Earlier this year, the travails of late-night television talk show host Conan O’Brien and his epic battle with the inept suits at NBC became a gold mine of Internet-fueled comedy mayhem.

Well, Team Coco is back in November on TBS, and it has a name.

And it’s a good one, as you will see in the video below.

Enjoy:

“The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” had its premiere last night in Los Angeles, with legions of screamy fans lying in wait for days to catch a glimpse of the stars of the film.

The third movie in the series will be in theaters next Wednesday.

But here’s a better–and much funnier–choice: A spoof of the sparkly vampire movie by the cast of “Jersey Shore.” It was done for ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” late-night talk show, which devoted a show Wednesday to the latest installment of “Twilight.”

BoomTown, for one, will take Snooki any day over glum, though adorkable, Kristen Stewart.

Enjoy the video:

NBC’s “Late Night” television talk show host Jimmy Fallon is pretty geeky, which is why he tried this sketch about new apps for the new Apple iPhone 4.

Some are funnier than others, but BoomTown liked the “Bieber Yourself” app, inspired by the teen music heartthrob whose unfortunate haircut is well worth mocking.

Which Fallon does.

There are others too, yet another example of Apple (AAPL) getting boatloads of great free marketing via spoofs, such as this one with “Glee” star Jane Lynch.

Here’s the video:

Meantime, here’s a Web/TV merger that does make sense: NBC late-night host Jimmy Fallon,watching his own show on tape while commenting on it, live, on the Web.

Really, it does make sense: Like all late-night shows, Fallon’s is recorded in the afternoon, the day of broadcast. But next week, each night the show airs, Fallon will go live on the Web at 12:30 Eastern and provide a running commentary on the show, DVD-style. Fans will also be able to chat and interact with him, via video powered by UStream.

Pretty clever convergence, no?

Aside: Fallon’s show has always been a deliberately Web-friendly one. Fallon is a fairly famous Twitterer, which has caused some problems in the past, and the show goes out of its way to book tech-savvy guests like the Digg dudes.

And it’s also good about offering Internet-only goodies like this clip–an off-air encounter between Fallon and guest Jerry Seinfeld from last night’s show.

Well–as Betty White puts it in this promo for her debut appearance on the NBC late-night comedy show–”Thanks to the Internet, I’m hosting ‘Saturday Night Live.’”

It is indeed so–after a lot of Facebook fan page grassroots agitation, the veteran television star will appear on SNL on May 8 for the first time ever.

As I wrote in a post titled, “Dear SNL, Facebook Will Force You to Friend Betty White,” I wrote:

“Of all the whacked-out Internet schemes that get cooked up to promote some such thing or another–like crowning actor Ashton Kutcher as King Twit–BoomTown has finally picked one that seems to make a whole lot of sense.”

The page on the social networking giant, called Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!, garnered many hundreds of thousands more fans that SNL’s official fan page on Facebook. It now numbers over 500,000 fans.

Apparently, it turned out to be a very effective “Like” button.

And, as expected, here’s video of the charming promo from the self-described “cougar”:

Betty White's SNL Promo
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Mr. O’Brien’s yet-to-be titled show will debut in November, and run four nights a week at 11 p.m. Eastern time.

The new show is a costly gamble for TBS, a comedy network owned by Time Warner Inc.’s (TWX) Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting.

Mr. O’Brien agreed to leave NBC in January after the network decided to abandon its low-rated experiment to put “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno in prime-time.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The snake finally ate its own tail in the long-running NBC debacle over the network’s mishandling of its late-night switcheroo, with a Super Bowl promotion for David Letterman’s “Late Show” on CBS (CBS) last night.

It starred Letterman, daytime talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and–big reveal–Jay Leno.

The bit was perhaps what will be the final joke in the humor-heavy mess around the cloddish game of musical chairs perpetrated by NBC management on the Viacom (VIA) television network’s late-night stars.

In the end, “Tonight Show” host Conan O’Brien was out, replaced by former “Tonight Show” host Leno, who had previously been replaced by O’Brien and whose own attempt at a show earlier in the evening bombed.

Of all the players, “Late Show” host Letterman has actually gotten the most mileage from the imbroglio, taking an endless number of dead-on shots at Leno, all of which portrayed him as the villain, including a high-pitched impression of him.

That mockery was on display in the short promo below, with the trio on a couch for what Letterman called the “worst Super Bowl party ever.”

It wasn’t.

