A big blowup between NBC and Conan O’Brien has sent ratings for “The Tonight Show” soaring.
But it appears the boost will be too little too late for Conan to save his position with the illustrious program.
For those who somehow missed it, the flap revolves around Conan’s refusal to be bumped back to 12:05 a.m. behind Jay Leno, who would resume his old slot at 11:30 p.m. Click here for the latest on the story.
Conan has been on fire amid the dispute. “The Tonight Show” episodes from last week were as good as anything I can remember from “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” And I remember laughing to the point of tears on several occasions while watching him on “Late Night.”
With his quirky, physical, self-deprecating, juvenile-with-a-purpose humor, Conan won my heart and became my favorite talk show host. He surpassed Letterman in my mind, and even Jon Stewart, who I love.
The skits on “Late Night” pushed the envelope with their random, obscure characters and subjects. There was the cigar chomping Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, “If They Mated,” Pimpbot 5000, “In the Year 2000” and hundreds of others. Even when skits were duds they became humorous when Conan mocked them or himself or the show.
If I had a criticism about his tenure on “The Tonight Show,” it was that it felt slightly watered down compared with “Late Night.” Then again, I was part of the problem. I wasn’t watching him much in his new time slot and I’m not sure why (hadn’t been watching much of anything on TV). “The Tonight Show” had been getting bombed by Letterman in the ratings.
Also, something I have to believe is a factor: the physical move from New York to Los Angeles. Conan’s an East Coaster and it takes awhile to adjust to the drastically different culture and mode of living in SoCal. Maybe Conan was still attempting to locate his inner mega-narcissistic diva.
Anyway, in the past week I’ve plugged back into Conan and been reminded why I enjoy him so much. His monologues have included plenty of NBC bashing (which may soon come to an end), but they’ve been irresistible. His razor wit seems to have been sharpened by the whole affair. I found myself laughing loudly during his Thursday interview with actor Rob Lowe.
Leno might be a nice guy, but he’s nowhere near Conan in terms of engagement with guests. Letterman often seems visibly bored or irritated by the people on his show. I’m not sure why Jimmy Kimmel has a show. Stewart’s pretty good with visitors, but it’s a smaller segment of “The Daily Show.” Conan pulls off the feat of being genuinely interested and genuinely funny.
This could be Conan’s last week on NBC. I’m already dreading his disappearance.
I can only try to “be cool babies” and hope it doesn’t last too long.
