Conan! TBS!

[Moss]

Conan starts tonight! I'm interested to see what he is going to do with this show, seems like he can go back to being a bit more edgy which should help. He is certainly off to a good start musically with Jack White tonight and Soundgarden tomorrow.

[Sir Stewart]

Hopefully it will be better than the promos. Was there one laugh in any of those blimp spots?

[jakobnicholas]

I'm hoping it's more like Late Night (silly, weird, funny, subtle, irreverant) than his Tonight Show (a little forced, non-subtle...a feeling that Conan was trying to get a more broad audience).

 

Stewart/Colbert cover politics very well. Letterman's show is getting more political. I hope Conan doesn't attempt many political jokes or content. I don't think it's his strength.

 

Looking forward to Jack White (no way Meg would make a surprise appearance is there?) and curious who the surprise guest is.

[u2roolz]

Looking forward to Jack White (no way Meg would make a surprise appearance is there?) and curious who the surprise guest is.

[GtrPlyr]

I'm excited that Conan is finally back, but looking over his guest list for this week it looks pretty pedestrian for the most part (Tom Hanks, Soundgarden, yawn...) I guess he's sticking with the same tired format as everyone else*: monologue, sketch, guest 1, guest 2, musical (or comedy) performance. We'll see how the week plays out, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

 

* Craig Ferguson would be the exception to this as he mixes things up from time to time.

[u2roolz]

* Craig Ferguson would be the exception to this as he mixes things up from time to time.

 

Yes. Craig Ferguson is the man and extremely creative with his show. I loved it when he had Stephen Fry on for the whole hour and chatted with him on a variety of topics. And the fact that there was no audience there made it even better and different than usual.

 

Bill Carter discusses new Late Night Wars book on The View

 

I'm kind of eh that Conan is back. I enjoy him, but I'm not a huge fan of him like some people that I know.

[GtrPlyr]

Yes. Craig Ferguson is the man and extremely creative with his show. I loved it when he had Stephen Fry on for the whole hour and chatted with him on a variety of topics. And the fact that there was no audience there made it even better and different than usual.

Yeah, the Stephen Fry episode was great. I like that Craig will do stuff like that, or open his show with a puppet skit, or some other such silliness that other's wouldn't touch. Plus he's the only one that improvises his monologue. His show feels less stodgy than the rest*.

 

 

* I'd give Jimmy Fallon the nod for 2nd least stodgy as he tries do fun things such as the various games with guests and audience members, and he has the most interesting musical guests overall.

[u2roolz]

A little birdy told me that Conan can control the giant moon behind his desk.

 

The whole set looks very nice. I like that there's no barrier between him and his audience.

 

And it looks like that beard is a keeper for awhile.

 

Edit: This post was written before Conan showed Andy the set and the moon. Like literally one commercial before.

[CommerceComet]

The intro music sounds like Hoodoo Voodoo.

[ih8music]

Conan O'Brien's return to television demolished his late night competition in the ratings.

 

The premiere of "Conan" on TBS drew 4.2 million viewers, with a whopping 3.3 million of them in the coveted 18-49 demographic.

 

By contrast, 3.5 million viewers tuned into Jay Leno's "Tonight Show," with 950,000 in the 18-49 demo, and David Letterman's "Late Show" drew 3.4 million viewers, with 1.4 million in the demo.

 

Of course, the ratings for O'Brien will likely drop in the coming weeks, but he and TBS can still cheer about the figures for his debut.

good for Conan

 

I thought the opening clip was fantastic, the monologue was a nervous mess, but the rest was fine. I'll DVR him and watch after The Daily Show (that is, on nights I don't crash first).

[Wendy]

I liked it. The opening scene was hilarious. It's really great to see him again because I missed Conan!!! I'll definitely keep tuning in.

[stooka]

Glad to see Conan back!!!

[cryptique]

I don't expect those ratings to hold up much past the first week, but it's good to see that Conan can beat Leno, even if it's under special circumstances.

[Guest Jules]

He'll end up in the Stewart/Colbert range, I think. 1.0-1.5M viewers. Maybe 2.0. It's cable, after all.

 

 

[GtrPlyr]

It's good having Conan back. Though I didn't watch him on a consistent basis over the years, I have been watching him on-and-off for 17 years so it's kinda like having an old friend back.

 

Like other's here, I don't expect his ratings to stay that high past this week*.

 

 

* I just did a search, apparently Conan's ratings dropped 28% for his 2nd show so he's already below Jay and Dave in the ratings (this was to be expected of course.) Hopefully he can build a solid base over the next few weeks.

[marino13]

Saw night 1 and so far up to Tom Hanks of night 2. I really liked the bit with the TBS censor.

 

I'm ready for Conan to quit talking about Conan. He was mining comic gold on the way out of The Tonight Show and he kept it up on Twitter and his tour over the last nine months. However, I think it's time to move on to the next chapter. It was funny while it lasted, but I think most people are going to get tired of it quickly.

[uncool2pillow]

I'm married to Stewart and Colbert. Used to be Letterman. I think Conan is hilarious at times and not so much at others. He got screwed by NBC, so I jumped on his bandwagon, but I don't think I'll be watching his show unless there are guests on that I want to see. Towards that end I have Leno on DVR tonight to watch about 3 minutes when the Old 97s are on.

[u2roolz]

I always watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert the day after an episode has aired thanks to my Comcast On Demand.

This will give me the opportunity to watch Conan, if I am home of course.

 

Although, Conan does rerun only once at 1a.m.

Or after George Lopez.

 

I do hope that Conan does and says what he wants to say and doesn't listen to the critics or fans.

He's been hit with criticism of beating a dead horse about losing his job and being on basic cable.

I think everyone expected him to joke about this for like the 1st week and then he may bring it up on occasion.

[Kalle]

The intro music sounds like Hoodoo Voodoo.

 

It's basically the exact same as the riff in Lady Madonna.

[a-me-with-a-you]

Yeah, the Stephen Fry episode was great. I like that Craig will do stuff like that, or open his show with a puppet skit, or some other such silliness that other's wouldn't touch. Plus he's the only one that improvises his monologue. His show feels less stodgy than the rest*.

 

 

* I'd give Jimmy Fallon the nod for 2nd least stodgy as he tries do fun things such as the various games with guests and audience members, and he has the most interesting musical guests overall.

 

I was flabbergasted during the strike a while back that Conan or any other talk show host wasn't able to fill even a few minutes with improv or jokes they wrote themselves. That is after all how they started and have apparently forgot how to do. So very disappointed I was they've become completely dependent on their staff.

 

I like the more relaxed format now, no more barrier between the audience and hopefully some more off-the-wall bits like the visit to the censor. I don't expect him to return to extremely zany stuff like on the old Late Night show, I think he was happy to abandon some of that stuff when he took the Tonight show and is unlikely to want to go back. You could really tell when he was saying goodbye to supporting characters (i.e. masturbating bear) during his last Late Night shows.

[tugmoose]

Conan's running third among cable talkers? Wow.