Thursday, January 14, 2010

Sweet Charity

I've been plugging a relief organization called Operation USA. Over the years, I've donated a lot of loot to causes and then found out that only about 30% of what I gave was actually going to feed the hungry or heal the sick, and 70% was going for administrative expenses or so the head of the organization could drive a Bentley to fund-raising events. When I met the folks behind Operation USA, I was impressed with...well, with how shabby their offices were, for one thing. And I was impressed with them. I then called someone I knew who was with a government agency that monitors charities to make sure they use at least some of your donations for their attended purpose. I asked about Operation USA and my friend there said, "Oh, they're one of the best! They do so much good."

That was enough for me but I'm happy to have corroboration. Corey Klemow (thanks, Corey) found this site which checks up on charities and tells you where their money goes. The listing for Operation USA says they're everything I always believed.

• Posted at 6:06 PM · LINK

Set the TiVo!

The Golden Globe Awards are this Sunday. I may actually watch for what I think will be the first time because Ricky Gervais is hosting and he seems to have the right attitude for the thing, which is not to take it seriously. My friend Bob Elisberg will be glad to tell you why this ceremony and the trophies it bestows aren't good for much more than citing in ads.

• Posted at 3:38 PM · LINK

From the E-Mailbag...

Tammy Crotty (great name) writes to ask...

I know you're probably getting many emails asking this, but what do you think Jay Leno should do? I read your post suggesting NBC give Leno back The Tonight Show, but do you think Jay can possibly accept it and not be drawn and quartered by the critics? Won't he further ruin his already tarnished reputation? I'm an extremely huge fan of Jay's, and that's why I don't think he can stay at NBC and save face.

Jay's always been drawn and quartered by the critics. He's one of the most underestimated performers in the history of television. I mean, there are those who don't find him funny and that's never going to change. But I'm amazed how often I've heard that he would crash and burn and couldn't possibly attract a viewership. They said he'd never get The Tonight Show in the first place. Then when he did, they said the ratings would drop so much, NBC would dump him in 13 weeks. When that didn't happen and Letterman then went up against them, they said Jay'd be back working the Comedy Store full-time in six months. That time, it looked like they were right...but he only failed for a while, and only in the sense that Dave got higher numbers. Jay's ratings, even in second place, were never bad. I don't think he ever got below a 3.5 or so, whereas when Letterman's numbers started plunging, he dropped for a time to around 2.8.

Those are total viewer numbers. When Jay started beating Dave in total viewers, his critics said he'd never best Letterman in the younger demographic. Then he started beating Dave in the younger demographic and kept winning the time slot by every possible measure for something like thirteen years...including many periods when NBC's entire prime time schedule was in the dumpster. When you look at Leno's track record, it makes a wee bit more sense that the network was willing to gamble with him at 10 PM and doesn't want to let him go. (It, of course, makes less sense that they were willing to shove him aside for Conan...)

What should he do? Well, if he goes back on at 11:35, which is what some sources are saying is a done deal, he'd better do a damn better show than he did at 10:00. I even thought the bits he carried over and his monologue were weaker on the earlier show than they'd usually been on Tonight. I would hope the lesson of 10:00 would not just be that Jay doesn't work in that time slot but that viewers aren't all that wild about Jay Walking, The Battle of the Jay Walk All-Stars, all those faceless "correspondents," etc. The guy needs to reinvent his show again but I have the ominous hunch the opposite will happen. Someone will say, "Let's go back to what worked" and they'll attempt to restore the old show with a slightly new gloss.

Ultimately, if Jay can make The Tonight Show #1 again in its timeslot, he'll be a hero and fewer people will say that Conan was horribly wronged by the switcheroo. My gut tells me that's not possible...but then I look at his track record and I wonder if my gut is just underestimating him, as so many other guts have.

If you'd like to read some nice press on Jay, read this. And I'll bet we're about to see Leno doing the "other talk show" circuit, admitting the 10 PM show was a mistake and saying how sorry he is that it worked out as it did for Conan. He may even be, for all I know. At least he knows what it's like to be shoved off The Tonight Show because a guy with lower ratings wanted it. It's happened to him twice now.

• Posted at 3:22 PM · LINK

Conan the Conqueror

The latest is that Jeff Zucker is allegedly threatening to keep Conan O'Brien "off the air for 3-and-a-half years" if Conan won't go along with the plan to host The Tonight Show at 12:05. That ain't gonna happen. At the time Zucker said it, assuming he said it, there was perhaps a chance it would scare O'Brien into compliance...but that statement Conan released has probably killed that possibility. Having taken the stance he took in it, it would be too embarrassing for Mr. O'Brien to now say, "Okay...on second thought, hosting Tonight at 12:05 is a great idea." Killing off that possibility is probably the main reason he issued the statement, along with trying to spin things so the story will be not that Conan O'Brien took over The Tonight Show and failed, but that NBC undermined him and reneged.

So Conan can't go to 12:05 without being humiliated...and Zucker can't back down on putting Leno in at 11:35 without being humiliated. Sounds to me like Conan's going elsewhere, and if the Zucker threat is true, it therefore becomes a negotiating stance, designed to get more favorable terms in the divorce.

One might also assume that NBC isn't wild about putting Conan O'Brien on the air every night so he can trash the network. So far, the jokes haven't been too painful, especially since the newsworthiness of it all is boosting Tonight Show ratings. I doubt it will come to this but there are probably discussions over at NBC about what to do if their star gets so insulting that they feel the need to yank him off the air. That would sure be a mess. Unless Conan voluntarily took a leave of absence, no one of any note would take the assignment, especially if it meant working with Conan's crew.

Mr. Zucker is getting pretty soundly trashed in the press these days...and if he's the one who actually made all the decisions attributed to him, he probably deserves trashing. I'm only hesitant because guys in his position sometimes wind up taking responsibility for moves that are forced on them by those at higher levels. No doubt the decision to move Conan now, rather than to give him a few more months to prove himself, was dictated in part by forces beyond Zucker's resistance. I'm not saying NBC didn't err mightily but in these situations, there's often a tendency to dump the blame on one guy. This was more than a one-man screw-up. In fact, it was more than one screw-up, starting back when they engineered the deal to forcibly shove Leno aside for O'Brien.

I'm still skeptical that Fox would give Conan the kind of long-term committment he oughta have if he's going to flee to that venue. One of the major factors getting lost in all the gossip is that NBC was disappointed with Conan's ratings as host of The Tonight Show. Yes, it takes time to perfect a format and to build an audience and I think he should have had more opportunity. On the other hand, it's not like he was starting from zero, trying to create a new show out of nothing and staff it while he learned how to host a talk show. He's right that he suffered because of weak lead-ins...but you can almost hear Jay privately saying, "Hey, I had crummy lead-ins for seventeen years and I was never in third place."

Conan is a very talented guy and he's going to find a place where he can do a show for a long, long time. Apparently, it's not going to be NBC. Maybe it'll be Fox. If I were running HBO or Showtime, I'd sure consider loading a truck full of currency and seeing if he'd do a show for us. I'd put it on Monday through Friday, live and completely uncensored...and at 10 PM every night so he wasn't competing with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno or David Letterman. It probably won't happen but wouldn't that be interesting?

• Posted at 12:05 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Rubber Duckie, you're the one...

• Posted at 12:40 AM · LINK

January 15, 2010 • Current • January 13, 2010