Conan's Back

I waited until after episode two to write this, mainly because I wanted to see if it could follow up with a great opener.

If you've been reading my blog since the beginning, then you've read my huge Conan/NBC breakup rant that lead into several long posts. I was furious. Conan's been the only late-night personality I really liked, since Leno and Letterman seemed too professional and corporate. Conan didn't He was crazy and spastic and it was awesome. Conan had to tune it down when he got moved to 11:30, and it wasn't totally the same. NBC is run by morons (even tho Zuckerberg is on his way out finally) and they're in last place behind king of network reality trash Fox.

The whole Conan/NBC breakup must of been humiliating for Conan. He was metaphorically slaughtered in front of national television over several weeks. He stuck to his principles and paid the price for it. NBC put him off for 9 months. While he was in limbo with NBC and still doing shows, it's the funniest he's ever been. Angry Conan was awesome.

While he was off the air, he did a comedy tour and built a huge social media campaign to keep his name out there and his popularity at a continual high. So Conan's finally back. It doesn't really matter what he says or does, it's just nice to have him back. The first few weeks will be all about how everyone supported Conan and he took less money and stupid jokes like that. It's nice to have him back and it's even better that it's on at 11. Makes it more time-friendly for East Coasters who need to be up early for something called work. I don't know anything about that concept, but most people do.

What gets interesting now is how Conan's competing with Leno/Letterman and now Jon Stewart too. I used to love watching Stewart but fell off the wagon before college. And, after the first two shows, Conan is killing everyone. He's got the popularity over the rest of them and the timeslot to win. And I think TBS will do anything they can to keep him content. To NBC he was just one of many, to TBS he's one of one. (I'm not considering George Lopez anything worth anything). TBS might be on a lower budget but they're making network-money off advertising to spend on this show.

I think Conan's on a mission. He's not going to be on a smear campaign for Leno, but he's going to be trying his hardest to beat out everyone. And he's got the platform to succeed. He's basically taken his network show to a basic cable channel on an earlier timeslot. His only real competition to me (and my coveted demographic) is Jon Stewart. My only concern is will I keep watching? Will I be watching in 3 months? Will I care? Will anyone still care? The sparkle of the "Conan's back" routine will fade away, and then he just becomes another talk show. Sure, he's the only one I'd want to watch, but do I really want to watch a talk show at 11? How tired do we get of actors plugging their movies? I bet most people would rather watch Jersey Shore re-runs than hearing what Samuel L. Jackson is up to. So who knows. I predict I'll watch the monologue and then peace out - pending the guests.

Either way, I'm happy that Conan's got his show back, and that he can take out the competition that kicked him out. Any joke regarding NBC makes me burst out laughing. It's great. And seeing the Masturbating Bear? It's always nice to see old friends.

Go CoCo.