Don't Blame Us for Not Watching

I really hate all the blaming of "so-called" fans of Conan O'Brien. It was constantly repeated in Oprah's discussion with her audience after the Interview with Jay Leno. Ninety-seven percent of her audience was on Conan's side, and she asked several times, "Where were you when he needed you?" Two of the fans in the audience admitted to not watching him religiously.

It's our fault, they would have you believe. But it's not, stop blaming us. Old people watch TV because that's life. You wake up at 6:00 am. If you're a woman, you fix breakfast, maybe do some laundry, watch the soap operas that come on during the day and then the Oprah Winfrey Show before your man gets home. If you're a guy, you head off to work. After work, and after Oprah, it's supper time! It's time to eat something and talk about your day. Then, head into the bedroom and begin the daily wind down. Turn on Primetime TV and watch whatever show is your favorite for the given day of the week. Then, it's your local news as you prepare for bed. After the news, it's late night TV as you lay in bed.

That's life, when you're old. The new generation doesn't do that. There is far less structure to our lives, and you see that reflected in Conan's comedy as well. It too lacks structure. We enjoy the unexpected, the creative, the new. We really even will resent the mundane.

So, don't expect us to watch TV when it's airing. We don't eat lunch at 12:00. We don't have supper at 5:00. We don't make our way to bed at 11:30.

But we still watch TV, just in a manner that fits our lifestyle. Unfortunately, that usually involves breaking the law. Again, it's not our fault. The industry is refusing to accept that this is the new way of life. They're not adapting. That's why we weren't there for Conan. We were watching his show, but TV ratings won't reflect it. They're defunct. We downloaded his show or watched it on Hulu or watched clips on YouTube of it.

How is it our fault that the geniuses that run television have done so little in the past 10 years to adapt their business model to deal with us? Do they not realize that the old people are going to die? It's a ticking time bomb here. You don't have a lot of time to get this figured out. TV advertising is already extremely worthless these days, compared to the glory days of yore. You have so much to watch and do that a measly 3 million viewers can be considered good.

It's not Conan's fault, and it's not our fault. The Tonight Show will never have over 7 million viewers regularly. It just can't anymore. Those days are gone. Accept it and adapt. Bringing Jay back is just putting a bandage on the wound in the TV industry. Someone needs to revolutionize the business model soon, or the old people are all going to die, and TV will be left with an audience that it has no way of profiting from.

Coco Continued

I mentioned my position on the late night craziness earlier, but came across some interesting facts to post.

First of all, I want to say that the future of television is going to be very different. It's going to have to be. With DVRs and the Internet, people don't watch TV like they used to and it's only going to become more affected as time goes on. So, they have to create a new business model for it.

It's going to require integration with the Internet, maybe even some degree of interactivity. Product placement will likely take over in place of commercials. Conan O'Brien on the Tonight Show already did a Lexus type promotion, that was done in a very organic way without seeming contrived. Things like that are going to be more valuable as people watch TV shows without commercials.

That being said, let's look to the future. Conan O'Brien may have had lower ratings, but we're not taking into account his support through the Internet, either via Hulu or by illegally downloading the show, or even just clips here and there. During this week, however, he actually is beating David Letterman in the ratings according to this article, and another article I found mentioned his ratings for the younger, and more valuable to advertisers, demographic also stated Conan was leading Letterman. So, he CAN have the TV numbers if needed.

What's more is that he has the Internet numbers. Look at Facebook. Late Show with David Letterman has 63,631 fans. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has even more at 80,968 fans! Now how about Conan's numbers. I'm with Coco, a group of people behind Conan O'Brien wherever he ends up on television or off, has a whopping 252,122 fans, and those were all acquired since this whole ordeal started. As for Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, that has 145,314 fans. (Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Kimmel Live each have under 7,000 fans.)

Jay Leno? 48,144 fans! This is the guy they want to REPLACE Conan with, and guess what? At the time I'm posting this, the page is sporting an "I'm with Coco" profile picture, and pledging its support to Conan O'Brien.

