NBC Late night shuffle

[imref]

There are reports that NBC will replace Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon next year after Leno's contract expires, and that Howard Stern would take Fallon's spot.

I can't imagine how happy Howard would be to see Leno gone.

[mitlen]

There are reports that NBC will replace Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon next year after Leno's contract expires, and that Howard Stern would take Fallon's spot.

I can't imagine how happy Howard would be to see Leno gone.

I was never a Tonight Show fan but I watched Carson on occasion.   I've watched Leno since I've been unemployed.   I've never seen Fallon do his show.   Stern  ...  blah.

[hammondsnats]

love leno.  my fave of all-time.

[comish4lif]

I know that he judges that talent show, but do you think a network will trust Howard to host a TV show on his own, even if it is the late, late show?

[Slateman]

Fallon is garbage.

Strike that. You know when it rains and some water gets in the trash can and sits for days and days in the hot, humid air? That's Fallon's talent level.

[CALSGR8]

I love Fallon!

[Coladar]

NBC truly, truly doesn't get it. That's obvious just looking at their lineup and ratings, but did they learn nothing from Conan? Nothing?

Fallon appeals to an even younger, more banal and retarded audience. Conan was the smart and 20ish, now 30ish audience, Fallon more the drunken college dorm room gigglefest. Fallon moves to the Tonight Show, and the wacky humor he's found a niche with gets tossed out so they don't lose the 40-60 somethings who keep Leno on the air. He has to, and when he ditches that he has absolutely nothing to bring.. That's what NBC is too damn stupid to get:

11:35 is the 40-60 working stiffs who want some laughs in bed after the local news. 12:35 are the people who don't have to be up at 6am. Move 12:35am show to 11:35 with the same format, you'll still get 12:35am numbers or worse. Those working stiffs don't find the college humor appealing. And christ, putting Stern on at 12:35... His brand of humor isn't exactly big with the high school-college 12:35am audience.

If Conan failed as miserably as he did at 11:35 despite the talent/resources he had, Fallon's one trick pony and far weaker comedic abilities will go up in flames. 11:35 needs the Letterman or Carson, the Ed Sullivan type - a likeable, charismatic fellow who can read jokes and is an excellent interviewer. Someone grannies can watch and 'get.' That's not Fallon... Dare I say, but if you toned down Stern he could actually work at 11:35 - way more than Fallon, and way better than he himself could with the 12:35 slot/show.

I love Craig Ferguson, think he's an absolute genius with his show and its the *only* show where celebrities come to pimp out their projects that I watch. But Geoff the robotic gay skeleton and Secretariat the two interns in a wacky horse costume dancing around? That fails epicly taking over for Letterman. 11:35 and 12:35 are two very different beasts, requiring two very different types of shows.

In other words, NBC still doesn't get it, and never will. That's one sinking ship that's already underwater.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

NBC took over the redneck hunting channel and now shows skiing & stuff there, so the network deserves some credit.

NBC truly, truly doesn't get it. That's obvious just looking at their lineup and ratings, but did they learn nothing from Conan? Nothing?

Fallon appeals to an even younger, more banal and retarded audience. Conan was the smart and 20ish, now 30ish audience, Fallon more the drunken college dorm room gigglefest. Fallon moves to the Tonight Show, and the wacky humor he's found a niche with gets tossed out so they don't lose the 40-60 somethings who keep Leno on the air. He has to, and when he ditches that he has absolutely nothing to bring.. That's what NBC is too damn stupid to get:

11:35 is the 40-60 working stiffs who want some laughs in bed after the local news. 12:35 are the people who don't have to be up at 6am. Move 12:35am show to 11:35 with the same format, you'll still get 12:35am numbers or worse. Those working stiffs don't find the college humor appealing. And christ, putting Stern on at 12:35... His brand of humor isn't exactly big with the high school-college 12:35am audience.

If Conan failed as miserably as he did at 11:35 despite the talent/resources he had, Fallon's one trick pony and far weaker comedic abilities will go up in flames. 11:35 needs the Letterman or Carson, the Ed Sullivan type - a likeable, charismatic fellow who can read jokes and is an excellent interviewer. Someone grannies can watch and 'get.' That's not Fallon... Dare I say, but if you toned down Stern he could actually work at 11:35 - way more than Fallon, and way better than he himself could with the 12:35 slot/show.

