Come for the Ride!

Now that I have the luxury of staying up late and waking up at 10, I was actually able to watch NBC last night when Jay and Conan came back for the first time since the writers’ strike. The shows were pretty good if not better than average and I gotta say, I wasn’t surprised.

Having seen old clips of the two from various gigs back in the day, they had already proven themselves as funny comedians. Now they are just doing what they have always done to earn their talk show host status so I don’t understand why many expected them to bomb.

As the shows progressed, I did observe something interesting to note – the shows now look less scripted, and more spontaneous. Whether that’s actually true or not is irrelevant… In the modern media where reality shows and amateur videos are showcased on network TV, YouTube, CNN and pretty much everywhere else on the Internet, many may actually prefer this type of TV vs. the lame scripted ones.

Would Jay have been able to admit he hated and was relieved he didn’t have to scramble to do his “New Years show” in the old format? I don’t know, but with the Peacock watching, I don’t think so.

I would imagine NBC like most large corporate companies are conservative when it comes to taking risks but desperate times call for desperate measures and who knows, this format may just work for the late night shows! Heck, I wouldn’t want to watch anyone during the noon time news spin their wedding rings on the air but because it’s Conan, because it’s at 1 in the morning and I’m wired from Mountain Dew, that type of quality TV just may work!

If you truly know your audience… you can make anything work.