Image Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.comConan O’Brien opened the much-anticipated TBS-TNT upfront presentation in New York today with yuks about NBC (“The plot to Lost is more plausible than my last year at NBC”) and his new talk show that will debut on TBS on Nov. 8. “I really believe in cable television,” O’Brien told the crowd at the Hammerstein Ballroom. “ I do not want to live in a country with less than five ESPN networks.”
He didn’t reveal anything about his new show, which will serve as a lead-in to the second season of George Lopez, but he did joke about what he’d like to accomplish. “My vision is to pick up where Hee Haw left off,” O’Brien quipped before breaking into his version of “On the Road Again” by singing, “I just want to be on my own show again.”
The digs at NBC weren’t limited to just O’Brien. When Turner Entertainment Networks president Steve Koonin took the stage, he thanked Jay Leno for making it possible for him to snag both Conan and the cop drama Southland (which aired at 10 p.m. on NBC before the late-night comedian took over the time slot). A new season of Southland will begin on TNT in 2011.
This summer, TNT will air seven new or returning originals on four different nights (The Closer, Saving Grace, Dark Blue, Leverage, Memphis Beat, Rizzoli & Isles, and HawthoRNe), and it will bring back Men of a Certain Age later this season. In 2011, the network will debut a new series from Steven Spielberg and starring Noah Wyle called Fallen Skies. It also greenlit the buddy lawyer series Franklin & Bash starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue).
TBS’s lineup includes the original series My Boys, Are We There Yet? and the new animated series Neighbors From Hell. TBS also acquired the exclusive cable rights to The Big Bang Theory, beginning in fall 2011, and greenlit the original series Glory Daze, a 1980s-set comedy that centers on four buddies who navigate college life and pledge a fraternity.
Conan on TBS. The Boring Show.
Leno on NBC. Never Being Comedic.
Letterman on CBS – Constantly Bangs Secretaries
ZING!
Ferguson on CBS – Comedy By Scottsman!
Conan vs Leno. The perfect internet troll bait.
Lay Jeno. As unfunny on the internet at Jay Leno is in real life.
Ha ha… what’s been bitter for Conan and NBC is sweeeeeeet for Steve Koonin!
That’s a stock photo, right? He didn’t shave yet, did he? I do want him to, but not until after the tour.
That’s got to be an old photo. He still is rocking the beard, last time I saw photos from the tour.
And, he wasn’t shaved at the Turner Upfront this morning..
He hadn’t shaved as of last Sunday. I was at his Kansas City show.
I was just at his Minneapolis show last night. I can report that the beard is still intact. I kinda like him scruffy.
My Boys is coming back, but main characters are on other new pilots? Wonder how that’s going to work.
Otherwise, prerequisite “I’m on Team Coco! NBC/Leno blows! Mucho amazingness!”
I’d be willing to bet that ‘My Boys’ already shot the season several months ago and it was probably their last. I bet the actors’ contracts all expired at the same time, and with all the new series in development at Turner, it’s not like that show was a juggernaut for the net anyway.
Conan better start coming up with new material. The digs at NBC and Leno are getting old and stale.
Marie better start coming up with new material. Her constant geysers of anti-Conan bile are getting old and stale and making everything around her crusty.
No man in her life!
He’s starting to seem like Lenny Bruce reading the transcripts of his trial during his stand-up act.
Yep, well it does pander to sympathy viewing which seems pretty desperate.
Don’t worry, as soon as Conan finishes with his jokes, he will send them to Leno the joke recycler.
Funny you would say that because I watched both Conan on LN and Jay on TTS show for years. Many times Conan would repeat the exact same joke in his monologue that Jay had in his earlier that night. Do I think Conan was stealing from Jay? No. I think some things lend themselves to the same joke.
Howard Stern’s claim that Jay stole man on the street interviews idea from him is a load. Steve Allen did that years before Stern was even on radio. Stern takes credit for a lot of other comics ideas.
I can fix that.
Southland is awesome. Good for TNT. As far as Conan goes -we’ll have to wait and see. Jimmy Kimmel is funnier.
Jimmy Kimmel is on after Conan. There is absolutely no competition. Jimmy Kimmel I like, he is funny, but is he funniER than Conan? no.
We shall see. Conan and his fans have a habit of counting their chickens before they hatch (Fox)–keeping with the Hee Haw theme.
Hooray for Craig Ferguson. ‘Nough said.
But I really hope there’s more to his future act then “NBC screwed me over” jokes. It’s a one note punchline that’s due to expire soon if it hasn’t already. It’d be shame to see him turn into Leno, who’s still milking Bill Clinton and the Manendez Brothers.
TNT is going to run over the other networks. They have the best shows on TV right now.
TNT and FX both.
Does anyone else think it’s embaressing that Conan is going to be on the same network as George Lopez?
What is really embarahasssingque perhaps is our spellllinge scills.
can we just shoot him and get it over with?
I do wonder whether there will be a Latino backlash with Conan. He had the Conando character which had mixed reactions from the Latino community, then he pushed Lopez out of his slot. And I suppose Chris Rock’s comment to Lopez about Lopez being pushed out by “the white man” didn’t help while Lopez joked in response by comparing himself to a Latino stereotype.
I don’t think George Lopez minds moving back an hour for Conan because he cannot stand Jay Leno! And I don’t think Conan would have taken the job if George minded having his show moved back because that is what Jay did to him.
Youre an idiot dude. Chris Rock was KIDDING, He was being SARCASTIC, ,making a joke. Youre a fkn moron for taking it seriously. If you had any sense you would know Rock is a personal friend of Conan’s.
I love Conan but a better show would be Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Vagazzelsized Hotness Vagina Show.
Conan would have been far better off to have stayed at 12:35 on NBC & PATIENTLY waited for Jay to retire. The TBS show will never amount to what he could have had if he’d stayed at NBC. He tried to bully it away from Jay, & it backfired.
Actually, it was NBC who offered the Tonight Show to Conan for fear of him bolting to another network. If anyone bullied anything away, it would be Jay for returning to the show that he publicly handed off to Conan.