Enjoy the video, as well as the 2007 promo it was based on with just Letterman and Winfrey.

Especially with numbers like these: GE says NBCU’s Q4 revenue dropped four percent, to $4.3 billion, and operating profit declined 30 percent, to $602 million.

Were Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien’s ratings really that bad? Of course not.

NBC’s broadcast revenue was down 1.5 percent, but that was balanced by growth in the company’s cable properties, which were up eight percent. And not that I’m a Jeff Zucker apologist, but when pundits are castigating him for his late-night debacle, they really ought to point out that some parts of the company–the parts that Comcast wants, not coincidentally–have grown considerably during Zucker’s tenure.

In any case, GE blames this quarter’s decline on Hollywood: Its movie division has been low on box office hits, and its DVD group, like most other studios, has been sucking wind.

Here’s GE’s brief description of its business in charticle form (click to enlarge). Note the line about slow recovery in Web ads:

And here’s the best “screw you, NBC” clip I’ve seen from Conan this week. Which, as many Web commenters have noted, is not available on NBC’s Web site or via Hulu. But given that NBC has been fairly vigilant about pulling down unauthorized clips it doesn’t want on Google’s (GOOG) YouTube, the network can’t be that upset about this one, which you can find all over the site:

Anyway, here is the Craigslist ad that Conan O’Brien took out last night to put his “barely used talk show” up for sale. The ad keeps popping on and off of Craigslist, but here’s a screengrab (click to enlarge).

Meanwhile, here are the two best late-night video clips I’ve seen so far–again, neither of which I saw on TV:

Jimmy Kimmel making Jay Leno and his audience very uncomfortable (this gets good around the 2:40 mark, if you define “good” as “something that makes everybody a little bit queasy,” which I’m fine with).

And CBS’s (CBS) Craig Ferguson putting all of this in proper perspective:

Oh, it goes from bad to worse and to much, much funnier.

Here are a few new online videos about NBC’s best drama in years: The wrestling over its late-night lineup.

It looks like “The Tonight Show” host Conan O’Brien will be gone soon, chin-checked out by former host Jay Leno, whose 10 pm show on the GE (GE)–and soon to be Comcast (CMCSA)–broadcast television network bit.

But O’Brien is biting back harder, as you will see, along with “The Late Show” legend David Letterman on CBS (CBS), who is moving into viciously hysterical routines against Leno, whom he seems to dislike.

Here are some of their latest videos:

[Photo courtesy of Mike Mitchell]

The mess that NBC has created around its late-night talk shows continues to benefit comic online videos.

While Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien have been using their fight as joke fodder over at NBC–which is owned by GE (GE) but was just bought by Comcast (CMCSA)–I think the best stuff has been coming from David Letterman of “The Late Show.”

And, in fact, the CBS (CBS) late-night talk show legend’s analysis of the situation–“Here’s the deal. Anytime there’s a big stink like this, and, believe me, here hasn’t been a big stink like this in years, it’s money. Don’t kid yourselves, it’s all about money”–was spot on and funny too.

Broadcast television networks execs have always been a great foil for Letterman and this scandal is the gift that keeps on giving.

Here’s a bunch of clips online now:

TOP TEN

OPENING MONOLOGUE

ANALYSIS

LENO VICTIMS UNIT

Yesterday, BoomTown posted on the mess created by NBC over its late-night talk show wrangling.

The fracas involves Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and seemingly every dude who sits behind a desk and kisses up to celebrities for a living at the GE (GE) television network, which was just bought by Comcast (CMCSA).

As I noted: “I do love the roundelay of online videos this Tinseltown mess has created.”

And here are more, from Leno, who seems really irked by the meltdown that has tarnished his reputation, although NBC is also flacking the clip.

Also below Leno is daytime talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres, who mixed the NBC stew in with Simon Cowell announcing that he is leaving “American Idol” right before she arrives as a judge.

The laughter through the tears keeps on coming:

LENO

DEGENERES

Although BoomTown completely enjoyed having dinner with entertainment agency overlord Ari Emanuel last week–hey, it was a Hollywood party at the Consumer Electronics Show, so name-dropping is required–I have little interest in the money and scheduling machinations that broke out last week over NBC Universal’s late-night television talk shows.

But I do love the roundelay of online videos this Tinseltown mess has created.

It all has to do with Jay Leno stinking up the joint in his newish 10 pm time slot, which has caused NBC affiliates to revolt, which–in turn–has sent broadcast network execs into a decided chicken-with-its-head-cut-off panic.

