Archive for April, 2010

Conan Returns

Conan O’Brien is back on the air, but this time he’s on cable. The funnyman signed an unexpected deal with TBS and is expected to be on the cable station later this fall. The move is surprising as the general expectation was that he would go to network giant FOX.

Although the move made news almost everywhere, it did not make it onto David Letterman’s show and neither was it mentioned on “The Tonight Show” which was Conan’s former home. The reasons for this are unclear but it widely considered to be a gag order by upper management. Jay Leno did talk about it later though, when he was interviewed by Access Hollywood.

Leno said that he knew Conan would always land on his feet and that the time slot he would be on would make things fun for everyone as they would all (Leno, Letterman, O’Brien) be competing against each other. He also expressed his confidence in Conan’s ability to keep audiences entertained.
TBS seems to be pulling out all the stops to make sure that the show is a success. It is rumored that George Lopez was told to either move into a new time slot to make way for Conan or to get out of the company altogether. TBS has denied that such a threat was ever made and that both parties support each other shows. Whatever happened, the end result is that Conan will take over the 11 PM slot while Lopez slides down to the Midnight slot.

Product Placement Annoys Viewers

Two networks irked their viewers this week as certain product placements did not go according to plan.

Fox’s rating juggernaut “American Idol” opened its Thursday show with a stunt promoting “The Clash of the Titans”. Actors on a screen via a live hookup from the London premiere of the movie and clips of the movie mashed with clips of “Idol” were also played. This was considered to be worse than the show where Mike Myers appeared to promote the disastrous “Love Guru”.

ABC, on the other hand, used two of its shows in a failed attempt to promote products, the first being the Apple iPad on “Modern Family”. The story was about Phil, who loves gadgets, and in wanting an iPad for his birthday the show is about the struggles that his family goes through to get him one. The storyline and presentation has not well received by viewers; they simply considered it to be a story that the company had sold to Apple. Although ABC denied it, nothing so far has changed public perception. But the worst offence ABC committed was using “Lost” to promote the mid-season return of the “V”.

An almost ever present countdown plastered on the episode had “Lost” fans disgusted and complaining. It was even mocked by late nighters’ Letterman and Colbert on their shows. Though it could be unrelated, the alien invasion show returned to a lukewarm reception resulting in moderate ratings. The alphabet now regrets using such an annoying tactic on a show that was powerful enough to shift the Presidents’ State of the Union address and said that it will not use any such tactics again.