He was the chosen one.
Followed by his flock of fans, they watched him spread his message to the masses. His unjustly persecution and termination caused outraged. As his followers rallied, it was promised that one day he would make his return.
His followers waited. They formed groups and organized demonstrations and protests. Then a sign announced his impending return, his second-coming.
Of course, I’m talking about the much anticipated return of the big-man himself: Conan O’Brien.
Yes, everyone’s favorite ginger host returned this week to late-night TV after a very-public dismissal from The Tonight Show last year. Here’s a quick recap of The Late Night Crisis.
September 2009, after 16 years of hosting The Late Show, Conan started hosting The Tonight Show on NBC. He took over reigns as Jay Leno stepped down. NBC, who didn’t seem to want to lose Jay Leno, came up with the brilliant plan of created The Jay Leno Show in primetime. By Christmas, The Jay Leno Show was cancelled after abysmal ratings which sent NBC to last place in the ratings. Shocker!
In January 2010, NBC wanted to move Leno back to late-night by putting him at his usual timeslot, bumping The Tonight Show (still with Conan) later, along with Jimmy Fallon’s Late Show. Conan did not want to go with that plan, as he stated it would ruin the franchise that is The Tonight Show, which has been a fixture at 11:35 pm ET.
NBC, Conan and his fans are unhappy.
NBC later awarded Conan a hefty settlement to step down as the host of The Tonight Show. Thus after only seven months, his reign was over.
Following the Winter Olympics, Jay Leno was back hosting The Tonight Show.
Now Conan was the hottest free-agent on TV. Networks began their bidding war, but it was TBS that landed the huge deal. It was announced in April that Conan O’Brien’s new late-night show will premiere in November on TBS, and CTV (and Comedy Network) in Canada.
That’s where we are today. After months of hype, promotions, comedy tours, and fan anticipation, Conan O’Brien made his late-night return on Nov. 8.
What makes his return of epic proportions even grander is the timing.
Conan is scheduled on TBS in the U.S. at 11 pm ET, meaning it will go head-to-head with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert. And if you haven’t been living under a rock lately, you’ll know they’ve been on fire.
Coming off a historic Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear, which attracted an estimated 250,000 people in Washington D.C., Stewart and Colbert are flexing their satire muscles to prove their influence with viewers. It will be interesting to see how Conan does against its fellow cable-network late-night shows.
Speaking of ratings, guess who has been tanking since his return? That’s right folks, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has been performing lower than ever. In fact, for the first time since Leno’s return, he’s been outdrawn by The Late Show with David Letterman in both audience and key demographic (age 18-49). You want more stats? Jon Stewart beat both Letterman and Leno in the key-demo ratings race in October. That’s the first time EVER it has happened.
To sum up, Letterman is doing better than Leno, but still down in numbers. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been climbing in the ratings, despite being on cable.
Now I hear you snickering, “Jeez Adam, I don’t care about these numbers, you geek!” Touché readers. In fact, we Canadians are lucky because Conan will be airing AFTER both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Meaning that we won’t be forced to chose, but we’ll be getting Conan an hour later than the states.
But these numbers do matter. And ratings measure a show’s lifetime. No matter how much support Team Coco has, if it can’t compete with the hotter-than-ever Stewart and Colbert, its second-coming will be a short one.
Of course, we all want to see Conan O’Brien have some redemption. It would be nice if he totally smoked Jay Leno and his over-sized chin into dust. However his true competition is against two already fan-favorites.
