Craig Ferguson is beating Conan O'Brien in the late, late night wars. His show scored an average of 1.9 million viewers compared to 1.85 million for Conan for the week. Ferguson's numbers increased from 1.75 million from the same time last year (the article doesn't mention Conan's ratings from last year). Now, what does this mean?Is Ferguson actually becoming more popular than O'Brien? If this is the case, then we've discovered the natural heir to the Letterman time slot. NBC must be shaking in its boots to have Conan take over Jay Leno's time in 2009.
On the other hand, it could be a fluke. People's tastes could simply be temporarily swinging towards Ferguson. However, a 8.5% increase in average viewership over a year is nothing to sneeze at.
Or possibly that Conan isn't bringing his "A" material to the game? He may just be saving it for when he starts in the 11:30 slot. How could CBS be winning the ratings game when the opposition has Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on its side?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
12-02-2008 @ 11:50AM
Ben said...
I'm no fan of Jay Leno and have always preferred Letterman, but it's obvious to me that NBC is making a huge mistake in turning over the Tonight Show to Conan. If Leno can get a show on ABC or Fox, NBC can kiss being #1 in late night goodbye. Even if Leno stays at NBC, I don't have a lot of faith that Conan will bring in as large an audience as Leno currently does.
I had been a semi-regular Conan viewer since he started in 1993 (those early shows weren't nearly as bad as people say!), but I recently quit watching completely because I got tired of the same old shtick being repeated endlessly. I've only caught Ferguson a few times but it definitely felt like a fresher show, so I'm not surprised that he's managed to beat Conan. Conan really has to step it up, or else the failure that everyone predicted for him may finally come to pass, only 15 years later.
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12-02-2008 @ 1:56PM
mosbutnotall said...
I couldn't agree more. Conan is a funny guy but he has a number of reactions and lines that he repeats again and again (in a limited, not in a funny way) and they do the same comedy bits again and again. What's most annoying is that when they do them they use the exact same intro as if we've never seen them do it before.
12-02-2008 @ 11:59AM
gwenshack said...
Craig is the best. I turned it on one night a year ago out of the blue and I'm hooked now. He's so witty and charming and self deprecating. What's not to love?
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12-02-2008 @ 12:17PM
Cyantre said...
Conan isn't that funny, perhaps as a mediocre stand-up comic you might see a few times, but night after night it's the same thing and that same thing isn't very funny.
Craig has always been more entertaining to watch and for a while I would DVR his show, which I had never done with any late night show unless I wanted to catch a certain guest.
Leno is okay too, but if Conan takes over The Tonight Show, it's going to be dreadful.
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12-02-2008 @ 12:32PM
superrrguy said...
Conan kicks ass at interviews. He's one of the few hosts that doesn't sound like it's all prepared and he rolls with everything and actually asks follow up questions when something interesting comes up. Even when a fire alarm went off in the NBC building, he made it funny... mostly by saying how much the his show sucks, but it was still funny.
Unfortunately the rest of the show is the same old unfunny gag. Really unfunny. Really really unfunny gag. That stupid sentence finisher. The dog on stilts. That's actually all I remember. I've been skipping to the interviews for years. I think Conan was better during the strike without the writers.
I also wonder if the show only seems kind of funny because it's on late and i'm half asleep. I used to think Letterman was funny at 12:30. Now I can't stand him.
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12-02-2008 @ 12:44PM
StillBash said...
What gwenshack said.
Craig is witty. Conan is a nitwit. Leno was too dumb for me from the start. Letterman was better, but after a while you can't take all the repeats anymore. I started skipping the monologue completely and just watch the guest. On Conan it's the same.
But on the Late Late show no matter what you can watch Craig Ferguson see how he comes up with the monologue while actually standing there. It's improv at its best. I know he has some hints before he goes on but it's basically what you know about how he started the whole thing. His first week was so horrible that they invited all the guests back to the show to re-do all the interviews. He had written down monologues he followed and it all felt horribly off (I didn't see any of that, that's just the story he mentions now and then). But his freestyle monologue is so great and the best thing is when he goes into deph on some topic... for instance his comments about Britney Spears where he also said to leave her alone but in such an insightful way because he is an alcoholic himself and has experience with drugs and alcohol. Or when he held an on screen eulogy for his father. Just go on YouTube and search for Craig Ferguson, that's how I got hooked. Everything on that show feels genuine and compared to the plastic humor on Conan it's refreshing and real. Even his fake guest are more likable than those "door opens, guy comes in, Conan makes strange comment, guy replies, people laugh, guy leaves" skits. For instance Betty White frequently visits the show as well as Henry Winkler, posing as some fake expert on a topic that's currently in the news, usually going into sexual innuendo and wink wink nudge nudge comments :-)
It's basically a show that doesn't take itself serious but tackles everyday problems with that kind of seriosity that is necessary, like asking people to go vote before the election with the hint that in other countries people regard it as their civil duty or comments about the state of society - without ever feeling stuck-up or smart-assed.
