It’s been well over a year and a half since the 2010 late-night television wars, where courageous American media personalities fought over exorbitant sums of money, while the rest of the country, bored with hearing about a recession, turned to bearing the arms and emblems of “Team Coco.”
These were the darkest of days, where countless procrastinating college students suffered the insecurity of not knowing the exact time to change the channel to Adult Swim, an injustice like no other.
A lot has changed since society began to rebuild from the devastation.
For one, beloved late-night host Conan O’Brien has been back on the air since last November. O’Brien, accepting a lucrative offer of $12 million per year, found a home on TBS, with “Conan,” a riskier, more cable-courageous take on his previously established Late Night formula.
The series debuted strong, with first month viewers as high as 2.4 million, according to Nielsen Co. Unfortunately, it seems “Cocomania” was not meant to last.
“Conan’s” viewership has suffered a massive decline since its 2010 debut, according to The Wall Street Journal, with the average monthly viewership of July amounting as low as 958,000 people. This spells bad news for a largely experimental series that has yet to even complete its first season.
In the always-coveted 18-49 viewers demographic, Conan falls way behind almost all rivals, including Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and even newcomer Chelsea Handler of “Chelsea Lately”, according to current Nielsen ratings.
Yet, TBS, a Time Warner Inc. ownership, still insists on upholding O’Brien as their late-night messiah. With their goal to make TBS “a leading comedy brand,” Steve Koonin, president of Time Warner's Turner Entertainment Networks, insists Conan’s “program is the signature show of our line-up and the centerpiece of our network."
This attitude was made perfectly clear with the recent cancelation of “Lopez Tonight,” due to — you guessed it — falling viewership (about a 40 percent decrease). By no means is this a major travesty; watching “Lopez Tonight” resulted in an hour of regret and loathing only George Lopez could deliver. Still, it’s hard not to see the glaring favoritism at play, especially when Lopez happily gave up his cushy 11 p.m. timeslot for Conan, a favor I’m sure the latter would return without complaint.
Sarcasm aside, make no mistake, the world needs Conan O’Brien on late-night television. Even if his humor may not always strike all chords, he’s one of the few truly willing to get weird and push boundaries with an audience as massive as his. Also, he seems like a really swell guy.
While these low-ratings are no means a death sentence for the Conan-brand — O’Brien is still on contract for another season, but there are little doubt drastic improvements and gains must be made.
This is a calling to you, Team Coco. For “Conan” to survive, you must do the unthinkable: voluntarily watch TBS. Endure the reruns of steaming Tyler Perry leftovers and “The Big Bang Theory,” for this is the toll that must be paid.
Reach the columnist at dsydiong@asu.edu
