Conan to TBS

[jabberja]

Surprised that I don't see a thread about it. Conan and George Lopez as a dynamic one-two punch on TBS.:shock:

[lbchawkeye]

http://hawkeyelounge.com/showthread.php?t=63674

[lbchawkeye]

http://hawkeyelounge.com/showthread.php?t=63663

[TH1974]

TBS emphasized how young their audience was, a match with Mr. O’Brien’s core viewers. “The lead-ins would be shows like ‘Family Guy’ and ‘The Office,’ which is great for Conan,” Mr. Polone said. Mr. Lopez has the youngest audience in late night with a median age of 33.

Those lead-ins + Conan might be the better 1-2 punch for TBS.

[newsbreaker]

TBS emphasized how young their audience was, a match with Mr. O’Brien’s core viewers. “The lead-ins would be shows like ‘Family Guy’ and ‘The Office,’ which is great for Conan,” Mr. Polone said. Mr. Lopez has the youngest audience in late night with a median age of 33.Those lead-ins + Conan might be the better 1-2 punch for TBS.

This is going to be a very interesting experiment to watch. Comedy Central has found a way to make late-night comedy/talk shows work (though on a somewhat smaller budget, I imagine).

TBS might not be a terrible fit. The lead-ins are more friendly to Conan's audience (does anyone believe he benefited from a combined lead-in of Leno [whose average viewer is north of 55 years old] and local news).

I had a long conversation yesterday with someone (whose name most of you would recognize) who is an influential voice with broadcasting both regionally and lobbying at the Congressional and FCC level about the future of network TV, retransmission rights and the like. He really believes that in 5-10 years ABC, CBS and NBC will be cable channels and our local stations will be totally independent. This move seems to foretell that kind of evolution, IMO.

[JD720]

Would the local channels survive as independents? Would it be just syndicated shows, local news, and infomercials? I would guess retrans fees would be gone too as the station will need the cable company more than the other way around. That sounds like a pretty bleak future for local tv stations.

[newsbreaker]

They would face a different marketplace, that's for sure. I think you'd see a lot of second-runs and probably a greater reliance on first-run syndicated programming.

Remember that most of their income is generated by local news. The question is whether non-network programming would generate enough viewers to keep local news alive.