

What If Conan Said, ‘Bye, NBC. Hello, Internet’? - physcab
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/what-if-conan-said-goodbye-nbc-hello-internet/?hp

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nir
Then he'd make a tiny fraction of his current income. Isn't that why the NYT
wants to go back to charging readers? I'm surprised they don't suggest he'd do
the show over Twitter.

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mey
Think about most of his show, either skits written but a crew of writers, or
advertising the latest blockbuster movie with some big star. He might be able
to run a monologue online by himself, but I doubt he'd have the cash flow to
support a prop/writing staff, or be widely viewed enough to bring on a-list
celebs during their PR runs.

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jsz0
I don't think it would work. Conan is a funny guy but almost all his comedy is
based on mainstream popular culture punchline. On the Internet you're dealing
with an audience who has largely turned away from the mainstream spoon fed
world to search out their own interests. He would have to drastically revamp
his routine because, chances are, most of that mainstream spoon fed audience
is going to watch whatever is on broadcast TV at 11:35. This nicely explains
the success of people like Jay Leno and David Letterman who haven't delivered
a new joke in the last decade that didn't involve simply updating
names/places/event to fit their classic routine of pop culture humor. It's not
quite the same as the silent film era stars who couldn't make it in talkies
but I don't think it's entirely different either. It's just a different skill
set and a big transition to make for someone who's been doing basically the
same exact show every night for 15 years.

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dnewcome
A lot of what makes comedy work in the first place is cultural capital. Shows
like The Simpsons et al. make use of shared cultural experiences to be funny.
I'd expect that I would miss most jokes for a long while if I went to another
country, even if I spoke the language. I don't think that using cultural
references diminishes Conan's humor at all.

However, if making a big transition in writing is necessary to make things
work on the web, I can't imagine anyone being better suited than Conan and his
team.

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jsm386
_So here’s my advice to Mr. O’Brien: After he leaves NBC and spends a few
months healing his wounds and pulling the troops back together, he should come
back and make the Internet his time slot. He doesn’t need to abandon
television — there are still millions of viewers who sit around the living
room and tune in at a specific time — but he could take the battle in the
direction the audience is clearly migrating: online._

Isn't that exactly what most shows (Tonight Show included) do right now?
Broadcast at a specific time to millions of people while offering up clips and
other content online (and in many cases, the entire show, the following day)?

For example: Last week, knowing that Conan was going to draw a larger crowd
than usual, Letterman uploaded clips of his monologue to their CBS branded
YouTube channel before the show aired.

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jballanc
I don't think anything so radical is required. Fox will pick up Conan and give
him a show. Fox seems to have a talent for monetizing the "small but devoted
audience" shows (e.g. Family Guy, Futurama, just about every Joss Whedon show
ever...).

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chrischen
And Arrested Development. That show being cancelled made me hate Americans.

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jstevens85
I never understood the American fascination with spending an entire decade of
one's life playing the same character and saying the same jokes. After two
seasons it's time to move on and do something different with your life.

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chrischen
Probably has something to do with getting paid more money the longer you do it
and loving the people you work with.

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ZachPruckowski
I think comedy shows like the late-night shows and SNL are in the same
situation as CDs were last decade - it's no longer enough to have one or two
jokes (singles) carry the whole show (CD), because we can now acquire those
individually.

If Conan went online, he could focus on doing 5-10 funny things a week, cut
his budget massively, and have a total of 40-60 minutes of content each week,
but have it be good stuff. Because he wouldn't be bubbled into a timeslot, he
wouldn't have to "fill" with less-funny stuff.

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walkon
Casual fans, such as myself, would very rarely bother to look it up and watch
it online, but catching a half hour or so after the news might happen a few
times a week.

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chaosmachine
Tom Green did this after MTV cancelled his show.

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karzeem
Tom Green's show is interesting and innovative, and his celebrity interviews
are better than any you'll find on a TV talk show. Largely because the
celebrities let their guard down in the low-rent facilities.

Conan has a couple big personal obstacles to going online. First, he'd have to
lay off a lot of his staff, because an online talk show doesn't require and
can't support nearly as many crew members as The Tonight Show.

Second, he'd be taking a big pay cut. If the show did well he might still have
a shot at seven figures, but any TV talk show he does would probably pay him
at least $15-20 million.

Third, he'd have fewer viewers, which could be a blow to both his ego and his
cultural importance (that's not to suggest that either is currently out of
whack).

The upside is that Conan is probably one of the best-positioned people in the
world to do something like this, and he has the means and support to try it
out as an experiment for a few months. At this point in his career, though, he
may not be looking to make such a big change.

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moron4hire
I think the author makes the fundamental mistake of assuming his experiences
are normative. Just because he watches television online doesn't mean the
majority of people do. It's certainly trending that way, but for now broadband
penetration isn't to the point in the US to supplant broadcast TV.

