Wow, that title is obnoxious, isn’t it?

No new Chuck last night (boo), but there was some pretty giant news circulating around the television world – after some well-publicized conversations about moving to FOX, Conan O’Brien has made a deal for a new late night show on TBS.

It’s easy to begin with an initial reaction of slight confusion. “Wait, there are things on TBS besides sitcom reruns?” But that sort of confusion quickly begins to look like an opportunity with a lot of potential, both for Conan and TBS. The last time I felt a little bemused about an interesting show being aired in a strange place, it was “What’s this whole Mad Men business, and since when does AMC do anything other than replay old movies?” And of course, that show is now totally forgotten by history…

Actually, TBS is much farther along in the process of building its brand and creating original programming than AMC was when Mad Men came along. It has a few original sitcoms that it airs along with its strong but admittedly uninspiring lineup of reruns – Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, and My Boys, which has gotten some good critical responses. TBS also has a foundation for its expansion into late night in the form of George Lopez’ Lopez Tonight, which has the youngest late night audience, but hasn’t yet been able to transform TBS into a stand-out cable destination in the way that The Daily Show has done for Comedy Central. Conan could be exactly what TBS needs. He’s a big name with an established audience who will draw new eyes to the channel, and the publicity and notoriety of his exit from The Tonight Show will garner a lot of curiosity about what his next late night venture might look like.

And despite Conan’s own ribbing about the career trajectory of moving from a major network show to basic cable, TBS could be good for Conan as well. TBS’s younger audience will resonate more with the Conan of Late Night than the staid comedy he was attempting on The Tonight Show, and there are words you can say and things you can do on basic cable that are still not okay on a network.

It’s not an instant home run. There’s not a lot of information yet about what the show would look like or whether it will follow the usual late night talk show format. Some of my favorite bits of Conan’s Late Night came directly from his irreverent but pleasant interview style, so a move to TBS does make one wonder what sorts of guests will want to appear and how the show will be able to bring in big names. Conan’s show will also be up against the Daily Show/Colbert Report block, which will be some significant competition for the show’s anticipated audience. It will also remain to be seen whether Conan alone can boost the visibility for an entire network. But that’s some pretty heavy weight to put on Conan’s shoulders, and as long as he succeeds at a much more modest objective, I think the show will be great. It just needs to be funny.

• Apparently, there’s some sort of major televised sporting event happening this weekend. While I know very little about football, the Super Bowl has always been most interesting for its status as the one televised event where advertisements are just as renown as the actual programming, and this year is shaping up to be particularly notable. There are already controversies about two Super Bowl ads, one about a dating site for gay men that has been removed from the Super Bowl lineup, and one ad produced by Focus on the Family in which football star Tim Tebow discusses his mother’s decision not to abort him. (Presumably the message is that your unborn child might also grow up to play for the Florida Gators, and thus deserves life). To recap – the Super Bowl: not interested in gay men or Democrats.
• Conan O’Brien’s future has not yet been settled, and although it’s been widely rumored that he’ll jump over to FOX, apparently Rupert Murdoch isn’t so sure yet. It seems they’re not entirely certain they a FOX Conan show can “make a profit.”
• You know what, I just did these bullet points as an excuse to keep talking about Lost. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were on Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night after the episode aired, and Jimmy grilled them on a list of observations that may or may not be coincidences.
  
  
  Obviously they confirm that changes to the alternate Flight 815 are meaningful – Shannon’s disappearance, Jack’s slightly altered conversation with Rose and the flight attendant, etc. They also confirm that Evil Locke is the Smoke Monster, much to the shock of several audience members who clearly weren’t aware that spoilers of that magnitude were going to be revealed. My favorite thing about this interview,* though, is when Cuse and Lindelof remark on the importance of the punctuation for the season opener’s title: “LA X.” Kimmel asks them if they meant to put a space there, and through the joking about typos, they agree that the space is actually significant.

  I love stuff like that. It’s a such a tiny, nit-picky, fine-toothed comb thing to do, and these guys know that their fans are crazy enough to instantly pick up on and caterwaul endlessly about the fact that they put an unnecessary space in the title of one of their episodes. And I want to close read it as much as the next crazy Lostie, although more because I like the exercise than because I’m painfully impatient to get some answers.

• *When I said that was my favorite part of the interview, that probably wasn’t true. My favorite part was actually the bit when Jimmy asks them if it’s important that Hurley picks up a book by Soren Kierkegaard in the recent episode. They say yes, of course they knew what they were doing, but the subtext here is really “Um, duh. No one – no one -  throws in a Kierkegaard reference and expects it to be a meaningless gesture. It’s Kierkegaard.”

I was thinking maybe I should start trying to write really short blog entries. Here it goes.

