Bringing to a close what was, by anyone’s standards, a tumultuous year career-wise, Conan O’Brien is set to launch his new talk show on TBS a week early — online. Monday will see the debut of an innovative teaser episode, a Web-only “warm-up” special at 11pm ET to give viewers a sneak peek at what they can expect on-air starting Nov. 8th.

Dubbed “Show Zero” by the Conan team, the webisode will stream live on YouTube, Facebook, and TeamCoco.com on November 1st, shot in the intimate setting of Mr. O’Brien’s office and featuring celebrity guests and the show’s new house band.

It's just another Web-savvy stunt in a series of promotional appearances Mr. O’Brien has made to hype his new program, the most notable of which had to be the Conan-branded blimp that flew over recent post-season MLB games.Continue reading...

CBS certainly wouldn’t want to trade places with NBC these days, but the network is putting its brand at least slightly at risk with its just-announced decision to air a 30-second ad by Focus on the Family during Super Bowl XLIV on February 7.

The commercial, which will turn its lens on University of Florida star quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother, also marks some brand stretching both for the Super Bowl franchise itself and the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Focus on the Family.

There has been speculation that Focus on the Family was seeking to buy Super Bowl ad space for a raw pro-life message that would reflect its decades-long political support of social-conservative causes.Continue reading...

Wow, it’s hard to think of an idea – even in fickle show business – that has fizzled as quickly as NBC’s moving Jay Leno to weeknights at 10.

In September, Leno starting popping up in primetime five nights a week, after the long-planned handoff of his 11:35 pm Tonight Show to Conan O'Brien. America’s tepid reaction to the shift may have irreversibly damaged the once-mighty Leno brand. Not good for NBC, since for now, the network has tied its brand inextricably with Leno’s.

Adding to NBC’s many other woes, the new Leno show is a financial pothole for the network: A 30-second spot during Leno now garners only an estimated $50,000 to $65,000, down from about $75,000 to $150,000 for the 10 to 11 pm weekday slots one year ago.

As Ad Age's Simon Dumenco noted, “Longevity is not the same as brand loyalty.” He writes that the new Leno show “feels cheap,” even compared to the Tonight Show's chintzy production values, and warns that what satisfies TV-watchers as a tummy-warmer at 11:30, right before they turn in, can prove merely soporific at 10.Continue reading...