What could be more fun than that? TV’s Best-Known Unknown Comic already has a fan for a show that hasn’t aired yet. Conan (“I think it’s Gaelic for white face”) O’Brien doesn’t debut on NBC until Sept. 13–the last (and newest) act in late-night television’s looming lollapalooza. In an unprecedent–of the power of babble, five ally broadcast wisemouths be yakking and yukking between 11 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. At take is more than $400 million worth of advertising, not to mention the dubious honor of forever being labeled “the new Johnny.” How the field shapes up:
When asked how the CBS version of “Letterman” (arriving Aug. 30) might differ from the NBC model, the $42 million man quips: “I’m going to start using a rinse on my hair.” Cool, but not exactly candid. To play to the older audience that comes with the show’s earlier starting time, Letterman is indeed tinkering with his formula. Look for a wider, more mainstream range of guests (Neil Diamond is already booked). In fact, last week a “Late Show” camera crew taped an “Ask Andy Rooney” segment in which CBS’s resident crank prowled the staff’s offices hurling wisecracks–just like a septuagenarian Dave.
Along with a stupendously stupid tussle with NBC over whether such signature Letterman bits as the Top 10 List can travel with him to CBS, Dave must clear a tricky hurdle within his new network. CBS has been feverishly cajoling its 216 affiliate stations to air the Letterman show promptly at 11:35, when many are contractually committed to carry more lucrative syndicated programs. So far, less than 70 percent of the stations have agreed to “clear” Letterman in his new time slot (vs. the 99 percent of NBC stations that carry Leno at 11:35). Frets “Late Show” executive producer Peter Lassally: “It’s going to be discouraging when the press says Leno is beating Letterman and there’s no footnote about the station clearances.” Then again, no TV host enjoys such shamelessly adoring coverage. At the close of Letterman’s last press conference, the assembled “critics” accorded him a standing ovation.
Soon after D-Day arrives on CBS, the competition on NBC will unveil a new theme song, curtain and cityscape backdrop. Coincidence? “Not really,” allows Leno. The man’s straight-ball shtik may not always put you away, but he’s maintained Johnny’s ratings and lured more younger viewers–the ones sponsors salivate over. Still, Jay (along with his writers) has been keeping a close watch on Dave. “I used to describe ‘Tonight’ as a talk show with comedy and Dave’s program as a comedy show with talk,” Leno says. “Now I think you’ll see us moving a bit more toward them and them moving more toward us. You just hope it doesn’t become a big blur somewhere in the middle.”
Gutsy Chevy. The last time he hosted a talk show-subbing for Johnny Carson in the late ’70s–it turned out to be “the worst experience of my life,” Now his new talkie for Fox Broadcasting dares to follow in the legendary footprints of Fox’s Joan Rivers gabfest (life span: seven months) and “The Wilton North Report” (four weeks). Launching Sept. 7 at 11 p.m., Chase will basically rely on what worked for him on “Saturday Night Live.” That means nightly reprises of his “Weekend Update” routine, plus lots of parodies and slapsticky sight gags. “I’m a little more subversive than the other latenight guys,” says Chevy, somewhat improbably. Take his idea of the perfect guest: “any moronic domestic pet who can do prestidigitation.” Didn’t Dave already unleash that one?
Conan O’Brien may not end up the brightest star in late night, but he’ll definitely be the palest. The heir to Letterman’s swivel chair also seems genuinely sweet–a personality disorder not generally associated with cuttingedge comedy. O’Brien’s own comic sensibility, he says, leans toward “the absurd and the plain silly. I loved Monty Python and Peter Sellers’s Inspector Clouseau. I love when pretentious people screw up.”
Of course, the choice of this rookie could rank as a record screw-up, even for NBC. While O’Brien wrote for “SNL” and “The Simpsons,” his performing credits would barely qualify for “Star Search.” Nor did NBC make things easier by christening him “the voice of the next generation” in television. “If viewers think, hey, here’s a kid with the Big Answer that’s going to revolutionize the tube, my youth could well be a minus,” he says. “But if it comes across that I’m learning and growing, it’s a plus.” To prep for his big test, O’Brien has been screening old Carson tapes. What he’s learned is that “the funniest stuff is the stuff that goes wrong, forcing the host to get spontaneous. People who know me say that’s when I really come alive. I’m a reactive person.” He’s certainly no stand-up gag machine, so expect plenty of sketches, props and recurring characters. The Conanheads perhaps?
An informal survey of the folks whose bets will set the stakes–Madison Avenue’s TV-ad buyers–points to a huge Wave, at least initially. the curiosity factor wears off, and CBS’s clearance shortfall kicks in, most believe that Leno will best Letterman in the ratings for at least year (when nearly all CBS’s stations should be on board). Chase, meanwhile, may well knock off the faltering Arsenio Hall show, some of whose Fox–affiliated stations already switched Chevy. As for young O’Brien’s chances, a lot depends on who CBS throws against him at 12:30. (It won’t be Garry Shandling. Last week the star of “The Larry Sanders Show” rebuffed CBS’s passionate overtures by re-upping with HBO for two more seasons.) Then there’s the Sixth Man scenario: all five funnymen cancel each other out, leaving Nielsen victory to a guy with a dumber haircut than Dave’s and even bigger ears than Conan’s. just what Ted Koppel needs: another reason to look smug.
