The Buzz Bin

There is nothing like a PR disaster to get the ol’ buzz rolling, and the ongoing mess surrounding NBC’s evening lineup has added some fun for those of us who don’t have to deal with it from the inside or for any of the sparring camps representing the hosts.  The move to push Conan O’Brien off the air is particularly interesting in that it represents yet another example of the new age in broadcast – Socialization of Old Media.

The celebrities in charge of these shows often call attention to the failings of their networks, but this “conversation” about the juggling of the lineup got authentic awfully quickly. In  the old days firings were handled offline and quietly. In this case, the offended parties took their feeling directly to the small communities that surround late night programming on NBC and the Jay Leno Show. And Conan provided his supporters with some bits that showed his comic smarts in much the same way as his antics during an earlier interruption of his show (see clip here). 

About the fight, Conan quipped he could go “star in a Lifetime original movie about a woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her network.”

All the one-liners zinging back and forth resembled nothing so much as a video Tweetfest.  I’m hoping that this fracas represents an evolving balance between the legalistic corporate speak of old and a new transparency in the world of television.

It was refreshing to see the fallen heroes of late night speak their piece in such an open manner. Radar online’s report on the Charlie Rose interview with NBC top dog Jeff Zucker this week sported a comment about Zucker being “what’s wrong with NBC.” Zucker tried not to cry over the $40 million + out of pocket for O’Brien and team, but did succumb to some strained explanations of the situation.

What’s also interesting is the way these studio matters have had an outsized influence on traditional and social media. Variations of The Tonight Show search became a trending topic on Twitter in recent weeks  – ironic, perhaps, for the anti-Twitter O’Brien. What’s not interesting is the debate in some circles about what the network did to Conan. Puhleese! He’ll survive and thrive, paraphrasing Jerry Seinfeld from a story by Sheila Marikar of ABC.

For PR people, the opportunity to observe such a crisis closely and to see the entertainers be so true to themselves was both a little refreshing and a little alarming. It’s a brave new world when such conflicts can’t be sanitized and controlled. I like it better for now, but many companies aren’t particularly well equipped to deal with similar crises scaled to their situations.

As for our late night TV “crisis?” David Carr reported this week in The New York Times that NBC didn’t kill these shows. We did. We have some affection for them, of course, but in a world where we get plenty of news fed to us all day, with the ability to see the reruns on a variety of channels the next day and where our friends are at work to keep us in the loop, well…we just don’t need late night TV like we used to.

I’m kinda glad the recent NBC conflict  spread in such a social way, aided by the principal players being themselves. It reminded me that TV can still be fun.