I love Craig Ferguson, think he's an absolute genius with his show and its the *only* show where celebrities come to pimp out their projects that I watch. But Geoff the robotic gay skeleton and Secretariat the two interns in a wacky horse costume dancing around? That fails epicly taking over for Letterman. 11:35 and 12:35 are two very different beasts, requiring two very different types of shows.

In other words, NBC still doesn't get it, and never will. That's one sinking ship that's already underwater.

[Coladar]

NBC took over the redneck hunting channel and now shows skiing & stuff there, so the network deserves some credit.

NBC also took over the Weather Channel and stopped showing the weather. Oh, and aren't they the jerks behind naming winter storms that starts this year? Jesus, the balls it takes for some reality TV network to try and gain both publicity and legitimacy by naming snow storms like hurricanes. A. I'm not a fan of personalizing tropical systems, but they at least have a clear definition. A snow storm is just a storm with cold temperatures. Last time I checked, regionally the 'Blizzard of '**' worked fine. This BS of Snowmageddon and Snowquester, made worse by NBC trying to give them their own names, is idiot sensationalist media trying to hype everything up to gain ratings and appeal to idiots.

Oh. And NBC also owns G4. ZDTV, TechTv used to be my absolute favorite channel. Screen Savers with Leo & Kate/Patrick. Silicon Spin, Unscrewed, etc. G4 has just in the past month canceled both the travesty Attack of the Show and Gamespot TV/X-Play. The gaming network, canceling the only show left about games. It's replacement? Quantum fing Leap, a quarter century old show. Oh, and Cops every other hour. Considering those two were the last original programming on the network, NBC canceled G4s only shows and replaced them with... nothing. Genius idea, that.

They also own SyFy. Lets ignore the retarded renaming Sci-Fi Sy-Fy. A network that used to have some decent science fiction shows? Good lord. I'm a hardcore nerd/geek, and the last time I even flipped that on was three years ago. Urkle hosting a show where people stumble around in the dark, a bunch of jerks pretending ghosts are real, and absolute dreck scripted trash targeting the lowest common denominator imaginable? Sci-Fis scripted shows are, every last one, the furthest thing from quality science fiction possible.

It's not just the parent channel... Every damn network they own is a train wreck. I don't know how it's possible they can hire so many different people so utterly clueless, but its proof positive that every aspect of their entertainment division is riddled with idiocy. I literally despise NBC. I'm big into meteorology, tech and games, and sci-fi and horror fiction. NBC has pissed and crapped on them all, destroying and rebranding for morons with an IQ below 80.

I think it's comical that they apparently bought the channel made for the demographic they seek with all their other networks, then put skiing on. Say what we like about rednecks and hunters, but FoxNews proves there's a ton of them. Buying a hunting network and putting goddamn skiing on there makes as much sense as anything else NBC does - none. When the hunters stop watching and nobody tunes in to watch people skiing, they've got another network to show Cops reruns on.

[Terpfan76]

I'm not much for hunting shows but I know a lot of those rednecks that do. I agree, its stupid. Velocity is one of my favorite channels, well it was until discovery decided it needed over half its programming to be about freaking animals and crap like that as opposed to cars and stuff that made it a hit with gear heads.

[Tyler Durden]

I think Fallon is a pretty logical follow-on to Leno.  They're both kind of vanilla and non-threatening. 

[mitlen]

NBC took over the redneck hunting channel and now shows skiing & stuff there, so the network deserves some credit.

What scares me is they also got the rights for the EPL.

[Baseball is Life]

Kimmel is really growing on me. He's tough to beat.

[Coladar]

I think Fallon is a pretty logical follow-on to Leno.  They're both kind of vanilla and non-threatening. 

Doesn't get more vanilla than Conan though - if there's something paler than vanilla, it's Conan O'Brian. And you may well be right as far as personality goes. But there's a huge problem, and that is Fallon' 12:35 show. His humor has always been banal, but he streamlined the frathouse type humor for his show. All those years doing it one way, Conan showed what happens when you try to force them into a totally different type of talk show.

My point? There's never really been a successful handing over of 12:35 to 11:35. Letterman rose in a different era, and his 12:35 show was what Late Show is now. This idea of passing the baton from 12:35 to 11:35, the way the 12:35 (Conan, Fallon and Ferguson) are now will be doomed to failure. Simply won't work. You need to hire someone to develop in the 11:35 slot... If they'd hired Fallon to take over for Leno, maybe, maybe it worked.

