Friday, March 19, 2010

Conan O’Brien Updates from the week

Seems like Conan O Brien is all over the news this week with the impending announcement of him going to FOX. and 11PM. Then there is, of course, the theater tour and also this weird tie-in to a drug bust in Jersey.  But the most intriguing announcement to me involves shooting his theater tour as a documentary to release to theaters.  Conan making a movie may be the most genius move of them all.  The thing I continue to say about Conan is that he has an extremely fervent following of fans who never watch him.  Why?  Because his audience won't invest in a nightly talk show, it's simply too much of a commitment.  The old media idea was that the more content you could provide the more dedicated your fanbase would be, but this only works if its a captive audience.  Conan's fans, and I count myself as one of them, have too much going on to tune in for an hour each night.  New media is learning the lesson very quickly that more isn't always better.  In the wild west of Podcasting many casters are learning that they get better numbers when they decrease their content production.    People want to consider themselves loyal, but they have a million other content avenues clamoring for their attention.  So a movie makes sense because it allows CoCo fans the opportunity to pledge allegiance and only give up a couple hours of their time.  In similar fashion, I think when the new show does launch, it would do well to air a weekly or even monthly highlight show that would allow people like me to invest in Mr. O'Brien at our own pace.   Conan O' Brien has handled this mess about as intelligently and honorably as possible, and now may just be the perfect chance for him, and his fans, to transform the talk-show landscape.

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