Monday, April 12, 2010

Conan O'Brien signs with TBS

Those of you who have been following this blog this year know that I've been a rather vocal in my support of Conan O'Brien and was hoping he would return to television sooner rather than later.

The hope was that Fox and O'Brien would come to an arrangement and he would have a network platform to get his sweet, sweet revenge against Leno and NBC. But that wasn't to be.

Instead of hammering out a deal with Fox, O'Brien has made the move to TBS/Peachtree TV. From what I've read, there were numerous obstacles to a Fox deal, and in the end, Time Warner was both willing and able to offer financial compensation which really sweetened the pot.



To say the move was surprising is an understatement. Though the timing of the announcment, which corresponds to the start of O'Brien's national tour, couldn't be better.

"In three months, I've gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I'm headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly."

Of course, there is a bit of history repeating itself in all this though. You see, for Conan to get the 11 PM slot, well, someone else is going to have to move their show to midnight. The difference is, Conan wouldn't agree to the deal and it took a phone call from George Lopez asking him to join the network that finally got him to agree. Or that is the official story according to Bill Carter, who is a man who has been in the know about late night television for decades now.

But I have a feeling this isn't the case, because Lopez was brutal regarding Conan O'Brien's plight at NBC, though how much of that was just comedy and how much was an accurate representation of Lopez's feelings may not be apparent.

Though, Conan is still tweaking his new network... as he is apt to do.

Via Twitter: "The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November! The bad news: I'll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show."

Though seeing as The Cosby Show was an NBC mainstay, perhaps he is taking one last swipe at NBC selling out their franchises. Who knows.

I am sure Jon Stewart and Mr. Colbert are looking forward to the competition.

2 comments:

Karl said...

Hadn't heard this news. Exciting. I'd love to see him live, too.

John said...

This will be great. I hope that Andy Richter will join him. There's something really lovable about Richter, and they work well together.

Too bad the Masturbating Bear decided to move to Showtime. I don't see that working out.