Tag: conan o’brien

Conan’s NBC jokes getting old, costing him his audience

Conan O’Brien‘s much-anticipated new late night show opened this week to much buzz, but it seems the fact that Conan can’t get over being dumped by NBC is starting to tire his audience.  Conan had an opening night audience of 4.2 million viewers, but after a pretty steady stream of jokes laced with bitterness about the NBC debacle, by the second night the audience had dropped to 2.8 million.

Polls have shown that viewers would prefer to hear jokes about current events, and they were hoping Conan would use this opportunity to make a fresh start and do something different, rather than just photocopy his old show over to another network.  We get it, NBC screwed him, but he needs to let that go and move on or he’s going to face cancellation, as well.

Now you can stalk Conan O’brien like you always dreamed of

Actually, I’m not sure who was dreaming of that, but in any case, it’s starting to become a realistic possibility.  Earlier this week, Conan’s website (entitled Team Coco) unveiled a new 24-hour webcam that they’ve turned on in their offices.

However, some genius decided that the stairwell would be a good place to mount the camera, so quite often there’s a lot of nothing going on.  Nonetheless, various people (including Conan) do stop by from time to time to do little pre-written skits for the benefit of the cam viewers.  The idea is that you never know when the action in the stairwell is going to get interesting, so you just have to keep watching.  Like you don’t already spend enough time wasting your life on the internet.

Conan O’Brien New Show on TBS Premieres November 8

The new Conan O’Brien show on TBS has a very easy to remember name, the comedian announced on Tuesday. In a YouTube video released Tuesday morning, O’Brien revealed the name of his new TBS show is, simply: Conan.

Conan O'Brien (YouTube)
Conan O'Brien (YouTube)

“It’s Conan, simple, pure, like the guy himself,” Conan O’Brien said in the YouTube video announcement. O’Brien joked in the video that he spent millions on legal and media research teams to come up with the name for his new show.

Conan O’Brien infamously walked away from NBC’s Tonight Show earlier this year after the network tried to bump him to a later time slot to move Jay Leno back to late night. O’Brien reportedly received a severance package of an estimated $45 million, but had to agree not to appear on television again until the fall.

Conan will premiere on TBS before Lopez Tonight on November 8.

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Conan O’Brien Comedy Tour Launches to Rave Reviews

Conan O’Brien launched his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television comedy tour Monday night in Oregon. During his debut performance, Conan O’Brien mocked his former NBC bosses – though never by name – and joked about his new late night show on TBS.

“I’m sure some of you heard I got a new job starting tomorrow,” Conan O’Brien told the crowd in Eugene, Oregon. “I’m the new manager of the Eugene Banana Republic.”

Conan-SF

While O’Brien refrained from mentioning his former network by name, he did blatantly make fun of NBC during his time on the stage. “I’m not allowed to say the word ‘peacock,'” O’Brien joked, “but I can say the words ‘pea’ and ‘cock.'” (Check out a list of the remaining tour dates here.)

The former Tonight Show host listed the “eight stages of grief after losing your talk show” for the audience: “denial; blame myself; blame everyone else around me; anger; paranoia, 36 hours of Red Bull and Halo; buy everything Amazon says I would also like… I bought a Team Edward thong!; and get your ass to Eugene, Oregon!”

Reviews of the first show in the Conan O’Brien tour have been overwhelmingly positive in general. Rolling Stone called the performance “extremely funny” and the Hollywood Reporter said the show was “consistently amusing.” Fans who attended the show were all over Twitter posting rave reviews of Conan’s return to the stand-up stage.

O’Brien heads off next to Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to the U.S. on April 16 for a stop in Spokane, Washington. Tickets to most of the remaining shows – including Vancouver and Spokane – are still available but may not be for long.

Grab your tickets to Conan’s tour right now from StubHub.com!

>> Previously:  Conan O’Brien New Show Will Debut on TBS


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Conan O’Brien New Show Will Debut on TBS

Conan O’Brien will be returning to television in November, but it won’t be on the network everyone expected it to be. The Emmy-winning late night talk show host will begin airing on TBS in the fall Monday through Thursdays at 11 p.m.

The announcement of Conan O’Brien’s new show came on the same day he launched a nationwide comedy tour in Eugene, Oregon. (Tickets are still available through StubHub.com.) Many had expected Conan O’Brien to hook up with Fox for his next television project or go directly into syndication.

Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien

O’Brien reportedly began serious negotiations with TBS only last week, eventually settling on a deal that would put him on at 11 p.m., bumping Lopez Tonight to midnight. Host George Lopez reportedly asked personally if O’Brien would consider hopping aboard the TBS train.

“I can’t think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as my lead-in,” Lopez said.  “It’s the beginning of a new era in late-night comedy.”

