Did anyone predict this? I heard some Comedy Central speculation, but no one seriously thought they would move Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert out of the eleven PM slot for O'Brien.This move makes a lot of sense. I am not certain how serious FOX was about hirig O’Brien for a show--I suspect not very--but going to a cable is a better idea. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, O’Brien attracts a niche audience of younger, hipper viewers. He cannot attract viewers across the board like Jay Leno and David Letterman evidently can. Moving to cable lets him cater to his audience while not technically going had to head with leno and letterman. He will be judged by cable ratings standards. It is win-win for O’Brien.
George Lopez, who already has a TBS talk show at eleven, has cordially agreed to move to midnight because he recognizes the advantage of having O’Brien as a lead in. In a classy move in comparison to NBC, TBS approached Lopez with the idea before making an offer to O’Brien and the two men personally discussed the matter to make certain all parties were all right with the plan.
The show is expected to air Monday through Thursday nights starting in November.
On a semi-related note, while I did watch The Jay Leno Show a couple times to see what it was like, I have not watched Leno’s return to The Tonight Show at all. I am aware that his ratings dominance is back in full swing. I find this puzzling. Not because Leno does not have his fans. I am just baffled why he only has them at a certain time of the night.
He was earning high ratings as host of The Tonight Show when he left. One would expect comparable, though perhaps slightly lower ratings, at his ten o'clock show because it was more or less a tweaked The Tonight Show at an earlier time. But it did not turn out that way. He bombed at ten while apparently most of his 11;30 viewers went over to Letterman. Not that he is back in his old job, his viewers have migrated from Letterman back to him.
The situation brings up two questions. One, why does Leno only attract a large following at 11;30? Two, what were those missing fans doing at ten rather than watching Leno? For these cod question, I am assuming they are mostly watching television. Bear I mind that when The Jay Leno show Was replaced by reruns of NBC dramas, they earned higher ratings than he did. So why is Leno a golden ticket at 11:30 but cannot compete with a Law & Order rerun at ten?
