> The question I would have asked Conan is, was there any way NBC could have > kept him besides promising him the Tonight Show in 5 years? If the answer to > that question is no, then I think it provides the answer to the key question > in this whole affair, which is, are the NBC guys idiots or assholes? My > sense is that they really were not too stupid, but that they were huge > assholes. They wanted to make sure that their Tonight Show remained the top > rated talk show, and did not create another network competitor. Everything > they did was designed to make sure that is what happened - and that is what > is happening. If there was someway to have kept Conan at NBC while never > giving him Leno's job in the first place, then they were idiots not to have > tried that, but assuming Conan would have had an 11:00 or 11:35 show > competing against Leno if they had let him walk, NBC probably got the best > possible outcome they could for their late night franchise.
In The Late Shift, NBC's optimal outcome was to find a way to keep both Jay and Dave, but there was no (good) way to give Tonight to both. This time around, leaving their winning lineup in place for another five years was a good move, and they did follow through with their deal to give Tonight to Conan. Their panic when neither show performed up to expectations leaves NBC execs as laughingstocks, but until then you really can't argue with their strategy. -- 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
