno to 11:35. When that idea turned out to be problematic, NBC was forced to conclude that one of them must go, and it would be a lot cheaper to buy out Conan’s contract than Jay’s.
So… he couldn’t get ratings on cable, but on a network, he would have done well enough to unseat the guy whose shows leads the ratings?
What leads you to that conclusion?
So what explains Conan’s anemic ratings on his current show?
Why?
On this board, we’ve had more than one thread in which people relate stupid things said by others they have met:
Are these people playing it up for some camera?
If not, why do you imagine that the “Jaywalking” interviewees must be?
Given that when I was in a CATHOLIC high school, one of my classmates honestly asked if the Pope was Jewish (due to his skullcap)…I’m more than willing to believe that most of the fakeness in Jaywalking is picking out the funniest honest answers.
Conan’s got the same problem that Ron Paul has- not many fans, but the ones he has are enthusiastic. If enough people watched the Conan Tonight Show, it would still be on. Most people are quite capable of switching the channel at 11:30 no matter what is on at 10 or 11. He had a chance and he failed to deliver.
I don’t know about anemic. His TBS show is profitable and does excellently among M18-34. It’s also in direct competition with The Daily Show, which appeals to the same demographic.
It’s no Tonight Show, but Conan is in a comfortable spot and will have that job on TBS as long as he wants.
Wasn’t he also losing to Chelsea Handler? In fact, it seems to me I saw something about his having fewer viewers than Chelsea, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert.