The Wall Street Journal recently did a big story on the progress of Conan O’Brien’s TBS show over the past year, and seeing as the piece is titled “Conan Falls Flat in Season 1,” it’s… uh… not too good. From the story:
The audience for “Conan,” has fallen from about 2.4 million in the show’s first month on air in 2010 to roughly 958,000 people this past July, according to Nielsen Co. data.
Mr. O’Brien trails all major competitors on broadcast and cable during his 11 p.m. time slot. In certain weeks, he’s also fallen behind newer faces such as Chelsea Handler. [Ed. note - (*murders everyone*)]
In July, Mr. O’Brien averaged about 685,000 viewers between the ages of 18 and 49, placing him behind cable competitors such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart as well as broadcast rivals Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman and Jay Leno.
The story goes on to say that TBS is still firmly behind Conan, and that they are “doubling down” on the show over the next year, including spending a reported $2 million per episode to purchase reruns of “Big Bang Theory” to run as its lead in, but… yeesh. You can certainly dispute some of those numbers (as the story points out, lots of Conan’s fans watch clips on the show’s website, and that’s not reflected in the ratings), but losing to Chelsea Handler? Chelsea Handler?! This simply will not do, America.
One more note from the story before I think about those last few sentences too much and give myself a brain aneurysm: this is my favorite paragraph of the story.
Television executives say that Mr. O’Brien’s ratings problem lies in part with his niche appeal. His act relies more on extended sketches that venture into absurd territory rather than punch lines ripped from the news or pure political and cultural satire. His biting, self-deprecating style, which often involves bizarre gestures or movements such as his famous “string dance,” tends to resonate more with younger viewers.
I could read the Wall Street Journal try to explain pop culture all day long. It’s like when you confuse a cartoon robot.
After the jump, Louis C.K. on “Conan” last night, because I need a laugh after that story.
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Conan was never that good. He just finally has some competition now.
He needs to bring the beard back, he just looks weird now without it.
Aw, poor Conan. Big Bang Theory reruns are nearly as crappy of a lead-in as Leno.
Also, most people have never heard of TNT. Or, TIT. Or…TPS…uh…BPM…Jesus…what fucking channel is he on again?
His sketches don’t venture into absurd territory. They used to, back when he was popular. Now he does safe sketches that are kind of funny.
Craig Ferguson is way better.
I love Conan, have since I was just a kid, but quite frankly, I just don’t watch. Every clip I see of him makes me laugh and I would buy a DVD of his best show moments in a heartbeat, and I wish him all the success in the world but… Frankly with all the podcasts, youtube subscriptions, and instant netflix titles for me to keep up on, once 10:00PM rolls around I can’t keep up with a 4 days in a row per week show, and if I can’t keep up I just don’t bother tuning in at all.
Not to mention the ridiculous competition. It’s a cosmic joke that Daily Show/Colbert are on at the same time every day. That’s what the DVR is for of course, but as I alluded to, I’m over cable TV when I’m sitting on an 80 strong instant queue, and DVD’s of Mad Men and Dexter showing up to my house constantly.
Being on TBS certainly isn’t helping anything.
Not surprising. I love Conan but her has become very unfunny. He acts out every single joke he tells for like 5 minutes before moving on. His monologue is nothing but gimmicks to get laughs. The show in short, is fucking terrible.
The show has been great with an influx of cash since Lopez got deported but the writing can never match that of TDS and especially Colbert, his competition. I’ll pick Colbert over any other show 12 times out of 10 for busting up my gunt
NBC really screwed Conan because he now has nothing to work with. The sketches and characters that took him years to create are gone and have been replaced with horribleness.
For god sake stop doing that sketch where his writer sings a song that sounds like a popular song. It is dumb as shit. He has to fire some of his writers. They have come up with 0 things that are worth a damn. He needs to tone down the Harvard Lampoon bs and just be funny again.
I’m still calling the ultimate Letterman troll job to Leno with Dave giving his show to Conan in a year or two. Sorry to Ferguson but he just isn’t funny, I’m certain that studio audience is a laugh track, I don’t understand his loyal fans that swear Craig is hysterical. How?
A surprising amount of detractors in these comments. I think Conan’s still very funny, but I do agree that his monologues are pretty shitty compared to what they were on NBC. Not really sure why, just that one part of the show is a lot less funny now. And I agree with GiantCrab that the song knockoff bit is 0.0% entertaining. But most of the other running bits and pre-recorded stuff, I find, is still quite funny. And the interviews are hit or miss, as they always have been, since that depends largely on the guests. And the musical acts — I dunno if this is just dumb luck, ‘cuz I only watch them every now and then — but they always seem to be really great, way better than the average talkshow musical guest.
Anyway, this is sad news. My hope is that the worst that’ll happen is they’ll move him forward or back one hour (thus resolving the conflict with Jon & Stephen), and/or cut his show to half an hour. I think either one of those could be good for him.
Conan was nothing before he went through the Leno debacle. Now he is back to nothing. He was never that funny but fit into that late night niche demo of stoners.
Conan was at his best when he had Robert Smigel writing and regularly occurring on the show. I wouldn’t call Conan nothing as he was very much part of my youth writing for shows like SNL and The Simpsons. Jay Leno has screwed so many people directly or indirectly from Letterman, Conan and Lopez, he must have mob ties. No way someone who has monologues as predictable as him keeps his job that long. He’s an out of date Jimmy Kimmel.
“I don’t understand his loyal fans that swear Craig is hysterical. How?” Because comedy is a matter of taste that you are not the arbiter of.
At this rate he’ll be off the air soon unless they switch things up big time. Danger in that is if he loses his core audience in doing so.
Conan has never received very good ratings. I don’t find him all that funny. Of course, I was brought up on Johnny Carson. I miss his slimy tv pitchman bits.