Image Credit: Jay Brady/Everett CollectionIn one of the best-kept secrets of the TV season, TBS managed to close a late-night deal with Conan O’Brien without anyone catching wind of it. EW talked to Turner Entertainment Networks President Steve Koonin about giving O’Brien the opportunity to own his own talk show on the cabler, which skews young and reaches more than 100 million homes.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Conan O’Brien was out of job back in January. The network release said you only reached out to him a week ago. Why did it take so long?
STEVE KOONIN: I don’t want to sound too goofy and cosmic, but we just got inspired by the idea when we did our planning. We had read it was Fox Fox Fox all along, and then we saw there might be a crack. So we said, “Let’s take a look at this.” We took a very objective look. We saw how both the talent and the audience for broadcast network has gotten a lot older. The talent is in their 60s, and the audience is almost the same. The shining characteristic of George Lopez’s show is that the average age is 33. How cool would it be to have two guys in their 40s talk to viewers in their 20s and 30s on our network for the next decade? That literally was the inspiration two weeks ago.
So how did it happen?
We put it in a call to Conan’s people and said, “Hey, we’d love to have a conversation. Is that possible?” They said sure. Then I flew out and saw George and laid out the vision. George got very excited and said he was going to call Conan and tell him we’re pretty good dudes to work with. That was his exact quote. Once he made that call, it was like somebody shot off a starter’s pistol, the race began and we crossed the finish line.
When you placed that first call, were you still doubtful about your chances?
All we heard was, “We’d be happy to meet with you.” I’m always optimistic. There was never doubt in my mind, which is how you have to approach things. We had a great proposition. We have a great environment, we are young, we are a branded comedy network. We are noted for our marketing, we have terrific promotional platforms with sports and movies. We are the highest-rated comedy network on TV and we wanted to change the dialogue. That was the theme of the conversation we had with Conan. Let’s change the dialogue and have him move from being an employee to being an owner. He can move from broadcast to cable, he can move to make a show with his sensibility and one we’ll support the hell out of for a long time.
It’s pretty much been established who rules in late night right now. Despite a huge promotional campaign by NBC, Conan wasn’t able to get the ratings for The Tonight Show. Does that give you pause?
It gives me no pause. I don’t want Leno’s audience. Our average age is 35. We’re 10 years younger than Fox, 18 years younger than NBC or CBS. That’s not who we are after. That would be like EW going after the audience for Reader’s Digest. The numbers we will do with Conan will be uber-successful for us. I have zero doubts in my mind that his show will be very successful for us. It’s all about the young and the demographic, not about the old people eyeballs.
Will Conan enjoy any more freedom on TBS?
He can do whatever he wants to do here. We think he is an incredibly talented artist and we want him to make his show and if he wants it edgier, we are 100 percent supportive.
Will Conan be able to keep his original crew? Will executive producer Jeff Ross be back? Will Andy Richter?
Jeff was a key player in this. I’m embarrassed to say I never got got the details [on whether Richter will join]. There was so much to do in such a short period of time. We were able to keep it quiet, which has floored the industry.
According to Conan’s exit contract with NBC, he can secure another network job as soon as Sept. 1. Why the decision to launch in November?
We have major league baseball playoffs and movies which are great promotional platforms. And launching in September and then pre-empting four weeks later makes no sense.
Anything else you can say about what Conan’s show will look like?
It will stay in Los Angeles. As for what the show will look like, Conan said it best to me: he said he has 3,000 hours of demo tape if I’d like to see it.
Maybe they could rename it Tyler Perry’s Conan O’Brien show? LOL. Seriously though, Conan will get his ass handed to him by the Daily Show @ 11:00.
I love the Daily Show, but HGTV gets a bigger audience than the Daily Show.
Bwahahahah Ed…so true and this coming from the fan of both HGTV and the Dialy Show.
I know quite a few people in the target age group who don’t watch The Daily Show (or SNL, for that matter) because they weren’t interested in politics. These people preferred MadTV to SNL, and surely would prefer Conan to Jon Stewart.
At any rate, cable is all about niche audiences, rather than mass appeal. Even if Conan gets beat in the ratings by The Daily Show, if he gets a solid audience that is a success.
