LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Winter Olympics can’t come soon enough for NBC. Until then, there’s little the network can do to stop their talk show hosts from taking nightly jabs at their apparent late night ineptitude. Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien has finally broken his off-air silence, rejecting the proposed move to 12:05 a.m. ET in a statement released today:
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Who knew it would take over 15 years for the chinks in NBC’s late night armor to show? Indeed, what goes around seems to be coming around for the network that once branded itself “America’s Late Night Leader.”
It’s becoming clear that the decisions NBC made in 1991 set the stage for the giant mess currently waiting at its doorstep.
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Rumors began swirling today about the future of NBC late night. With an end to the 10 p.m. (9 p.m. CT) Jay Leno Show imminent, many people are wondering what will happen to new Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien.
It has been said many times over that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Such is true of NBC.
The network that passed over David Letterman as Johnny Carson’s successor for The Tonight Show in the early 1990s seems to have made a similar gaffe with Leno and O’Brien. Like former NBC Entertainment executive Warren Littlefield – made infamous by Bill Carter’s book The Late Shift and a subsequent HBO movie of the same name, current entertainment chief Jeff Gaspin offered the 11:30 time slot to a seemingly hot commodity, O’Brien, in order to prevent losing him to a rival network.
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Here are portions of the June 12 episode of “Smokey and the Bear,” when I weighed in on the David Letterman-Sarah Palin fiasco:
This whole thing about David Letterman and Sarah Palin. Basically, my opinion is this.
David Letterman made a few jokes the other night about Sarah Palin and Sarah Palin’s daughter. He was intending the jokes to be about the 18-year-old who had a baby that, by the way, Sarah Palin’s husband on an interview on the Today show referred to–with his daughter and baby in hand. He’s sitting next to his 18-year-old daughter, who’s holding her baby, and he refers to the baby as “a mistake.” Right there. I’m like, Jesus, what an awful grandfather! My grandparents have had their moments over the years, but I don’t think they ever called me a mistake–at least, not that I knew of. Same with my parents. But either way, it’s just like. What a jackass!
LAWRENCE, Kan. – For as long as I’ve been writing about the world of live television, I don’t think I’ve ever actually put forth a list of who I think is the best for on-air and production.
Here are a couple of rules: 1) individuals must still be active in their respective roles (network changes are okay); 2) there is no limit on how many people working for a particular network can be chosen (if the network happens to be that good, it wouldn’t make sense for me to suggest otherwise); 3) for sports, when I feel it is warranted, I may select multiple people holding the same position but for different sports.