Are you with Coco?

[krogothwolf]

I never really watched either or, I found Jay to be unfunny and conan to be slightly more funny but not enough. I stick with watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I do think NBC dropped the Ball, seems a little early to pull the plug on everything. I thought, ratings aside, that because the weekly Jay Leno Show cost significantly less then a prime time drama show would have they weren't actually losing money on it yet, so I don't really understand why after less then a year they are willing to abandon it. Considering it's been a pretty tough year for a lot of people you'd think they'd try to see if they could build up an audience first.

[Mike McC]

You know, the whole "The Tonight Show conflicted with The Colbert Report" argument is kinda silly, because they're both put online for free, and Colbert Report is repeated like four times before the next showing.

[krogothwolf]

It's not that it's conflicted it's just that I find the humour between the 2 shows to be different and I prefer the Daily Show and the Colbert Report over the Tonight Show.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Mike McC

You know, the whole "The Tonight Show conflicted with The Colbert Report" argument is kinda silly, because they're both put online for free, and Colbert Report is repeated like four times before the next showing.

Except that the 11:30 first showing is where all the prime sponsorship money comes from, and if companies aren't willing to pay good money to have their commercials air during the Tonight Show, then the Tonight Show isn't making enough money to continue producing.

[Mike McC]

Um, I am still not sure what you are getting at here.

Also, in looking over the ratings, Conan was actually gaining some pretty solid ground in the ratings over the past couple of months, frequently tied or beating Letterman in the key demographics.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Mike McC

Um, I am still not sure what you are getting at here.

Television shows make money through advertising revenues gained via sponsorship deals. Sponsors are willing to pay more money to have their commercials aired during shows that more people watch. Therefore, a show that less people watch at the time that it's on is worth less money, and for a network that is currently hemorrhaging cash, any way to increase their revenue right now is absolutely necessary for NBC.

I don't really know how to make the basics of the television business more clear to you.

[Mike McC]

Originally Posted by POS Industries

Television shows make money through advertising revenues gained via sponsorship deals. Sponsors are willing to pay more money to have their commercials aired during shows that more people watch. Therefore, a show that less people watch at the time that it's on is worth less money, and for a network that is currently hemorrhaging cash, any way to increase their revenue right now is absolutely necessary for NBC.

I don't really know how to make the basics of the television business more clear to you.

Yes, I quite understand that part, thank you. What I don't get is how The Colbert Report factors into that, because Comedy Central and NBC usually get totally different types of advertisers anyway, and the ratings for Colbert have always been much lower than for Conan, what with being cable and all that.

I mean, it's like you mean one thing, but what you are saying has nothing to do with what you mean. It's all quite confusing.

[synkr0nized]

Originally Posted by Mike McC

You know, the whole "The Tonight Show conflicted with The Colbert Report" argument is kinda silly, because they're both put online for free, and Colbert Report is repeated like four times before the next showing.

Not really. They both air about the same time originally, and that's what we're talking about. If I am sitting down and flipping channels, chances are good I won't be down in the major networks at 11:30. But I did find myself there after midnight when I had a reason to prior to the hosts moving around to different shows.

If we were talking about who could watch what online / if that was the primary medium, then most of this whole business is silly and unnecessary.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Mike McC

Yes, I quite understand that part, thank you. What I don't get is how The Colbert Report factors into that, because Comedy Central and NBC usually get totally different types of advertisers anyway, and the ratings for Colbert have always been much lower than for Conan, what with being cable and all that.

I mean, it's like you mean one thing, but what you are saying has nothing to do with what you mean. It's all quite confusing.

No, what I'm saying is exactly what I mean. And different advertisers means very little when the value of the ad spots for the Tonight Show is lower than the network would prefer. Conan and Colbert have largely the same base audience, while Leno does not. However, Leno's base audience is largely the same people who watch shit like CSI and The Mentalist or whatever, which is what he is currently up against.

So Leno now can't get the same amount of viewers he was pulling in at 11:30 because a lot of them are off watching primetime dramas on other networks and Conan can't pull in the same amount of viewers he was at 12:30 because a lot of them aren't switching over from Comedy Central now that he's up against Colbert. And nobody's watching Jimmy Fallon at 12:30 like they were when Conan was there.

That's three shows with less viewership in their timeslots than they had before the scheduling change, which means the value that they're able to get from sponsors for those shows is less than they would be otherwise.

Yes, Colbert gets less of a share of the ratings than Conan. But if Conan weren't up against Colbert, much of the share of viewers that Colbert is getting at 11:30 would be added to Conan's share, making the show more valuable to sponsors.

[Mike McC]

I honestly don't think the audience overlap for Conan O'Brien and The Colbert Report is as significant as you seem to believe it is.