All in all it's just "real". As if you are part of the show itself. Of course there are lowpoints like those god damn Ford Flex commercials woven into the show as skits but at least the first two or three times those were funny too. Simply record it and watch it a day later and skip the stuff you don't like. On Craig it's about two minutes an episode. On Conan, for me at least, it's 30 minutes, on Letterman 40 and Leno I skip altogether.
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12-02-2008 @ 5:01PM
chrisrom7 said...
I love Craig. So natural, warm & funny. He's real! Makes love to the camera. Smart & confident enough to do a wonderful nightly improv. So fresh & real! Can you tell I adore him? Conan is a stale, unfunny hack. How sad that he will take over Leno's show. Oh well...he won't last long.
12-02-2008 @ 1:16PM
Ben said...
This cited last week...wasn't Conan in re-runs last week since it was Thanksgiving? I think it was, at-least Thursday and Friday...another way to spin the story would be to say that Craig Ferguson barely beats Conan re-runs.
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12-02-2008 @ 1:19PM
shadowracer said...
I like both of them. Ferguson's improvish stand up at the beginning of the show if better than most everything Conan and his writing staff come up with. But Conan is still funny
I watch the first 30minutes of Conan in real time, after that I have no desire to watch it. I record Ferguson, because sometimes the jokes are so good I need to go back and hear them again, and his interviews are always entertaining.
BTW - Weren't the Conans reruns last week? I know Ferguson was new.
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12-02-2008 @ 1:27PM
Cody said...
Ferguson creates an intimate connection with his audience that makes him much more fun to watch than Conan.
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12-02-2008 @ 1:30PM
Torsten said...
It's all the more surprising considering that Craig obviously has to work with a MUCH lower budget than Conan (smaller studio, fewer audience members, no band, etc.). He creates a very relaxed and intimate atmosphere with what little he's got.
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12-03-2008 @ 11:24PM
compuguy1088 said...
Conan's studio...which I've seen on the studio tour...is SMALL, based on the fact its in 40 Rockefeller building...when Leno is in a far larger studio on the west coast.
12-02-2008 @ 1:51PM
Riley Freeman said...
i was honestly surprised to see conan get something always made me think seinfeld would get jay lenos spot
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12-02-2008 @ 2:11PM
Benjh said...
"Ferguson creates an intimate connection with his audience that makes him much more fun to watch than Conan."
"It's all the more surprising considering that Craig obviously has to work with a MUCH lower budget than Conan (smaller studio, fewer audience members, no band, etc.). He creates a very relaxed and intimate atmosphere with what little he's got. "
I beg to differ with both of you. I went to both shows' tapings, craig ferguson only last week (thanksgiving's show, taped last tuesday).
It is true that craig's budget is much smaller, the studio is tiny and there's barely 2 production assistant to take care of a 100 people audience. I felt very ill at ease, like I was crammed into a wharehouse for some late night access TV. I'm used to tapings and "this looks so much smaller in reality" feelings, but this was really something else. Other people around me felt the same way. The audience warmer was extremely bad, and interactions with craig kept to a minimum.
With Conan, however, it felt like going to a theme park. Waiting by the NBC building (even more exciting now that 30 Rock made it famous), then going in and up escorted with NBC pagers, being seated in the much bigger theatre - everyone was chearful. It was really a blast, and all the laughs came naturally. Only the applaude was "ordered". With Craig, we had to laugh on cue.
Conan was funny with the audience, interacting the whole time.
Also, and I'm sorry to say that because I love him, Craig felt totally depressed. During his entire monologue, he kept looking sideways at the stage manager (who seemed to be a very good friend/confident) for reassurance that it was funny. You could see the stage manager laughing histerically - something a pro would never do on stage just to recomfort Craig.
Plus with Conan, you got the band. It really felt like Conan was an afternoon drinking and watching football with friends, when Craig was a tea party with your grandparent's golf partners.
Anyway, a more intimate, a better connection with the audience? Absolutely not. With the TV viewers? Maybe. Is Craig funnier than Conan lately? Yes. But being there, when they're taping, it's an whole other ballgame.
Ok I'm done :-)
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12-07-2008 @ 3:02AM
StillBash said...
Yeah, uhm... where exactly did you differ from what the other people you cited said?
You talk about _studio visits_, all the other commenters talk about the TV show on the TV screen.
You comment is just like saying that "Scream" isn't a scary movie when you stand behind the camera.
