The Future of the Tonight Show: Conan or Stewart?

[Mikintosh]

I realize the gossip about this is a couple months old, but I just saw it today and I don't remember ever a thread about it. Basically, Conan is contracted to take over the Tonight Show in 2009, but NBC's apparently lunching with Jon Stewart, possibly to have him take the show and for NBC to buy out Conan's contract for $40 million. Also, there's ruminations that Leno might not be so ready to retire and might try to hold onto the show. What y'all think?

[Gatomon41]

Conan is not only funny, creative, but also experienced with the Late Night crowd, that it's jsut natrual to make each experience entertaining. I doubt if Stewart has the talent to make the common Late night watchers be entertained.

[bigddan11]

Jon Stewart has built up a main stream cable audience, but there-in lies the problem. Conan already has a main-stream audience from Leno, and many find him funnier than Leno. If NBC were to let O'Brian go, you know CBS and ABC would be licking at their chops to add him side-by-side with Letterman or Kimmell. They would be fools to replace him, considering he draws higher ratings than Leno, Kimmell, and Letterman. It'd make a lot more sense to get Daly to follow him, since they will need a new host for that spot as well.

[Classic Speedy]

I thought the whole point of Leno giving Conan his show was so that there would be no hard feelings like when Leno got The Tonight Show over Letterman back in '92. Outside of Leno not wanting to retire, I don't see why that would change, even with this rumored money involved.

[Mr. Manager]

I'm sure that they'll keep the deal with Conan O'Brien. The whole reason they did it was so there'd be no hard feelings. By the way, there is the possibilty that they were talking about the filling the soon to be empty Late Night spot that will be left empty when Conan leaves. I'm sure Daly wants the gig, but his show is terrible and I'm sure they'd rather go with someone with roots in stand-up and I know there's been a lot of talk of Jimmy Fallon hosting, but that hasn't been set in stone.

That being said, I think Jon will instead host the Late Show when David letterman retires a year after Jay Leno does. Jon almost became the host of the Late Show a few years ago when there were talks of bringing Dave to ABC and the two are friends. If he took the Tonight Show, he'd likely have to move to Los Angeles. If he took Late Night, he could stay in New York, but his show would air in a timeslot that wouldn't draw in as many viewers as the Late Show. But if he became the host of The Late Show, he could stay in New York and have a good timeslot.

[SirLemming]

One problem with Jon Stewart taking over the Late Show would be that he'd be directly competing against The Colbert Report. Not only are they buddies, but I think he's involved in the creative direction of that show, so it'd be a little weird.

[Mr. Manager]

One problem with Jon Stewart taking over the Late Show would be that he'd be directly competing against The Colbert Report. Not only are they buddies, but I think he's involved in the creative direction of that show, so it'd be a little weird.If Jon Stewart left the Daily Show, I see them moving The Colbert Report to 11 PM, instead of having a new host of the Daily Show.

[Silly McGooses]

I just want things to go as planned and have Conan take over Tonight Show. He is infinitely funnier than Leno and Stewart and has so much experience.

[Draft]

Nope, conan is gonna move

Infact, Conan just checked out his new studio, Historic Studio 1 in Universal Studios Hollywood A couple of weeks ago..

Jimmy Fallon is current frontrunner in Slot following Conan.., Stewart might get that slot though..

[Wonderwall]

I thought Conan said that they were moving the Tonight Show back to New York? NBC isn't going to let go of Conan, hes too much of a commodity to let CBS or ABC snap up. Im dreading when they announce Fallon as the new guy after Conan, and I don't think Stewart is going to leave his cushy timeslot of the Daily Show to go on after midnight, I remember him saying he doesn't want that slot, but maybe things have changed. However I'm 99% sure its going to be Conan at 11:35 and.....(:shrug: )Fallon at 12:35.

[jrh31584]

Dear NBC,
Please make Jimmy Fallon the successor to Conan O'Brien at 12:35.
Sincerely,
TV's Craig Ferguson

[Draft]

I thought Conan said that they were moving the Tonight Show back to New York?


