I’m a big fan of the American late night talk shows. I’ve been a fan of Letterman since I was allowed stay up late as a whipper snapper. So Letterman is on the top of my list. Leno had has moments and CoCo also had his moments.
From watching the 3 shows and when it was announced the CoCo was to get the Tonight Show I felt it would never really work. The Tonight Show is nearly as American as the stars and stripes. It’s on the air for 7000 years or something. Conan is more suited to the younger demographic, but hosts adapt and change as the audience demands. Unfortunately, I, like many others were right. It didn’t work for CoCo. It didn’t work because but he didn’t get a fair crack of the whip. He didn’t get a chance to evolve into the Tonight Show host he was always destined to be!He also wasn’t helped by the fact that Leno didn’t go quietly into the night. Jay kicked off the Jay Leno show which went to air before CoCo, and that arse kinda fell out of that as well, which again in turn didn’t help the Tonight Show. The big wigs that caused the rumpus in the first place are the real problem here, and the subsequent bickering between CoCo and the NBC execs have been a disaster. Granted the monologues each night have been superb as each host takes a pop at their big shot bosses.
It all stems back to the fact that Jay wouldn’t be around forever and Conan was promised the Tonight Show a few years back. And they should have rolled with it. Johnny Carson was single handily the most popular chat show host in history, on state side at least and when Leno eventually got to take over (or some reckon he stole it from Letterman) it took him the bare bones of 2 years of shows to start climbing the mountain. I know we live in different times now but a few wet weeks in to a new show / host is bollocks. It makes everybody look bad.
As it stands, Leno is made out to look like the bad guy, Conan is the guy that has got nothing at the end of it bar 30 odd million bucks (from his exit deal) and more importantly NBC look like a bunch of idiots who couldn’t organise a piss up in an Olympic sized swimming pool filled with beer! When the dust settles, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Leno will go back to the Tonight show and I’d be surprised if it doesn’t take a huge dip ratings wise! In the meantime CoCo will go elsewhere and with or without the sympathy vote should tear it up!
American TV has always been famous for all the great TV show’s over the years, some which are still on air and some which have just disappeared into the night. But in the current CoCo fiasco, Westerns must surely be about to make a comeback, because there’s a whole lot of cowboys around!
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