Rupert Murdoch Eyes Profit, Changing TV History (Again) with Conan O’Brien

If the money is right and Conan O’Brien is game, Rupert Murdoch would have him join the Fox family “in a flash.” This is the latest in the post-late night war odyssey of finding a new home for the displaced Tonight Show host and his unique brand of comedy. While Murdoch, speaking to Reuters, noted that there have not been any “real negotiations” with the O’Brien camp and that there are “different opinions” on the matter, with the right numbers he did admit he is interested in entering the world of late night entertainment.

This is good news for both parties: O’Brien is looking for a new job with a higher probability of success than The Tonight Show and Murdoch is always ready to welcome unique, innovative entertainers among his ranks, the variable being that Murdoch’s experience with larger-than-life television characters has been limited outside of the political opinion circuit and Fox’s track record with late night programs so far is nothing short of dismal.

The last time Murdoch took a chance on a quirky rodeo clown of outstanding paleness, he changed cable news forever. Of course, late night is a completely different beast than commentary-oriented news programming, no matter how much Glenn Beck’s act may be reminiscent of O’Brien’s sometimes. The second coming of Conan as the king of late night will require a massive investment of resources for Fox no matter what, but in order to optimize its success, the channel is going to have to invest heavily in the kingdom where O’Brien is the undisputed champion: the Internet. Since his viewers tend to skew younger and many prefer to watch him on their own time, Fox is going to have to be careful not to repeat NBC’s mistake and underestimate the built-in audience that will be watching O’Brien at any time of the day online.

The demographic is also not sentimentally attached to the 11:35 spot the way older viewers who grew up with Johnny Carson are. O’Brien is their Johnny Carson, and they grew accustomed to watching him at 12:35. It will take a certain amount of innovation to monetize that free-form popularity in a more viable way than the current model – Hulu being the most prominent example – but, if successful, Fox will have won the new media race and revolutionized future consumption of television. They are already leading the march towards DVR-aided ratings on their news network with Beck’s unprecedented success at 5pm; translating that into online profit is the next logical step in that progression.

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