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Conan O’Brien is returning to TV via CBS’ 60 Minutes whose Steve Kroft has landed the first interview with the former Tonight Show host. It’s already been taped and will air on Sunday, May 2. That’s a day after O’Brien’s ban on giving interviews under his exit deal with NBC is lifted. He still won’t be able to disparage his former employer but O’Brien “flirts with the restrictions”, Kroft told The New York Times. O’Brien has already done that with some pointed jokes on his comedy tour, including referring to the NBC compound in Universal City as the place where “bad ideas are being greenlit”. 60 Minutes won’t make the transcript of the interview available until Sunday.
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HAHA Nice burn re: Oprah
Remember when Johnny Carson went on that big attention whoring media blitz where you couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing him?
Yeah, no you don’t.
I’m no Leno fan, but some of us have had enough of the ongoing self-congratulatory Coco show.
Conan is a talented, caring super-cool person that graces the USA with shows currently running coast to coast. His shows support the crew that NBC left in Los Angeles after they dropped him from a 5 year contract.
Horrible the way corporations treat people, contracts and have no feelings for people and their family life, and a move from New York to Los Angeles……NBC shame on you, and the Comcast & NBC deal – horrible….just horrible….Comcast is a horrible employer to its employees…..non union in many cities and back breaking overtime work…..Comcast is another name for slave owner….
Horrible…..Conan rocks and has his intregity in tact. More so then most humans…Rave reviews from fans who pack the venues at his shows…..Conan is a people person….not some premadona at a desk making poor decisions in his air conditioned office.
Team Conan
The Jay Leno Show should be called – Your hour with Walmart….
Conan is rockn the USA Coast to Coast with his sold out venues to his true and loyal fans….the high price tickets are to help his crew get back on track. We went to the San Francisco show and it was so thrilling…..we love Conan….
This very special episode of 60 Minutes will be brought to you by Kleenex. He is not cool (he said so nightly) and not caring. He damaged a 60 year franchise and never takes any responsibility for a drowning network needed a quick save. He pushed out Leno, he has now pushed out Lopez. Stop thinking these famous people are kind and gentle no matter how many times they tell you. Hopefully he will enjoy his obscurity following Tyler Perry reruns.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. NBC ruined the tonight show franchise by creating this entire mess. Conan was ready to bolt to another network but NBC panicked and promised him the tonight show because back then Jay Leno sucked (and still does). Even so, NBC never really gave him a fair shake seeing how they just put Jay in the 10pm slot right before Conan.
It was NBC’s fault that Conan’s legion of fans didn’t watch him for months until it was too late? That he didn’t do a mainstream 11:35 show? That he didn’t ramp up with bigger guests until his farewell shows? Look, no one seems to change their minds on pro-Conan or anti-Conan but if he isn’t going to take responsibility for the low numbers, he shouldn’t be surprised when after a few weeks at TBS, no one remembers to watch.
Conan is a niche performer, he’s found his niche.
He should have come out strong against Letterman, went to war with the old man and destroyed him.
Instead, “Coco” went soft, played nice, and Letterman whupped his ass, drove him to basic cable.
I hope Conan talks about how his show at the Gibson last weekend was unbearable and a waste of $80 because it consisted of:
TOO MUCH MUSIC: WTF. I get it, you like to play the guitar. Do it at home. Conan and all the music he’s subjecting fans to on this tour is like Michael Jordan experimenting with baseball, but instead of leaving the NBA and heading to a $5-a-seat minor-league baseball field, he shows up to a $150-a-seat Bulls game wearing cleats and a glove and expects everyone to be cool with it.
Conan, on this tour, for the sake of your fans who could listen to you talk for hours on end, just do what you do best and experiment on your own time (or on TV, when I don’t have to pay to watch you try new things). And before someone says, “Then you shouldn’t have bought a ticket,” I bought my ticket before reviews of the show started to come in and I learned it was basically a night at the Grand Ole Opry.
OBNOXIOUS HIPSTER COMEDIANS: Aziz Ansari, Jonah Hill, Seth Green. We get it, you drink coffee at Intelligentsia in Silver Lake, wear plaid shirts and act all awkward and “awwww shucks, who me?” on stage. That’s not getting old at all.
AN AWFUL OPENING ACT THAT SUCKED THE AIR OUT OF THE ROOM: Reggie Watts, who was terrible, but in interviews conveniently gives the whole, “If I’ve made an audience member uncomfortable, confused or walk out, then I’ve done my job” excuse that allows a comedian to feel as if they’ve succeeded whether they’ve made someone laugh or not. In this case, I didn’t laugh, which by his logic means he got into my head and is actually the greatest comic working today. Nice try, Andy Kaufman-Watts.
