http://www.easternecho.com On Friday the final episode of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” aired, putting an end to two weeks of controversy, rumors and arguably some of the best late night television in a long time. But now that the dust is finally settling on “Tonight Show”-gate, with O’Brien and his staff receiving a reported $45 million in severance from NBC for agreeing to leave the show a mere seven months into its run and Jay Leno preparing to take back his old show on March 1, the real question is — what next? Though Leno might seem like the winner of the whole debacle, he definitely hasn’t improved his image among the younger generations, who have largely supported O’Brien. en-us Gryphon 2.3.1-dsw (pewabic)/Foundry5 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:29:48 -0500 webmaster@easternecho.com http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/419 NBC made a huge mistake with this one. Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:35:50 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/419 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/421 even though i use 2 watch leno before conan, after all is said and done i am truly a conan fan and will watch his new shoe whereever he goes. leno can go bye bye Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:30:47 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/421 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/422 For those who are too young – or were too uninterested, at the time – to recall, it might help to get some background on this story. Read all about how Leno acquired The Tonight Show gig, back in 1993. The comments section doesn’t allow long links, so just plug this abbreviated link into your browser.: bit.ly/6FjAQq (article from NY Times; 1994) Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:12:59 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/422 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/423 ggg Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:49:57 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/423 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/425 Conan’s Tonight Show Finale ratings prooves he’s got lots of fans, specially among the younger generation. The problem is during most times, these people are nowhere near a TV, specially during Conan’s 7 month Tonight Show run. They watched Conan on Hulu or via DVR recording, etc. I think the networks needs to understand these changing viewing habits and adapt accordingly. While the older folks are still ok on keeping an “appointment” time with a certain show on TV, most younger people will watch the shows they love on a computer, from a DVR recording, Hulu (or other sites), or on their portable media device. Likely all the broadcast ads can be skipped or have been removed altogether from what these people are watching. So the networks need to adapt. Change their business model. Perhaps more in-show product placements (just one idea). The “let’s go to a commercial break” every 15-mins business model isn’t working anymore. Obviously the ratings system need to change too…coz the Nielsen stuff just trackts TV viewership. So that needs updating as well to track all the video downloads, the DVR recordings, and every other place people watch clips (or entire episodes) of their favorite shows. Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:29:48 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/425