[late night tv] Jay Leno retiring (again) in 2014...Fallon replacing him

I'm still sad. Let's see what Fallon has.

 

Perhaps because a lot of people chose sides during the aftermath of Carson-Leno/Letterman? Eventually he took the top spot and didn't relinquish it.
Kimmel's show wasn't on at the same time slot as The Tonight show at the time Conan took over and Conan's only competition on late night tv was Letterman and Nightline as well as the Colbert report. So what's that, still two late night talk shows and Colbert. The ratings for network tv going down due to Netflix, DVR, etc still didn't hamper Letterman's show that much or Leno's when he returned.
I agree NBC should have stayed the course and given Conan a longer time as well but they panicked. It is what it is.

How did Conan's show not tank? Were the ratings fabulous or even good after the first month?
I wouldn't say they designed Leno's lead in show to tank but yes NBC still knew it would be profitable and the affiliates call for action was as much the driving force behind NBC pulling the plug on Conan as anything else.

That is true re. the new contract upon Leno returning to the NBC fold, I forgot about that. Conan's buyout was related to his annual salary. About two years left on his contract at a rumored $15mill.
You are right on though about Leno's buyout upon his return to NBC being that much higher. His agent and lawyers were wise enough to not trust NBC and to craft a contract that would put NBC in a deep hole if they ever decided to get cold feet and it turned in his favour.
You're absolutely right on that it definitely did become more expensive to let Leno go-the second time around, than it was to let Conan go. Basically, NBC put themselves in a corner and wet the TV network bed.

 

That can be kind of an issue
Critics generally think they know better than common Americans
They actually tend to go against 'common American'

Which is why Award winners often are not the biggest money makers [i.e. things people actually pay to see]

Having critical acclaim sometimes means little to Ratings

Rocket River

 

I disagree to some extent. I feel confident in my assessment that Bieber sucks. He's good at appealing to a mass audience, but that doesn't he mean he's worth a crap. His voice is fine, but he sucks.

Being popular has never been a measure of sucking or not sucking.

I do agree that just putting the latest indy comic up wouldn't make everyone see how great they were. It would actually take putting up a whole series of indy comics regularly before people would start appreciate it on a wider scale.

 

Justin Bieber is good at appealing to a mass audience but...he sucks. That doesn't make sense.

He has a style you don't like (me either for that matter) but he doesn't suck. (unless you mean as a human being and then you would be correct it would seem.)

This is the same issue that comes up when people say the #1 song in the country at some given point is "terrible." Yet it sells millions of copies and gets played by radio stations that track ratings over and over again.

People need to learn that your personal taste or the taste of people you know does not equal facts.

 

I hate Leno and his low brow brand of humor with a passion. His interviews generally sucked too, but I guess that fits with the blue collar middle America demo that he won.

 

Man i love fallon. He will grow on you.

 

You are confusing popular with good. Something can be popular and bad or popular and good. Being popular doesn't determine that. Justin Bieber appealing to millions of tween girls does not make him "good." His singing voice is average, his music is computerized and his lyrics are juvenile nonsense. Being attractive to a teenager doesn't make him GOOD at what he does, it makes him popular at what he does. You can like or not like something and still find it objectively good or bad.

 

good = your bank account.
Money is all that matters.

 

Completely agree with this x1000.
Fallon seems like the type of person you try to hate but eventually you realize it is futile and give up. Just seems like a really nice genuine dude. Especially compared to the others in the business.
I detested him and his show when he started out but I've come around big time.