"You want me to move 'The Tonight Show' to 12:05. Forget it. What can they do to me?" - Conan O'Brien
As if you haven't heard already, Conan O'Brien is back...finally. It's been nine months since the NBC debacle that shafted Conan from his "Tonight Show" gig, bringing in Jay Leno to regain his seat and Conan to move on over to TBS.
So how'd he do during his opening show? According to the numbers, not bad...not bad at all. He raked in 4.1 million viewers on opening night, to beat out Leno's 3.5 million; and his second night garnered 2.8 million. Let's hope it lasts.
And let me just throw this out there. Conan is not my favorite late-night host, so I have no bias here. That award goes to Craig Ferguson. Ferguson's humor is so off-the-cuff that you can't help but laugh. His opening monologues aren't one-liners, right after the other, (sometimes puppets are even involved!), and his interviews are so candid and brutally honest, it just makes for a better interview. And the fact that his sidekick, Geoff Peterson, is a robot, is so random, it makes it all the better. There is never a show where I don't laugh out loud, so much sometimes that tears come to my eyes. Ferguson is the most underrated late-night host out there.
Anyway, that being said, where does that leave Conan?
Don't worry, he's right there in second place. He far beats out Leno and David Letterman - so scripted - and the Jimmy's (Kimmel and Fallon) are hit-or-miss.
And Conan proved, that even on cable television, he can do just fine. He brought forth his usual quirky sense of humor to an opening sketch - showcasing the nine-month unemployment period of his life. He gets an interview with Don Draper (Jon Hamm) of "Mad Men" for an advertising job ("You have absolutely no advertising experience. Plus, it's 1965 and you're 2 years old."); he nabs a job working at Burger King; and also performs stand-up as a clown at a kids' birthday party. All to no avail. The sketch concluded with Larry King, as the basic cable network guardian angel, talking Conan off of a bridge.
In his monologue, there may have been one-too-many stabs towards NBC - "People ask me why I named the show 'Conan.' I did it so I'd be harder to replace." - but it had to be addressed and gotten out here, before we as viewers and Conan himself could move onto better things.
What works really well is the buddy relationship of Conan and Andy Richter. They are a team that can easily play off one another - the show might as well be called "The Conan and Andy Show." For instance, when Conan brings up a Halloween mask designed to be him, but simply called "Ex-Talk Show Host" mask, Richter throws it on and deadpans "It's very authentic inside. It smells like tears." Subtle jabs at Conan, where Conan can laugh at himself, work well.
As for Conan's first guests, again, not bad: Seth Rogan ("Superbad," "Knocked Up"), Lea Michele ("Glee"); and Jack White of White Stripes fame. A decent first-night lineup if we were able to have longer than five minutes apiece with them. The interviews seemed over before they started.
Night two of "Conan" held up OK, with Tom Hanks and Jack McBrayer ("30 Rock") appearing as guests. You can't go wrong with either of those guys, each comical in their own way.
And before the guest arrived, a well-done 'what can and can't be censored' skit was shown that hit off well.
It'll be tough to see where "Conan" lands in the future - Team Coco has been waiting a long time for this, and I'm sure they will stick with him, but to keep up those numbers, a little more than the usual needs to be done. At least he's back, and I just hope people will remember to scroll up to the higher numbers of cable television to back him up - we don't want him getting lost among the George Lopez' of TBS.
"Conan" airs at 11 p.m. on TBS, Monday through Thursday.
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