Thus, their big and cloddish idea to reschedule Leno back to late night, while trying to hipcheck Conan O’Brien from his 11:35 pm perch, all without incurring a big contract penalty fee. Jimmy Fallon, who comes on after O’Brien, is also part of the shovefest, as is after-Fallon host Carson Daly.

And, of course, all of them got to comment on all of this on–yes–the late-night comedy routines that open their shows.

Here are Leno and O’Brien riffing on the silly crisis–as well as ABC’s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel weighing in with Daly’s help–at the GE (GE) unit that was just bought by Comcast (CMCSA).

And below is an interview I did with NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference last May talking about a range of topics, including what a brilliant idea it was going to be to move Leno to an earlier, five-night-a-week slot.

Not so much, Jeff!

But enjoy the ensuing videos:

LENO

O’BRIEN

KIMMEL/DALY

ZUCKER

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100111/viral-video-late-night-debacle-make-for-good-jokes-at-least/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20090702/jeff-zucker-full-d7-interview/ http://allthingsd.com/20090702/jeff-zucker-full-d7-interview/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:40:18 +0000 Kara Swisher http://d7.allthingsd.com/?p=2259

Jeff Zucker runs one of the world’s leading media and entertainment content companies, which is also being caught in the throes of a major shift, due to the impact of the Internet over the last decade.

In this onstage interview with me at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference, Zucker talks about the state of the television business; the changing advertising market; the impact of Hulu, an online premium video joint venture the GE (GE) unit NBC launched with News Corp. (NWS); and precisely what he meant when he said that the Web was turning “analog dollars into digital pennies.”

Here’s the video of the full D7 session (the video does not include a short intro video done by NBC’s “Late Night” host Jimmy Fallon, which includes a ribald joke about Zucker marrying Courtney Cox):

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090702/jeff-zucker-full-d7-interview/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090702/nbc-universal-president-and-ceo-jeff-zucker-the-full-d7-demo/ http://allthingsd.com/20090702/nbc-universal-president-and-ceo-jeff-zucker-the-full-d7-demo/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:37:34 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=15375

Jeff Zucker runs one of the world’s leading media and entertainment content companies, which is also being caught in the throes of a major shift, due to the impact of the Internet over the last decade.

In this onstage interview with me at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference, Zucker talks about the state of the television business; the changing advertising market; the impact of Hulu, an online premium video joint venture the GE (GE) unit NBC launched with News Corp. (NWS); and precisely what he meant when he said that the Web was turning “analog dollars into digital pennies.”

Here’s the video of the full D7 session (the video does not include a short intro video done by NBC’s “Late Night” host Jimmy Fallon, which includes a ribald joke about Zucker marrying Courtney Cox):

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090702/nbc-universal-president-and-ceo-jeff-zucker-the-full-d7-demo/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080503/grand-theft-volvo/ http://allthingsd.com/20080503/grand-theft-volvo/#comments Sat, 03 May 2008 07:23:05 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080503/grand-theft-volvo/ This is an hysterical spoof video, by “Late Night” host Conan O’Brien, with a very sanitized version of Grand Theft Auto IV.

The new version of the ultra-violent videogame came out this week, to rave reviews.

I would rather play this, as I have taken that crazy right on red on the way to my kid’s soccer practice, living on the edge of danger:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080503/grand-theft-volvo/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20071231/top-ten-reasons-david-letterman-is-smarter-than-hollywood/ http://allthingsd.com/20071231/top-ten-reasons-david-letterman-is-smarter-than-hollywood/#comments Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:30:06 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071231/top-ten-reasons-david-letterman-is-smarter-than-hollywood/

5. Because his World Wide Pants production company took only two weeks to bang out a separate agreement with writers to go back to work at his “Late Show” on CBS from their strike after saying they would try to make a deal.

4. Because he will get the best guests now, because actors would rather forgo Botox than walk across picket lines over at places like NBC’s “Tonight Show” and “Late Night” to flack their latest movie, TV show or whatever.

3. Because his show will be funnier than competitors, who are also resuming production with their writers still on strike, because writers are funny and nonwriters are, um, not.

2. Because this might prove to be a small return to sensibility between the two sides in the fight–writers and studios–both of whom are not negotiating at all as much as conducting what is now a pretty senseless PR fight in which everyone is a loser and no one will win.

1. Because he named his production company World Wide Pants.

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