“His shows support the crew that NBC left in Los Angeles after they dropped him from a 5 year contract.”
People talk about whatever reasons were involved, but the bottom line is that Conan quit his job. No one fired him, and by walking out he is the one who put his staff out of work, no one else. To move forward in this industry and to stick around, you have to be willing to do the work. We all saw what happened, the going got tough and Conan got going…
I’m not saying this about you specifically, but your point is part of a clear double-standard made by Leno supporters: whenever the argument is Conan’s merit as a talk show host, it’s always about how he never made it in the ratings, so NBC dumped him. But whenever it’s about how Conan spent most of his negotiations trying to get better deals for his staff members, or is going on tour without taking any profit for himself, the argument is that it was Conan’s fault to begin with for leaving NBC.
Leno supporters can’t have it both ways. Either NBC deservedly ditched Conan, who’s a good guy that thinks about his staff first; or, Conan selfishly left on his own accord, which implies NBC would’ve kept him around at 11:30.
It’s also always strange to see the arguments in other posts that Conan pushed out Leno, and now Lopez. Until the next Late Shift comes out, we don’t know whether NBC offered or Conan asked for the Tonight Show back in 2004. Besides a single New York Post article, all signs point to Lopez being in favor of the TBS deal. But Leno publicly stated he was fine with pushing Conan (and Fallon) by half-an-hour. You can’t insult Conan based on rumor for pushing people out and ignore the fact Leno wanted to do the same (even saying nothing about the Leno/Carson).
Please! Enough of this guy! Can we take a collection for another fourteen million to get away from US?
Great site!
Conan is funny. Leno has never been funny. Don’t go see his tour if you don’t like him. No one is forcing anyone to buy a ticket!
Great. Yet ANOTHER chance for Nikki and all the Coco fanatics to rip Jay Leno. This a night after Letterman called Jay a ‘boob’. You mean the ‘boob’ who whips your butt in the ratings every night?
Hey, I watch maybe an Hour of the late night comedy shows a year – combined. I have no dog in the fight. But, Nikki and all the other self-appointed cool kids who can’t stand Leno are the ones being poor sports.
Actually, Leno’s ratings are the lowest they’ve ever been, and still falling. His current ratings are LOWER than Conan’s ratings when CoCo was on the Tonight Show. Sure, in the beginning, Jay had a surge of ratings because everyone wanted to see what cool new things would be done with the show; but when they realized that Jay was still doing his tired, obnoxious old routine, the audience quickly dwindled.
Not sure where you get your info. According to my local NBC affiliate, Leno’s ratings are beating Letterman nightly and are definitely higher than Conan’s ever were. I happen to reside in one of the country’s top ten markets. Leno is The King of Late Night once again.
What’s up with the comment moderation Nikke? I wrote two words: “Who cares?” and it was deleted. Not everyone is a Conan fan!
As predicted, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has been beating Letterman nightly ever since March 1. That’s news you’ll never see reported here.
Lets face facts, shall wee. NBC mismanaged the Tonight Show and it’s entire prime-time lineup. This isn’t Conan’s fault and Leno gets more blame than he deserves (which is a decent amount), but this all falls at the feet of NBC and Zucker.
Letterman had it right: Jay Leno should have left gracefully off to ABC, where he’d have his own show and probably a nice, swanky deal to go with it. And then begin whooping some ass there. He’d have the high ground, got to show NBC what he’s made of and so forth.
On NBC’s hand, they could have thrown all their support around the new, young, hip guy taking over the Tonight Show. Make a huge event out of it. It was the changing of the guard. They could have taken a look at their prime-time shows and see what was and wasn’t working for themselves and rebuilt. Instead they were stupid.
At least Conan stuck to his principles. He held the show in high regard and didn’t want it messed with. He made sure his people were paid enough so they could hold out til he got a new show and has provided a job for them on his road show. I don’t see how anyone can slag him for that. And I don’t see how his tour is “self congratulatory”. He’s going around, making jokes about his situation and playing to his fans and what they want (NBC mocking and other general Conan silliness).
I don’t think the interview will live up to the hype leading up to it. I just don’t see him be legally able to answer the questions people want to know
“Stephen” – You are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. Leno’s ratings are LOWER than Conan’s? All the ratings data out there shows that Leno’s ratings are higher than Conan’s were from day one of Leno’s return.
Perhaps Stephen is using some obscure sub-demographic like redheaded 20-30 year old Irishmen to ‘prove’ that Conan is getting better ratings than Leno.
here are a couple of reference articles showing the true ratings picture. Let’s see Stephen’s: http://www.411mania.com/movies/news/135196/%5BTV%5D-Leno-Killing-Letterman-In-The-Ratings.htm
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/01/04/conan-beats-dave-with-18-49-viewers-in-4th-quarter/37565