“The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November!” O’Brien posted on his Twitter feed Monday. “In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable.  My plan is working perfectly,” O’Brien joked.

Conan O’Brien ditched NBC in January after a late night shake-up threatened to bump his show to a later time slot he was uncomfortable with. NBC’s settlement deal with O’Brien on his departure included a clause to keep him off the air until at least September.

“Conan has been the comedic voice for a generation.  TBS already has a huge audience of young comedy lovers, and Conan’s show will give these fans even more reasons to watch our network,” said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks.

We look forward to seeing what Conan’s new show is going to look like and whether he’ll be able to get the ratings on TBS he  struggled to achieve on NBC.

Grab your tickets to Conan’s tour right now from StubHub.com!

>> Previously:  Conan O’Brien Tour Dates Announced


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Conan O’Brien Tour Dates Announced

Former Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien has announced he’ll be heading out for a 30-city nationwide tour in April. O’Brien will be joined by sidekick Andy Richter and members of the former Tonight Show band for the tour, which launches April 12 in Eugene, Oregon.

Conan SF

Conan O’Brien promises his new “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour” will gift audiences with a “night of music, comedy, hugging and the occasional awkward silence.” The tour is scheduled to hit 20 states and two Canadian provinces. Ticket prices will start at $39.50.

O’Brien has not yet announced any future television plans since he quit the Tonight Show in January. As part of his $32.5 million settlement deal with NBC on leaving the Tonight Show, O’Brien agreed he would not launch any new television projects until at least September.

O’Brien announced the details of his new comedy tour to his Twitter fans on Thursday morning. “It was either a massive 30ocity tour or start helping around the house,” O’Brien quipped.

We think it will be good for him to get back on the road and do some live shows.  Plus, the tour will probably provide plenty of new fodder for him to joke about when he does make that much anticipated return to TV at some point.

Conan O’Brien “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour” Dates:

Grab your tickets to Conan’s tour right now from StubHub.com!

April 12: Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, Ore.

April 13: Orpheum Theater in Vancouver, British Columbia

April 16: INB Performing Arts Center in Spokane, Wash.

April 17: River Cree Resort & Casino in Enoch, Alberta

April 18: Seattle Center, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, in Seattle

April 22: Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco

April 24: Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City, Calif.

April 29: San Diego Civic Theater in San Diego

April 30: Dodge Theater in Phoenix

May 1: Pearl Concert Theater at The Palms in Las Vegas

May 4: Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in Reno, Nev.

May 5: San Jose State University Events Center in San Jose, Calif.

May 6: Sacramento Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, Calif.

May 9: Mackey Auditorium in Boulder, Colo.

May 10: Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver

May 13: McFarlin Memorial Auditorium, SMU, Dallas

May 14: Austin Music Hall in Austin, Tex.

May 15: Brady Theater in Tulsa, Okla.

May 16: Midland Theater in Kansas City

May 18: Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis

May 19: Chicago Theater in Chicago

May 22: Massey Hall in Toronto

May 30: Borgata Spa & Resort Event Center in Atlantic City, N.J.

June 1: Radio City Music Hall in New York

>> Previously:  Conan O’Brien $45 Million Dollar Deal with NBC Final

Conan O’Brien $45 Million Dollar Deal with NBC Final

NBC announced Thursday they had reached a final deal with Conan O’Brien for $45 million. O’Brien will receive $33 million for his exit as host of The Tonight Show. The rest of the settlement will go to his staff for severance pay and contract buy-outs.

Conan O'Brien (Photo: U.S. Embassy at Helsinki)
Conan O'Brien (Photo: U.S. Embassy at Helsinki)

The deal will allow Jay Leno to resume his former post of 17 years as host of The Tonight Show on March 1st. As part of the deal, Conan O’Brien has been asked not to return to television for eight months. “NBC and Conan O’Brien have reached a resolution of the issues surrounding O’Brien’s contract to host The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” the network said in a press statement Thursday.

“Under terms of an agreement that was signed earlier today, NBC and O’Brien will settle their contractual obligations and the network will release O’Brien from his contract, freeing him to pursue other opportunities after September 1, 2010.”

“We’re pleased that Jay is returning to host the franchise that he helmed brilliantly and successfully for many years,” said Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment. “He is an enormous talent, a consummate professional and one of the hardest-working performers on television.”

Conan O’Brien will make his last appearance as host of The Tonight Show on Friday.

Frankly, we could do without seeing either one of them on the air for a while. All this media frenzy about the Jay Leno versus Conan O’Brien feud has just left us bored with both of them – and once again astounding by the stupidity of television network executives in general.

>> Previously:  Conan O’Brien Furious Over Jay Leno Late Night Shake Up