As I said, I could see Stern possibly doing the Tonight Show. Another idea would be Carson Daly - yeah, he gets a crapload of hate. But he's bland, vanilla, and would work in the 11:35 slot. Barring that, hire someone that hasn't spent years perfecting the 15-30 male humor and let them take a shot. Toss Jon Stewart a few billion dollars, and bribe Comedy Central to let him out of his contract. That would work. Seth MacFarlene, much as I hate Family Guy, would also work despite his current audience being Fallons - he hasn't developed to cater a talkshow to that audience. Chelsea Handler, who I also don't like, would even work. Chris Hardwick? Probably. There are a million folks who could do it, and Fallon isn't one of them simply because he's spent years now becoming the host of Late Night, and would move a staff built around that with him to 11:35 just like Conan did.

This is nobrainer stuff to begin with, anyone working at NBC should grasp... The fact that not only do they not, they don't even after the trainwreck of Conan shows precisely why everything NBC Universal touches ends up in total failure.

[Coladar]

I'm not much for hunting shows but I know a lot of those rednecks that do. I agree, its stupid. Velocity is one of my favorite channels, well it was until discovery decided it needed over half its programming to be about freaking animals and crap like that as opposed to cars and stuff that made it a hit with gear heads.

I especially loathe NBC, deeply. But it's endimic to the entire market: CBS with MTV. Mark Cuban has shown there's a market for a channel showing music - Crap, what's more universal than music? Everybody listens to music. Put an HD channel showing videos, or devoted to concerts? You won't go bankrupt, that's for sure. Heck, look at Nick@Nite/TVLand - a network devoted to airing the most successful shows over 50 years has killed itself to dreck with Fran Drescher and Betty White or Friends 10 hours a day. Meanwhile a ton of new networks devoted to retro TV have popped up to fill the void and find an audience - I just saw last night WJLA is replacing their weather channel with a new one.

These networks would be in far better shape and could survive easily sticking with their audience. Again with MTV, they became so unassociated with music that no one bothered tuning in when they did show it. Even so, does showing reruns of a Tosh.0 ripoff or Jersey Shore from 8am-8pm every day get more ratings, or music videos? Yet still they air marathons of the three or four original shows they have to fill every damn hour... They are all completely clueless and directionless. It's just a shame they own everything and dilute their targeted holdings like History or a Sci-Fi network in desperation for ratings and to prop up their entire brand rather than focusing on each one as its own individual brand.

[HalfSmokes]

Is CMT the only music station left with videos?

[Coladar]

Is CMT the only music station left with videos?

CMT airs music? Most times in my guide its either reruns of Reba or Yes Dear. I'm not into country music, so CMT I don't know about. MTV still airs music four or five days a week, from 4-5am until 8-9am. Fuse shows music all the time. Less than they used to, but still several hours a day and not when everyone is asleep. Palladia, an HD channel, shows music 24/7. HDNet, rebranded AXSTV, shows music several hours daily now, all concerts. VH1, I don't know if they still do in the middle of the night or not.

There are a million SD basic cable channels, most MTV(something) that show music videos pretty much 24/7, but I won't watch SD. As far as the main channels go, with HD feeds, Fuse is by far the best of the music video variety, Palladia for concerts.

I've been sticking with VOD. MTV's VOD doesn't even have music offerings anymore, which is absurd. Fuse, Havoc and Music Choice all have hundreds available whenever you want. That's where I get my music video fix nowadays.

[Lintyfresh85]

Friends is dreck?

Also, G4 got cancelled. Channel is becoming GQ.

[Terpfan76]

Vh1 classic airs a lot of great metal videos from back in the day.

What about Daniel Tosh? He's a bit crude but I'd watch. Drew Carey would be decent.

[HalfSmokes]

Tosh could never last on network (can you imagine the 'outrage'  if he did 'is it racist' on NBC?)

[Terpfan76]

Tosh could never last on network (can you imagine the 'outrage'  if he did 'is it racist' on NBC?)

But damn wouldn't it be hilarious?

[imref]

Kimmel is really growing on me. He's tough to beat.

Same here.  I still like Letterman but if I'm watching anything, it's usually Kimmel though his best stuff was when he did The Man Show.

[Coladar]

Friends is dreck?

