Aaron linked to the following article, which suggests (surprise surprise surprise) that NBC's claim that the Coco Tonight Show would be the first to ever lose money is BS. It seems the most likely way such a claim could be supported is if NBC counted the start-up costs (like the 50 Million dollar studio/offices) against the Show's revenues for the year.
Which would mean NBC is claiming it had to fire Conan because he did not make all of the start up costs back in the first year of the show. http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/ratings-finish-line-conan-pulls-ahead-dave-13413 "...Through the week of Jan. 15, "Tonight" is averaging a 1.1/4 in the demo vs. a 1.0/4 for "Late Show." Until last week, "Tonight" and "Late Show" had been in a dead heat, each averaging a 1.0 rating. (SNIP) NBC executives have claimed that because of those ratings declines for "Tonight," the show was on track to lose million of dollars this year -- despite being the No.1 show in the demo the network says is key to advertisers. While revenues would clearly start to go down, it's hard to see why "Tonight," despite its higher demo ratings, would lose money when CBS insiders say the similarly- rated "Late Show" remains very lucrative. Revenues for Letterman's show have also declined in recent years, but CBS has trimmed its license fee for the show, ensuring continued profitability. What's more, O'Brien's salary is generally understood to be much less than what CBS pays Letterman to produce "Late Show" (Dave pays his own salary via the money he makes from license fees). NBC also owns "The Tonight Show" and can better exploit ancillary ad revenue sources, as evidenced by O'Brien's pimping for Intel on the "Tonight Show" website. It costs in the neighborhood of $1.25 million per week to produce a show like "Tonight," a person familiar with the financials for late-night said. Nonetheless, NBC U TV chairman Jeff Gaspin told several outlets Thursday that "Tonight" would lose money for the first time ever this year -- despite its demo advantage. Unless NBC is being tricky and counting start-up costs for O'Brien -- such as the $50 million studio and office complex it built for "Tonight" -- it's hard to see how the show could so quickly go from profit to deficit in less than one year." -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
