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According to comedian/filmmaker Mark Malkoff, one theory that has not yet been publicly discussed in the late night mess is "Will Ferrell. Yes, Will Ferrell. I call it 'The Will Ferrell Curse'. You see, every time Ferrell has appeared as the first guest on a talk show the show hasn't lasted longer that a season. He was the first guest on John McEnroe's talk show on CNBC which lasted six months. Next Ferrell was the first guest on the very talented Megan Mullally's talk show that lasted a mere five months. Currently with Conan leaving Ferrell is zero for three." Yes, he was Conan's first Tonight Show guest last June. And now it looks as if he'll be Conan's last Tonight Show guest this Friday. As O'Brien foreshadowed on air last night, "I'm 3 days away from the biggest drinking binge in history."
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For once I am confused. Why don’t they just tie earnings to ratings?
Conan walks with millions for failing. He will now get a deal at Fox, say $100 million for five years, and will never be a ratings winner. Thus failing again. Thus failing upward. I don’t care how smart he is or how smart you think you are for watching him. It comes down to business and income should be tied to results. Conan is a failure. And yes, so is Letterman. Sorry folks. The reason Jon “oh he is so so great” Stewart stays at Comedy Central is because he’s competing against nobody so he’s the winner. Look at Jimmy “is this guy for real? or are we just stupid?” Kimmel. The worst ever. Still makes millions. Why? To fail?
Thank you.
Your idea of pay for performance is admirable, but in an age where attorneys reign and the threat of litigation is a market force, its not applicable. Entertainment compensation is more like Wall Street than Sports.
Nikki, I do believe you may be right about Will Ferrell. The “curse” of his bombing movies has transcended to talk shows. Scary. If I were a talent coordinator I would be careful of booking Ferrell at this point- even if he wasn’t the first guest.
I think we should ban Will Ferrell from appearing on talk shows.
And from making really crappy movies.
Ferrell is great for sketches, but long acting dialogues and chat shows just don’t fit him.
Andy Richter is the curse!
Stay classy, Jay Leno!
Perhaps Will is “feril” when it come to being a first ever guest…
Ferrell was also the last live guest on Late Night with Conan O’brien. I think he is in Conan’s arsenal of distraction. He does bring along a sense of the fearlessness in times of uncertainty.
Now, if the curse is for real, someone PLEASE GOD, get him booked on Leno when he returns.
I was just going to post that, GladGirl.
Get Will On Big-Jaw’s show the first night.
Will didn’t kill Megan’s show. She did that all on her own. While she was fabulous on Will & Grace, she was an awful talk show host. It was torture watching her.
Ummm… last time I checked, you’ve written approximately 59,000,000 posts about NBC’s comedy of errors over the past couple of years. How quickly you forget yesterday’s news. The curse is NBC. Not Will.
Aw, Will Ferrell!
But in any case, if it’s the curse, then pleasepleaseplease be the first guest on Jay Leno’s ‘new’ Tonight Show.
Maybe it’s the curse of Irish talk show hosts? I’m 1/4 Irish btw.
What’s even funnier is that Will Ferrell sang Conan a farewell song on his first Tonight Show. When Conan asked why Ferrell said something like “No offense, but we really can’t believe this actually happened.” Rather grimly prophetic. Even though I felt the exact same way at the time.
Are we really trying to put this on Will Ferrell? Maybe, and just maybe, it has something to do with all three shows having low ratings.
And speaking of ratings, if half the people holding these “IM With Coco” rallies were watching Conan for the last few months, he wouldn’t be in the predicament he is in now.
Ferrell sings “Never Gonna Say Goodbye” then says:
“This whole thing is a crapshoot, at best. You’ve got some shaky studio execs back there waiting to pull the plug at any second.”
http://www.hulu.com/watch/75497/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-will-ferrell-interview-part-2
Prohetic indeed.
Wanna see a funny Will movie — check out Stepbrothers! Classic!
It’s not Will Ferrell…I blame Gary Sanchez !
The fact that Will Ferrell is even jokingly considered a curse is a tribute to how pathetic this man’s brand of comedy actually is. Please make him go away.
I used to find Will Ferrel amusing, but now I try not to see him anywhere.
No, there isn’t a curse. That’s ridiculous.
Mark Malkoff is the funniest! Yay for him for getting a shout out on this site!
I agree with this, in a roundabout way. Conan’s people booked Ferrell for the first day, Hanks for the second. If you saw both of those shows (and unlike most of the people holding “I’m with Coco” signs, I did) Ferrell was a lackluster guest, while Hanks was great. The decision to put Hanks second echoes the kind of thinking that killed Conan’s show. It wasn’t Leno, it wasn’t NBC – it was Conan’s people thinking small potatoes. If you’re a show with sagging ratings, why do you book Norm MacDonald three times in 7 months? Why do put a sketch comedian like Ferrell ahead of one of the biggest movie stars/best talk show guests in the world? Why do you get Paris Hilton to do Bob Hope’s classic Tonight Show number? I stopped watching regularly after the first two weeks, and I’m a fan.
I wish Conan the best in his future endeavors, but he’s got no one to blame for this debacle but himself.