I read a story awhile back that said the Daily Show only gets about 1 million viewers (Colbert gets slighty less). Of course that’s according to Neilson ratings. I’m sure alot of people (like myself) don’t even watch it on TV but catch the clips on the internet instead.
I wouldn’t be so quick to assume. Conan’s popularity has sky-rocketed this year and he could easily draw in a large audience. I’m just happy that Conan will have a show. It’s icing on the cake that he will have more creative freedom!
If Conan was so popular, he would have gotten a new show on a major broadcast network, not some second rate cable station.
Anyone that thinks that those networks who care about overnight ratings still know what they are doing or have any effect on popularity, is an idiot. Conan has huge popularity and many of his viewers watched on Hulu and via torrents. Ratings went down because the 80 year olds that Leno appeals to stopped watching. Now the 20-30 year olds who actually watch have him back and will turn up once again, perhaps on torrents, but they’ll be there. And since TBS is willing to let ratings go it means he’ll have the chance to adapt and have his ratings grow. Don’t support NBC or the ratings crap, you only make yourself look like a misinformed idiot.
Matt, you hit the nail right on the head as to why Fox didn’t want him. “…many of his viewers watched on Hulu and via torrents.” The problem here is that Fox doesn’t care AT ALL about those watching any way except on their network affiliate stations. Why? Because that is the only way they make any money off of that person watching the show. The broadcast networks (and to almost as great an extent basic cable outlets) live and die by the number of eyeballs watching their channels because that is what sells ads, and ads are what pay for the station. I would be surprised if Fox was really very interested because it is simply far more profitable for their affiliates to have local news and syndicated programs. Considering the impact the economy has had on ad spending and the cuts that have been made at stations across the country as a result, I don’t see Fox forcing the stations to lose the cash cows that are paying a disproportionate amount of the bills. The sad fact is that because of the viewing habits of his demographic Conan will never be commercially viable on network broadcast television. It is also far from certain that he will be commercially viable on basic cable either, due to his salary and his show’s production costs being well above the costs of most other basic cable programming, especially at that time slot.
I never LOL reading websites. But Jake’s Tyler Perry crack made me do it. Kudos and good night!
I’m with Coco! Awesome news!
what a joke…TBS???? home of the dried up repeats…home of George Lopez?? that idiot? Coco..you must be LOCO!!
Conan’s freaking MAKING TBS right now. I can’t wait for him to join his buddies Colbert and Stewart on cable.
I think in the end it’ll be a good idea. TBS will give him way more power over his show than Fox would. Look at Jay Leno, he had the best ratings and NBC still booted him off the Tonight Show. Jay’s just a pawn to NBC. Conan will have a bit more autonomy with TBS.
Four words: big fish, small pond.
One thing about TBS, it has a ton of sister networks (CNN, TCM, etc.) Coco is gonna get a lot of free advertising.
So true!!!
Well – he will OWN the show. It will be aired at the same time across the nation (save for timezone differences) on a cable network that has a large young-skewing audience, great cross-promotion w/ TBS & Adult Swim (also Turner nets), serious promo visibility during the MLB/NBA season, far less worry w/ the FCC over what he can do on air….none of which FOX had or would be willing to offer. Plus no angry FOX affiliates to try & sell the idea on. This was actually a BRILLIANT move on Conan’s part.
I am so exicted abuout this! Can’t wait to see Conan again.
about*
Canadian, eh?
I like this behind-the-scenes peek at what went down (even though it’s probably full of PR). I was especially heartened to learn that they went to Lopez to ask/tell him about it before going to Conan. I hope all that’s true. Can’t wait for November!
I have to say- much as I love Conan, I always watch Daily Show/Colbert Report- as long as those are on and remain fresh, I don’t know that I’ll see Conan much unless I flip during the commercials… Maybe I’d DVR some eps…
This is what makes me worried for him. I probably wouldn’t have watched Conan’s show regularly anyway because I have other TV priorities [including not watching TV all evening
] but I think he’s funny and I want him to do well…I just worry that directly competing with Stewart and Colbert for the whole hour will hurt him. I guess it’s less prestigious, but I’d almost rather he went AFTER Lopez or something.