http://www.screamscape.com/html/universal_studios_hollywood.htm




Remember back in mid 2006 when I mentioned that there were plans in the works to Relocate the Tonight Show to the Universal Studios Hollywood from its current location in NBC’s Burbank studios? Looks like that move is going forward as Hollywood Today (http://www.hollywoodtoday.net/?p=1716) has reported that ABC’s Desperate Housewifes production has been served notice that they will be removed form Universal’s historic Stage One and moved to a new and larger soundstage on property. The plan is to transform Stage One into a new theater home for the Tonight Show in 2009 when Conan O’Brien takes over the reigns from Jay Leno.
Conan and his entourage were seen on site Wednesday being given a tour of the facility which is planned to undergo a 18 months renovation that will include new public areas, a bigger state of the art theater, dressing rooms and a four story office complex for the Tonight Show staff who has outgrown their confined space at the NBC Studios in Burbank. Obviously the move would also make it easy to tie the tapings of The Tonight Show into the audiences that visit the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park, as well as provide easy access for “man on the street” style comedy segments in the park and Citywalk. Of course this is all dependant on final approval from Conan himself it seems, but if they’ve already taken the steps to evict the Desperate Housewives then perhaps final approval is merely a formality at this point.

[Wonderwall]

Be weird to see Conan in Cali, maybe he might get a tan..nah he looks like a guy who would burn.

[jlaking]

I guess Conan broke his 'promise' to Mayor Bloomberg keep the show in New York for softball time for his show.


They would be fools to replace him, considering he draws higher ratings than Leno,Kimmell, and Letterman.

Conan doesn't have higher overall ratings than Leno and Letterman but only in the 18-49 demo.

[bigddan11]

I guess Conan broke his 'promise' to Mayor Bloomberg keep the show in New York for softball time for his show.



Conan doesn't have higher overall ratings than Leno and Letterman but only in the 18-49 demo.

DOESN'T and IN THE don't tie together the way you have written them. It's either Conan does have higher overall ratings than Leno and Letterman, but only in the 18-49 demo, or, as you said, Conan doesn't have higher ratings than Leno and Letterman, but only in the 18-49 demo, which means that Conan has higher ratings than Leno and Letterman in the below 18 and above 50 demo. Either way, the statement I made about his ratings being higher than Letterman and Leno is true.

[Mr. Manager]

Either way, the statement I made about his ratings being higher than Letterman and Leno is true.It gets a bigger audience timeslot wise, in that the highest watched program in Late Night's timeslot is well, Late Night, but if you're going by actual numbers of viewers, it beats neither.

[Dark Soul]

In all this commotion what will happen to Craig Ferguson I think he is really funny but would you can him though. I don't know if you could though.

[Wonderwall]

I think Craig will be fine and most likely stay in his current slot, he actually( last I read ) gets pretty good ratings there, so I dont see CBS letting him go.

[Mr. Manager]

If any of you have ever watched The Soup, Joel McHale would be a perfect replacement for Conan. Either him or Michael Ian Black (who almost became host of The late Late Show) would be fantastic and far more bearable than Jimmy Fallon or Carson Daly.

[Draft]

If any of you have ever watched The Soup, Joel McHale would be a perfect replacement for Conan. Either him or Michael Ian Black (who almost became host of The late Late Show) would be fantastic and far more bearable than Jimmy Fallon or Carson Daly.
He would be a great fit, but then he probably wouldn't be able to do The Soup, which would be terrible(Watcher of it ever since "The What the.. Awards" premired)

and Dark Soul, Craig Furgeuson is on a completely different network, and why would he switch to the same timesliot he had on a different channel?

Look, here's how to explain the late night ratings, i think this is the order

Leno
Letterman
O'Brien
Kimmel
Fergueson

But out of those, Conan scores the most ratings in the coveted 18-49 demo.., which is what most advertisers try to target with their ads. So more people will want to put their ads on Conan's show, resulting in more profit

[RayChuang]

Based on the Screamscape.com article, moving The Tonight Show to Universal Studios Hollywood is actually a GREAT idea if they do the renovations to the soundstage. The part about being able to tap into the customers for the Universal Studios theme park and to film at Citywalk is especially enticing, to say the least. I'm sure NBC Universal will give O'Brien appropriate pay to move to Los Angeles.

[Mr. Manager]

He would be a great fit, but then he probably wouldn't be able to do The Soup, which would be terrible(Watcher of it ever since "The What the.. Awards" premired)Sure, he wouldn't be able to host The Soup, but that'd be fine for me since he'd be hosting a one hour Monday through Friday program rather than a weekly program. As much as I like him on The Soup (he's just as good, if not better than Greg Kinnear and John Henson were back when it was Talk Soup), I'd rather see him be on Late Night.

Edit: One name I've heard tossed around for the Late Night is Keith Olbermann, of MSNBC's Countdown and former anchor of Sportscenter. That actually would not be a bad idea since it would have a feel similar to back when The Late Late Show was hosted by Tom Snyder.