It's so obvious! The numbers are there. He's winning on the Internet, and is a clear winner for whatever is to come for Television. He's even winning on television this week! He has the ratings, he has global support and he has the moral high ground. Keep Conan on the Tonight Show!

Here are the numbers again:

• Late Show with David Letterman 63,631 fans
  
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 80,968 fans
  
• I'm with Coco 252,122 fans
  
• Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien 145,314 fans
  
• Jay Leno 48,144 fans
  
• Jimmy Kimmel < 7,000 fans

No Show Show for Coco? I Don't Think So So!

First of all, it does no good bashing NBC on moral grounds over this. They have always been an uncaring and greedy corporation. However, they haven't always been idiots. So, yes the executives are all being assholes with the whole debacle of trying to have their cakes and eat them too, but from a business standpoint you can't blame them for having that goal. It's what every for-profit enterprise should have its sights set on. You can blame them for going down a route that will only leave them with no cake whatsoever, or a soggy, unappetizing Jimmy Fallon cake anyway.

Jay Leno isn't really the bad guy here, but he's definitely a nuisance. He's had his time, and doesn't really have much to offer anymore. His new show was his old Tonight Show with no desk and a lame, narcissistic intro. He represents contentment at the expense of creativity and progress. It's not a bad show, but it's boring simply because it's always the same.

I truly believe that Conan O'Brien is a very good person. He seems like someone who cares a lot about his employees and has a lot of respect for the TV industry and the Tonight Show. I say this because part of me was thinking that this could simply be a ploy by NBC to get more viewers for their late night shows. Clearly Conan's ratings weren't great, and if NBC was actually brilliant, then it would make good sense to fabricate this scandal. I know that if people give Conan a shot that haven't before they'll likely come around and enjoy his unique and creative style of comedy. NBC should know this too, so this scandal is a great way to get people to tune in and ask themselves, "So what's up with this Conan guy anyway?"

There's just no way that Conan would go through with such an insidious tactic. So, either NBC is deceiving him (again, proving they're evil, but keep in mind it makes good business sense as long as they don't follow through and ultimately lose him) or NBC is stupid.

Unfortunately, the likely thing is that NBC is stupid. They're shortsighted and not realizing that Conan O'Brien is pure gold for the network. The Tonight Show is of course important as an institution, but it's even more important as a branding tool. Conan is beloved by most everyone, especially people under forty. His demographics are only going to grow as Leno's and Letterman's shrink.

This is one rare case where it bothers me that I illegally download a television program. I'm sure that Conan's actual viewers are far greater than his ratings imply due to the fact that many younger people would tend to download his show. I thought, though, that it's the Tonight Show. They don't need uber-ratings. It will always exist. I clearly didn't account for NBC's idiocy. The entire TV industry has become shortsighted in general and are not adapting to the problem the Internet poses to them. I'll probably write more about this later on, but back to watching Conan: I'm going to make an attempt to watch The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on Hulu or the Tonight Show's official website just so my "vote" counts in some way.

And wherever Conan ends up, that's where my vote will go. I really believe that cooler heads will prevail. Ultimately, NBC will lose a lot if they let Conan go. Clearly it's time to axe Leno for good, and if he goes elsewhere, so be it. Letterman and Leno have competed neck and neck for several years, and they both share similar demographics. Not Conan. He has his own demographics (far more valuable to advertising and growing), and they're very much behind him. So, a Leno-Letterman-Conan threeway would see Conan kill. Letterman and Leno would really only detract from each other while Conan holds his strong base against their halved audiences and picks up new viewers as the two fade away.

Regardless of what happens, Conan O'Brien is a goldmine. He's not only amazingly talented and creative, but he's got the bonus of being a super likable and nice guy. Whatever he does will be a success because he's simply too good to fail. So, when The Office is gone and there are no more cities or units to make a Law & Order for, there will always be the Tonight Show, but it'll only have viewers for the next twenty to thirty years if Conan O'Brien is hosting it.