***

Mark Valley as Christopher Chance on Fox's Human Target

There’s a new show on Fox called Human Target about a guy named Christopher Chance who works as bodyguard for clients in serious danger. It’s part Burn Notice, part 24 – each episode tells a standalone story, but I have a feeling the main character’s background and private life will eventually get thrown in the mix. A lot of things blow up, or get set on fire, or get shot at, and it’s quite entertaining to watch Chance care very little for his own safety. His handler/partner is a guy named Winston, who used to be on Pushing Daisies and who plays essentially the same character here, complete with pleasant curmudgeonly attitude and humorous straight-man role. The show can be reasonably well summed up in an exchange from the first episode: after Chance takes a bullet for his client, he strips off his shirt to reveal a bulletproof vest underneath. “You’re wearing a vest?” his client exclaims, “where’s my vest?!” “I’m your vest,” Chance answers. It’s fluffy, and it’s not breaking any new televised ground, but for my money it’s more entertaining than Law and Order. The acting is good, the premise is effective, and the characters are agreeably intriguing. Plus, as I mentioned before, a lot of stuff blows up, and that’s always fun.

***

Not bad, right? With a second paragraph, I might mention its surprisingly lush musical score, (done by Bear McCreary, late of Battlestar Galactica musical fame) the high quality talent they’ve lined up for the first few episodes (Tricia Helfer!), or the amusing cast of minor character nerds who supply all the technical support. Possibly also its entertaining opening credit sequence, which was done by the same company that made the credits for Chuck and Mad Men. But I don’t think you miss a whole lot without it.

***

Oh yes, this also happened today. The two-week long implosion had to end sometime, but it sure has been fun watching Conan O’Brien burn every possible NBC bridge he can name.

Say what you will, NBC has done a great job of suddenly making late night television fascinating.

• This piece by Alan Sepinwall is a great overview of the whole situation and Conan’s standpoint as the wronged party in his contract with NBC.
• The Hollywood Reporter’s legal blog takes a more direct look at the specific legal implications of changing The Tonight Show’s airtime. Apparently unlike Letterman and Leno, Conan’s deal doesn’t include careful language about the time his show will appear, which gives NBC more wiggle room than it would have had with Leno. While the blog post doesn’t comment on the argument that a Tonight show which doesn’t air until tomorrow is an essentially different show, it suggests that the timeslot argument has more to do with the show’s position relative to nightly local news.
• NBC has released its post-Jay Leno Show, post-Olympics primetime schedule. It looks like it will rely heavily on the Law and Order franchise, whip up a few reality shows, and then plug the gaps with repeats, the Jerry Seinfeld project The Marriage Ref, and the much-delayed, Maura Tierney Lauren Graham show Parenthood. Best news of the schedule is a solid return date for Friday Night Lights.

Couldn’t care less about this debacle? Please to enjoy this musical clip from the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother. (It’s mirrored, but you get the idea).

Doo dee doo… I wonder what’s happening in the television world today. I hear one of the contestants on this season of The Bachelor may have hooked up with one of the producers. FOX has renewed Glee, to no one’s surprise, and is planning a reality show about selecting a few new Glee cast members. According to Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof at today’s Television Critics Association meetings, apparently the teasers for the new season of Lost will actually start to contain footage from the new season some time in the coming weeks. It seems like there was something else, today… huh…

Oh right.

People of Earth:

In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over “The Tonight Show” in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004, I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my “Tonight Show” in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the “Tonight Show” to 12:05 to accommodate the “Jay Leno Show” at 11:35. For 60 years, the “Tonight Show” has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the “Tonight Show” into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The “Tonight Show” at 12:05 simply isn’t the “Tonight Show.” Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the “Late Night” show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard, and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of “The Tonight Show.” But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet, a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the “Tonight Show,” I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it’s always been that way.

Yours,

Conan

It’s hard to argue with a few of his major points here, namely that his Tonight Show was never given the benefit of a strong primetime lineup, and that he wasn’t given enough time to grow into his new job. The overwhelming opinion as Conan shifted from Late Night to Tonight was that he could be good at it, but that it would take a while for the show to really start working. Clearly the transition has not gone as well as NBC would have liked, but its unwillingness to foster growth and gradual development over a long period of time makes one wonder how seriously it cares about quality programming.

The other point that Conan didn’t mention, but NBC will certain have to weigh, is the way his audience skews in comparison with Leno’s. The median age of the Tonight Show viewer is a decade younger than it was under Leno. Does NBC want better ratings now, or does it want a loyal audience in the long term? Who knows how this will all shake out, but I will certainly be watching Conan tonight. My guess is today’s Tonight Show is going to have some pretty good ratings.