Well duh!
It's pretty revealing that you talk about the way Craig held his monologue while you say nothing about Conan's way of presenting the monologue and how he interacts with the audience.
Also I find it irritating that you say you felt crammed into the studio and "others felt the same" and also note how Craig needs reassurance as well as the fact that there was few interaction between him and the audience. A few comments about that:
- the studio is smaller, like you said. Again, you don't differ from what others said and still they feel that the show is as good as Conan's if not better.
- Craig does his monologue improv-style. Tell me again why it is so wrong to get feedback if or if not the direction you are going is funny or not, while on a written down telepromted monologue you simply tackle one line after the other - who would need reassurance there?
- Audience interaction: what did you expect, Disneyland? You wanted to touch Mickey? Phat chance. And honestly it irritates me that you say that there was few interaction with the audience when on his show Craig interacts with the audicence directly whereas Conan can't just for the fact alone that the audience is on a raised platform. Craig ever so often directly enters the audience rows, picks people out and drags them in front of the camera.
Seriously, I don't really get you. All the reasons you give for Craig's show to be the less interesting or entertaining experience is because Conan records his show IN FRIGGIN NEW YORK CITY AT 30 ROCK with the whole damn building there, with pages with tours with a much larger studio and you say that production costs dont' factor in into all that?
I don't want to be harsh and I get where you are coming from but you just pointed out what the difference in the audience experience is like when two shows have extremely different production costs. If you ask me I bet my ass that Craig's show is produced for about a tenth of what Conan's show costs.
And seriously, the last sentence is a joke. Tea with your grandparents. That says round about nothing. You know there are people who love their grandparents. Just saying...
12-07-2008 @ 4:07AM
Benjh said...
OK, I was tempted to reply just typing "troll", but I'll do a little bit more than that.
What the heck is your problem? Did I insult you or your grandparents? Which I'm sure you love, btw, just as much as I love mine and it's insulting for you to pretend otherwise. Sorry you don't get caustic comments, I'm sure you'll work on it. You should read better by the way, it's "tea party with your grandparents' golf partners". Don't misquote me.
Anyway, I gave my impression of Craig's show, and that's that. You disagree, fantastic, tell us what you think, there's no need for a sentence by sentence explanation of my comment.
I'm not even gonna tell you how I see my comment as differing from the one I quoted, because I take yours as a personal, gratuitous and violent attack.
What I say is "revealing"? I didn't know readers were supposed to do a psychoanalysis on the previous posters. It's "irritating"? Well, guess what, my comment doesn't have to be your new bible, you have full right to disagree without feeling hurt.
The only thing vaguely attacked in my comment is Craig's show (I still wrote he's funnier than conan, and that's all that should matter), and only him or his producers could attack me back. Unfortunately for him, he's a public figure so he makes himself available to a little thing that's been around for awhile, called a "review".
"You get where I'm coming from"? What the hell do you know about me? How is it possible for a reader to go all out like this against a poster simply giving his point of view? I still can't believe you're suggesting I don't love my grandparents...
I'm lucky I don't care much what strangers think of me, I'm still gonna sleep fine tonight. Obviously it won't be the same for you. Have a good night.
12-02-2008 @ 2:12PM
miller980 said...
The best thing CBS did was scale back the interview portion of Ferguson's show. His interviews are no worse nor better than everyone else's, but what makes his show must see entertainment is the monologue and skits. It will be interesting to see how Conan modifies his tired format for Leno's spot. I also appreciate the coy attitude that Leno is taking with all of this. Yes, it's his own fault for giving up the show, but I think the way he's handling speaks well for his future in television.
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12-02-2008 @ 3:41PM
WhatI said...
I would agree/disagree about Ferguson's interviews - now they are so rushed and at times he is working so hard to pull every funny he can - and they aren't usually anything special. When the show wasn't dominated by skits, his interviews were fantastic - he gave his guests the opportunity to shine and would carry on more of a conversation with them - I miss that - especially when he has non-celebrity guests on the show. I'm glad to see the good ratings, however, and he'll see even higher ratings when Conan steps out of the slot in a few months and only has to compete with repeats or Fallon.
12-02-2008 @ 2:12PM
Walt said...
The facts are these: Conan made the audience he has out of stoners up late at night wanting some edgy humor. The earlier slot (Leno, Letterman) caters to a much different audience.
My opinions are these: Conan will not translate well, no matter how many "Johnny Carson is God" correspondence courses Conan takes. Craig is the comedian you would take home to meet your mother. In that way that you would take a male buddy you're not having sex with even though he likes to put on a Speedo from time to time.
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12-02-2008 @ 3:27PM
dt3 said...
jay leno is a hack... just thought it needed to be said
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