Conan O’Brien goes to TBS, not Fox
April 12, 2010, by
Hollywood Reporter had an extensive story today about the difficulties Conan O'Brien was having negotiating a talk-show deal with Fox and its TV affiliates.
Then I got this news: Atlanta-based TBS has picked up Conan instead!
George Lopez, who has done very well at 11 p.m. this season on TBS, will move to midnight. He'll start in early November after the baseball playoffs. That's when TBS launched Lopez last year.
Lopez was instrumental getting O’Brien to basic cable, making a personal plea, figuring even though he will air an hour later, O’Brien as a lead in would be a net gain. That’s the way TBS is spinning it, possibly as a way to inoculate possible criticism that Lopez was being bumped for Conan against his will.
From there, the deal moved quickly.
"We made it happen in 72 hours," said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks in an interview Monday afternoon. "He's a transformative personality who could be on our network for the next decade and beyond." He also confirmed O'Brien will remain in Los Angeles to shoot the show.
The Los Angeles Times blog said Koonin originally wasn't keen on bringing O'Brien given how well Lopez had been doing, but changed his mind a couple weeks ago.
The Times also said O'Brien will own the show (like David Letterman), which provides him a potential to make more money than if he were a salaried man. He has a five-year deal. Plus, TBS will be able to make O'Brien the king of the network while on Fox, he would not have gotten nearly as much promotional dollars. The New York Times said his budget will be the same as it was on NBC.
Conan O'Brien to TBS
- Great move for TBS and Conan!
- Conan should go elsewhere (e.g. Fox)
Brad Adgate, senior vice president for research at Horizon Media in New York, said O'Brien's younger-skewing audience should mesh well with Lopez's. Lopez's average audience age is 33, decades less than Letterman or Leno. Nonetheless, O'Brien faces stiff competition at 11 p.m from the likes of Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and E!'s Chelsea Handler. His lead ins will mostly be sitcoms such as "The Office" and "Family Guy" or Perry's "Meet the Browns" and "House of Payne."
Expectations for O’Brien’s late-night talk show should be more modest at TBS than it would have been on Fox. “If he gets anywhere near the 2.6 million viewers a night he got on NBC, TBS will be doing a happy dance,” Adgate said.
Realistically, he’ll probably draw closer to 1.5 million viewers a night, more than Lopez’s current one million.
Here’s part of the press release:
Said O'Brien: "In three months I've gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I'm headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly."
O'Brien and Lopez will give TBS a dynamic lineup in late-night television. TBS – which has built a programming slate that appeals to a young, diverse audience – expects O'Brien to be a long-term addition to the network's late-night landscape. O'Brien will host his hour-long, yet-to-be-titled show Mondays through Thursdays at 11 p.m. (ET/PT).
"Conan has been the comedic voice for a generation. TBS already has a huge audience of young comedy lovers, and Conan's show will give these fans even more reasons to watch our network," said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks.
With the addition of O'Brien's show, TBS will establish two hours of late-night talk. Lopez Tonight, while just a few months old, has already become a destination show for a diverse audience. The Lopez Tonight audience is young as well, with a median age of just 34.
"For decades, late-night TV has been dominated by broadcast television," Koonin said. "Now, with a young audience and a growing late-night lineup, TBS is set to be the choice of comedy fans for years to come."
The Hollywood Reporter story said Conan had agreed to lower production costs and salary with Fox. Presumably, that will be the case with TBS as well (in the $10 to $15 million range), but he gets ownership of the program.
How Conan lost his gig on NBC has been well documented.
He became the "Tonight Show" host last year, replacing Jay Leno. But NBC felt it couldn't lose Leno to another network so the execs gave Leno a 10 p.m. slot. Leno didn't do well there and the affiliates balked. Conan was pulling in disappointing numbers at 11:35 p.m.. So NBC offered to move Leno back to the 11:35 p.m. slot and bump Conan to 12:05 a.m.
Conan said no way and negotiated a huge exit deal. Based on that deal, he can't talk or be on TV until the fall. But he has started Tweeting and doing a live theater show, which comes to Atlanta June 14 (and is already sold out.) Stubhub had tickets to the Fox Theatre show ranging from $125 apiece to $600 a pop.
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About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
