After a tumultuous year that included losing his dream gig as host of the Tonight Show, a multi-million dollar payout from NBC for him and his staff, negotiations for where he would do his next show, and the huge growth in popularity due to his fans’ Team Coco campaign that launched a website, a summer comedy tour, and a popular twitter account, Conan O’Brien triumphantly returned to television on November 8th on TBS to monstrous ratings and critical acclaim. His first show blew away the plethora of competition that evening in the ratings as his average audience age was 30 years old, well below that of his competitors Leno and Letterman and even better than his new cable competitors Colbert and Stewart. Television networks covet the 18-49 demographic and Conan appeals most to that section of the television watching public. Now a few weeks in, Conan continues to deliver large numbers in the 18-49 demographic, which has to feel good after the way NBC handled him.
In his first week, Conan was his usual depreciative self. The first episode began with a creative chronicle of the last year of his life. There were several well-deserved shot to the morons at NBC and even at his new basic cable home on TBS. The audience roars were big and Conan himself seemed overwhelmed. Having watched him for many years, you could tell that he relished this new chance and displayed a bigger level of confidence than he ever did during his uncomfortable seven month Tonight Show reign. On cable, he will be able to get away with the stupid and absurd hilarious material that he all but abandoned upon moving from Late Night to the Tonight Show last year. Another great change is the permanent addition of Andy Richter to the couch during comedy segments and guest interviews. Him and Conan have tremendous chemistry and play off one another well. Some of the funniest moments of the first few weeks have been Andy’s oddball one-liners that come at the most random moments. I am hopeful that he will get back to some of his trademark comedy bits after awhile, even if that means renaming them. Bits look Celebrity Survey, Triumph the Comic dog, and looking into the future with Andy are all too good to stop doing entirely. Conan has continued to do his bread and butter outside the studio bits where he acts like a moron while interrogating or attempting to learn something. One bit had him meeting with TBS’s head of standards and practices and running through a list of stuff he could say or wear on the air. He also investigated the basic cable process by going to a local cable center and getting trained on what it takes to make cable television work in people’s homes. Highlights included Conan acting like an idiot climbing cable wires and asking if he was doing it right along with him visiting people’s homes on cable installs.
Tom Hanks appearing on the second show demonstrated Conan’s ability to attract high-level celebrities at his new destination. As the creator of the “Coco” nickname that Conan has taken to great heights, Hanks was witty and fun, allowing himself to be doused with water in a stunt showing off the powers of Conan’s new set that depicts a body of water with a moveable moon. Conan even dusted off his guitar and jammed out with Jack White of the White Stripes during his first week at TBS. Both these guest appearances helped create a different feeling than is typically generated from late night television.
Overall, it is great to have the immensely talented O’Brien back on television. TBS clearly wants to establish him as the face of their network and with baseball playoffs and the NCAA tournament now coming to the network, a lot of eyeballs will continue to hear about Conan’s new venture. The network is developing more original series such as Glory Days to serve as lead-ins for Conan, which can only help him. With no pressure to clean his act up like he had on the Tonight Show, the shackles have been removed and O’Brien is free to do what he wants in the way that he wants to. Now having removed the rust of his ten-month layoff, the sky is the limit for the entertainment value his new show will provide and the heights he can lead TBS towards. Conan airs Monday through Thursday at 10 ET on TBS and his website is www.teamcoco.com.
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