Also, G4 got cancelled. Channel is becoming GQ.

Nah, the dreck comment was limited to their original programming. But showing four or so hours of Friends every night instead of having a different show every half hour? I'll take I Love Lucy, Happy Days, MASH, Taxi, All In The Family, Mary Tyler Moore Show AND one episode of Friends each night over the way it is now.

I recall reading that about VGA which highlights my point. Sheer idiocy at NBC - yes, there are zero channels about technology and games. Lets abandon a niche with no competition and go head to head against Spike, Comedy Central and the trillion other networks targeting the young male demo. Brilliant, that.

Tosh would die a horrid death on network TV. Most comedians are raunchy, but his brand of comedy would drive censors nuts and give the parent/moral police groups a stroke.

[DPMOmaha]

Nah, the dreck comment was limited to their original programming. But showing four or so hours of Friends every night instead of having a different show every half hour? I'll take I Love Lucy, Happy Days, MASH, Taxi, All In The Family, Mary Tyler Moore Show AND one episode of Friends each night over the way it is now.

I recall reading that about VGA which highlights my point. Sheer idiocy at NBC - yes, there are zero channels about technology and games. Lets abandon a niche with no competition and go head to head against Spike, Comedy Central and the trillion other networks targeting the young male demo. Brilliant, that.

Tosh would die a horrid death on network TV. Most comedians are raunchy, but his brand of comedy would drive censors nuts and give the parent/moral police groups a stroke.

Did the now non-existent channels about technology and games also tank in ratings?  I know cable channels don't generally kill in those things, but if there was nobody watching, it's not that hard to figure out why they'd disappear.  Especially since those that are tech savvy don't go to obscure cable channels to learn about technology, they go to google.  And gamers don't go to obscure cable channels to learn about games, they're playing them.

[Coladar]

Did the now non-existent channels about technology and games also tank in ratings?  I know cable channels don't generally kill in those things, but if there was nobody watching, it's not that hard to figure out why they'd disappear.  Especially since those that are tech savvy don't go to obscure cable channels to learn about technology, they go to google.  And gamers don't go to obscure cable channels to learn about games, they're playing them.

It never existed to fail. It's a convoluted story, but once upon a time there was ZDTV/TechTV. Filled to the brim with original programming catering to technology. Comcast starts G4, wanting to be the SpikeTV of gaming. Problem? It's owned by Comcast. Nobody else would carry it on their system.

Problem solved! Comcast buys TechTV, and gets instant carriage on basically every provider around. Ahh, but G4 already has it's own thing, it's own programming, all catering to 13 year old boys. TechTV, with 50 somethings like Leo Laporte and John Davorak? Doesn't mesh. Worse still, TechTV records in San Francisco and G4 in LA. G4 guts the entirety of TechTV, firing everybody and canceling everything but Extended Play, the half hour video game show. Tech's most successful property, The Screen Savers, had it's talent removed within a month of G4 ownership before being canceled and replaced with Attack of the Show.

G4 was a failure when it was only on Comcast, and as soon as they got into every home with TechTV the same 0.0002% (exaggerating) ratings applied. Only instead of 0.0002% of, say 1million homes, it was 0.0002% of 30 million.

TechTV had a large audience. It was a successful venture, aside from their experiment during the day to compete with CNBC. The Screen Savers and Call For Help had decent ratings right up til Comcast gutted it. Of those G4 squandered, Kevin Rose of Digg.com fame, and several folks behind both the Revision3 and This Week In Tech podcasts/video that remain successful today.

NBC now controls said G4 failure, and instead of realizing the G4 experiment never worked and returning to TechTV they decide to compete with Spike as GQ. A network dedicated to technology worked for several years, and it still would today. Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton, TechTVs stars, have devoted followings producing the same content for the web that they did for TechTV. Heck, all NBC need do is buy one of them and put their stuff on TV. It worked once. Cobrand it with SyFy? Science fact and science fiction? It'd make too much sense for the idiocy of NBC Universal.

If anyone thinks a technology network would be interesting, I strongly suggest checking out This Week In Tech and Revision3. Each uses TechTV's talent and produces several shows per week, catering to any interest one might have. Apple shows, Google ones, gaming, home theatre tech, whatever. This Week In Tech is Twit's general purpose show, Tekzilla Revision3's. Both worth a gander.

Http://revision3.com
Http://twit.tv