I was just wondering the same thing. I could care less about most of the shows on NBC, but I love’s me some Law & Order. And whatever happened to Medium?
The usual way to set the timer for a program is with a computerized listing. You scroll through the guide, select the program, select to record it (and you can also select to record future episodes). The problem is that, for example, Fox says “House” runs from 8-9 but actually runs until 9:02. But the computer doesn’t know this and so you miss 2 minutes of “House”. (They also do it on the other end with “The Simpsons” frequently.)
As mentioned, you can set the schedule to record a little extra. I add 2 minutes for “House.” But this is a problem if you are also recording something else at 9. (If you have a single tuner, or 2 things at 9 with dual tuners. DVR people luv to record.)
And yes, the networks deliberately do this. They hate DVRs.
Do we know for sure that Conan would move to L.A.?
Yes, Conan is moving to LA next year when he goes to 11:30. I assume NBC wants the show in LA where it has been since Carson moved it there from NY around 1970 and Conan was not given a choice. Jimmy Fallon will replace Conan at 12:30 from NYC.
In case anyone is wondering the networks dislike DVRs because people use them to skip commericials.
Sure, I got that, but will this cost-saving measure force the various dramas to get all pussified (not that they were especially gutsy, but there were moments) because of the earlier timeslot? Will there be a rise in complaints from watchdog groups who see portrayals or descriptions of fictional rapes/murders and wail “think of the children!” Will NBC have to soften its material and increase the gap between itself and HBO? If Leno is a success, will ABC/CBS/Fox abandon serious attempts at 10 p.m. drama and go for cheaper celebrity/reality vehicles? Basically, is this the beginning of the end of adult-oriented major-network fare?
I’ve had DVR for two years. I just switched to another cable company and in so doing found out that it costs just $18 more a month for a DVR, so if you watch a lot of TV you should look into it. I haven’t seen a commercial since Feb 07!
Oh, and Conan’s move to LA and the earlier time slot is going to ruin his show for me. I can just feel it.
A lot of people watch HBO or Showtime for dramas now since they can get away with much more stuff like bad language, nudity and violence. They might tone things down for NBC shows that move to 9 PM but then again they need ratings so they might just keep shows the same.
The piece of the puzzle you’re missing is that Conan was (justifiably) itching for the earlier time slot. It’s not that NBC made an isolated decision that Leno would lose his popularity by now. They decided that by around now, Conan would be ready to jump ship for another network if NBC didn’t offer him the earlier time.
Conan is only 45 to Leno’s 58. I think this decision is brilliant because they keep both and I hate staying up late. But if you had to pick between the two I think it made sense to promise Conan the 11:30 slot if he waited a few years (i.e. until now).
I still don’t get that. I could understand him getting better ratings for one night, but did he pull in enough new viewers (seriously, who the hell EVER cared about Hugh Grant?) who said “wow, I should watch this show EVERY night!” and are still on board?
I haven’t seen him perform myself, but I hear that Leno is awesome at stand up. He also seemed like a really cool guy on the commentary he recorded for the Simpsons episode he was on. However, his late night show is just LACKING. I mean, he STILL does (Bill) Clinton & OJ jokes in 2008.
This deal I really see more as NBC admitting that they can’t continue to provide 3 hours a night of original programming (aside from 30 Rock & The Office, and occasionally an episode of Law & Order…although not so much now that Casey Novak is gone, there isn’t anything I even watch on that network), and this is a good way to kill 2 birds with one stone.
FOX has never done 3 hours of programming a night, but their excuse was that they wanted to corner the 10pm news slot, which actually seems to be working, since they have by far the best nightly news program of the NYC networks. Now it’s going to be a 2 way battle between CBS & ABC (I’m pretty sure the CW does 10pm news too?) about which program can get better ratings at 10pm.
I seem strangely out of sync with current events. I thought Leno had announced he was retiring around 2010 and NBC was desperate to find a suitable replacement, settling on Conan as the only choice available.
I saw Leno do standup live in 1990. He was very , very good. He interacted with the crowd a good bit. He would ask someone in the crowd a question and would make jokes about their answer. This was in a theater with about 2000 people. His act was 100% clean. BTW, I don’t mind R rated comics but some guys go too far and it makes them look dumb when they use too many 4 letter words
What’s wrong with Clinton and OJ jokes? They are both in the news now. It’s not like he is doing Nixon or Carter jokes.
I was thinking the same thing – I’d be nervous about this if I was Conan. It sounds like Leno will be hosting essentially the same show he has now, except that it’ll have a different name and be on earlier (still before Conan). Presumably they’ll be competing for the same guests. That may work out fine when you have an established pecking order (Leno > Conan > Carson Daly), but in this case it may be unclear who is the “top show,” setting up a power struggle.
I assume Leno’s show would still be considered the #1 talk show at NBC unless the ratings are not good. I read somewhere Leno could make up to $50 mil a year from this show compared to around $15 mil he makes now. Conan is not going to make that kid of money, not sure he will even get $10 mil.
That makes some sense - but if they had Leno, why worry so much about losing Conan?
Yeah, there’s that, but I thought the consensus is that Leno’s the “never wants to retire” type. We’ll see. I like Conan, but even if he’s on at 11 I can’t pick him over the Daily Show and Colbert - in fact there’s also a Simpsons rerun at that hour, so we’ll see if I even end up TiVoing him.
My God, that won’t even keep him in freakishly long pants!
11:30. Local news is on between 11-11:30.
You’re probably right, but I think that a decision like that will be hard to justify to Conan. If a power struggle does end up happening, I wouldn’t blame him if he left.
1995 was also the year that Letterman had his completely disastrous gig hosting the Oscars. It was a full-scale debacle (“Oprah…Uma. Uma…Oprah”) with a ton of negative publicity and his ratings plummeted soon afterwards (never to rebound back to the #1 spot).
Talk shows are cheap. Static sets, staff of salaried writers, and the guest do it for scale. Celebrities want to be on to promote there movies or projects.
Conan was appealing to a younger audience, using a theme different from Leno. Leno basically carried over Carson’s show and modified it a bit to his liking. O’Brien is more similar to Letterman and than Leno and those two shows will go head to toe. Fallon may just fall out all together or get replaced.
I think NBC wanted O’Brien in LA as not to compete with Letterman. Now they may let O’Brien stay in NYC
What was the joke on the evening news with Brian Williams? I missed the first part and just saw Leno kind of explaining what was going on. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or what and his hair was totally messed up. At the end of the clip, Williams made some reference to the hair and that was it. What did I miss?