The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

[MikeD-C05]

I'm gonna watch Conan's last show tonight, it should be good.

OH Yeah... Can't wait till his new show starts on Fox. Then Fox will finally have something on after 10:00/9:00 besides news and old reruns.

 

[Ramy]

I think I will record it, just to see it.

 

[ripnbigc]

Pee Wee Herman was great last night.

 

[Peter Parker]

Fox has tried late night talk shows before. In fact Fox started witha late night talk show (No Married With children was NOT the first Fox show0 and they have fallen on their face every time.

 

[Derwin0]

Fox has tried late night talk shows before. In fact Fox started witha late night talk show (No Married With children was NOT the first Fox show0 and they have fallen on their face every time.

Joan Rivers

and from there the list included several more Fox Late Night failures.

 

[televisionarchives]

If Conan gets a show and it starts in September he's going to have a tough time. It might a little different if he could go over and start in February. But September ? He will have to start from scratch to build an audience again.

 

[iceturkee]

i believe his buyout has a clause which means he can't sign a contract to do late night tv for a year.

 

[Peter Parker]

it has been widely reported taht he can appear elsewhere in September. the bigest hurdle for Fox would be getting affiliate clearance. A cable network would not be impeded that way but the potential audience woudl likely be smaller.

 

[televisionarchives]

i believe his buyout has a clause which means he can't sign a contract to do late night tv for a year.

And they have that clause for a reason. They don't want him to take some of the audience with him. It happened to a friend here who lost his job in radio. He went into another line of work and never worked in radio again. Conan has an tough rode ahead of him .

 

[Peter Parker]

Joan Rivers

and from there the list included several more Fox Late Night failures.

Correct. After Joan there were a series of gues hosts. Arsenio Hall was in the spot for awhile but would up going elsewhere. then came the Wilton north Report, then Ross Shaeffer and several years later Chevy Chase. there may be one or two other failures along the way. It is ahrd to say.

 

[Ramy]

Joan Rivers

and from there the list included several more Fox Late Night failures.

I liked Arsenio Hall.

 

[televisionarchives]

Don't forget Pat Sajak. While I have nothing against him his was not good. When I was working in California I knew someone who had to go downtown and find tourist to come see his show to fill the seats. He would go up and ask people if they wanted to see his show. They then put them on a bus and rode them over or told them to drive to the CBS Studio. Carson never had that problem . He always had people waiting in the standby line.

 

[Ilya]

I think September is a very reasonable timeframe. It takes time to negotiate a new deal and then it takes even more time to prepare a new show. I doubt Conan would be ready to start in Spring even if he signs a new deal quickly.

 

[Peter Parker]

Sajak's short lived show was on CBS. they too had a string of failures before Letterman arrived and while Dave was not #1 fora long time CBS did make money off the slot and they never did before.

 

[televisionarchives]

I think September is a very reasonable timeframe. It takes time to negotiate a new deal and then it takes even more time to prepare a new show. I doubt Conan would be ready to start in Spring even if he signs a new deal quickly.

All of that is true but if Conan goes up against Leno and Letterman he won't survive. And when you're off the air for almost 8 months it's not easy to come back. He's already tried to beat Letterman and he failed .

 

[televisionarchives]

Sajak's short lived show was on CBS. they too had a string of failures before Letterman arrived and while Dave was not #1 fora long time CBS did make money off the slot and they never did before.

I went to a taping of his show . The same building as The Price Is Right.

And Letterman has not been the ratings champion like CBS thought he would be. In fact his ratings at NBC at a later time slot were better.

 

[KAB]

To be accurate, Rivers and Chevy Chase were Fox's only late night attempts. The others, including Arsenio were syndicated. Most Fox affiliates picked up Arsenio. The Chase fiasco came after Arsenio shut down.

 

[televisionarchives]

Dolly Parton was the first choice instead of Chevy Chase. Hard to believe.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Arsino actually had a nice run and then he got boring and everyone shut him or never to turn back in.

 

[Peter Parker]

no Arsenio started on Fox as fill in after Rivers. Fox did not come to terms with him because they thought that the Wilton north report was going to take off and he signed with paramount. After the Wilton north debacle they tried to get by with ross Shaeffer. So that is 5 failed attempts not 2.

Arseniostill hadan audience at the end. but the paramount show was syndicated to mostly Fox and CBS ststions. When Chase and letterman came along they lost affiliates and paramount decided not to go further with less desirable (future WB and UPN affilaites0.