I'm Not With Coco

Allow me to make a distinction off the top, I'm a HUGE Conan O'Brien fan. I watched his 12:30 show all through high school, into college, and young adulthood.

I think he's a razor-sharp mind. I think he has a knack for the zany, the outlandish, and the self-depricating.

Comedically, he's one of my role models.

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But this whole "Coco" concept that he started on his 11:30 show, and pretty much everything he's done since he left 12:30, has been painful.

I know NBC did him dirt. I'm not defending how he was treated. I'm just saying, if you're really honest with yourself, and you're a Conan fan, he wasn't good at 11:30.

Which leads me to the question of the day, will he be worth watching on TBS at that 11:00 timeslot?

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Honestly, I'm not so sure.

Conan fell into a trap that's common among many performers. He learned what was working about his shtick. He knew the tricks, the bells, the whistles to get the laughs.

So it became formulaic.

It's the same thing that happened to Bill Simmons in my mind (The Sports Guy on ESPN.COM). As soon as Simmons knew what worked, and got a fat contract, he started mailing it in. He was way better before he was on ESPN's homepage.

I say this with love. I don't like ripping someone who I KNOW is capable.

But here's what happened at 12:30, Conan performed like he didn't think anyone was watching. And so his irreverant humor was genuine. His self-deprication was sincere.

He threw out all of his crazy characters, because he figured, what the heck? Let's just have fun and consequences be damned.

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THEN, he moved to 11:30. All of a sudden, all eyes were on him. In addition, he immediately got rid of one of his most interesting elements, New York City. He moved out to LA where he stuck out like a sore thumb, but not in a good way. And he tried to reach middle America (Not his core audience). Rather than acting like NO ONE was watching, he tried to please everyone. And started sucking in the process.

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Which leads me to TBS. There's two ways this can go. EITHER, he'll say, You know what? I'm on TBS, no one is watching. Let's just cut loose.

OR...

He'll think, Well, I have my 11:00 time-slot, and I have to carry this network.

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I just hope I get Conan and not that cheap facsimile he dubbed Coco.