The DS and CP are both on 3 times a day and the full episodes are online. There’s plenty of time to cath those two shows.
And you don’t think TBS won’t be repeating Conan’s show a dozen times a night? lol
Actually I doubt they’ll be repeating his show. TBS has too many shows and sporting events to reapeat an hour long show.
I usually watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, but I think I’m going to choose Conan this time come November. I have my issues with TBS(House of Payne and Meet the Browns? No thanks), but this is good news, and I can’t wait to see Conan back on TV.
Yeah, I think this was a good call, especially if Conan can have more creative freedom.
Koonin is the man! This is so cool how it all went down and it’s great to finally see somebody who wants to embrace Conan…Conan/Koonin in 2010!!!!
Yeah Robby! Conan/Koonin 2010!! this is an amazing opportunity for everyone involved! Enough jokes about tyler perry, george lopez, or any other minor tbs flop.. Conan is here like Noah to the flood, picking up the pieces and starting fresh. I see great things for TBS, Conan, and Steve Koonin. what a pair!
As good as this sounds, TBS is not a major network, but since younger people seem to know there are many channels than 13, he’ll do fine.
Right. he will get about half a point over lopez..its a trailer park network!
Like others have said, Conan is going to make the network. He’ll bring the highest ratings the network sees. “Trailer park network” just makes it obvious that you’re a prejudiced idiot, though, so I’m not sure why I’m even replying. Go f*ck yourself.
Conan just made George Lopez and TBS relevant by signing on with them.
hey douche go hate somewhere else… glad conan is staying in l.a! i will def check it out live!!!
i must say that the true fans are really separating from the other fans….
I said i’ll support you wherever you go and I meant it! Soooo happy right now!
Amen! Me too – I will totally watch Conan wherever he goes. I don’t care if TBS is not currently considered a “cool” network – Conan is MAKING it cool just by being there. Can’t wait!
Am I the only one who was annoyed with this comment: “It’s all about the young and the demographic, not about the old people eyeballs.”
Sounds like it.
This old person’s eyeballs are more in line with a young person’s sensibility. I can see that it might offend some, but I know what he means, even though I’m “old” myself, I think Leno’s a big snooze and like my comedy more on the ZachG end of the spectrum.
I thought it was funny. You must be sensitive about your old eyeballs.
There’s nothing wrong with that comment, baj.
Networks thrive on getting the strongest possible 18-34 or 18-49 demo.
That’s precisely why Conan lost his job, because he was LOSING to Letterman in the 18-49 demo…the young eyeballs. No one cares about the 49+ age bracket – aka the old farts.
No, you weren’t. It was a really immature statement. And kinda gross too if you think about it.
I think that person is trying a bit too much to sound cool(And I’m 28 btw).
Very happy to hear Conan will be back. As for TBS, remember that a good show can make a network. Who gave a rip about Comedy Central before the Daily Show and Colbert (sorry, most of their stuff is crap). Who cared about FX before they took drama to a new level (The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, Justified)? Conan has the talent and a platform that is (thank God) supportive. He’ll be fine.
Team CoCo for Life.
“Their” referring to Comedy Central, not Stewart or Colbert.
Actually, the emergence of Comedy Central can be summed up in two words: South Park
OK seriously? Does anyone else see it as ironic and so ridiculous that Conan is getting a show by displacing someone from their already established time slot and that person didn’t cause a fuss? I mean seriously CoCo got his job because someone was reasonable? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Learn how to read, genius.
George Lopez was instrumental in making this deal happen.
Brandon can’t read.
This should be a big boost for Lopez, so ofcourse he’d support it.
First off, Ted’s right – Lopez called Conan to say he should take the offer.
Second, I think it’s pretty safe to say that pretty much everyone in America has heard of Conan, even if it’s just because of the late-night debacle. Same can’t be said for Lopez, so doesn’t it also benefit him to have a better lead-in?
Finally, if they’re all okay with it, shouldn’t we all be? Just seems like the obvious response to me..
I think Conan will be just fine. Can’t wait until November!