Whilst I have been here living in Chicago two major television events have happened to US TV. Jay Leno moved over for Conan O’Brien (or Coco, if you saw Tom Hanks on his show you’ll understand) to take over on NBC’s the Tonight Show after 17 years. Also the US digital TV switchover has happened.
The most recent I am going to talk about first. Now those of you from the UK maybe thinking, “what do you mean its happened?” as back there the digital switchover is this process that is going to take up until the end of 2012 to finish. Each region being updated and switched over one at a time with loads of publicity and talk about how to get your TV ready and how amazing it is going to be. In the US it has been done slightly differently with much more of a “well tough” attitude. There has been publicity on every major network but on Friday June 12th the entire countries analogue signal was switched off for good. This is no easy task and has taken a lot of work from the industry and government to sort out – the original date of February 17th was pushed back due to not enough people being aware it was even going to happen!
Around one Million were left without signal despite the networks best efforts to let them know they needed to buy a digital converter. On the Tonight Show at the point when NBC switched over O’Brien made fun of this by pretending the mothers of all the cast and crew phoned them in the studio to ask how to get their new converters to work as their TVs were blank.
Having been one of the few around here who had analogue TV, I can tell you that the digital service is much better and well worth the upgrade. Not only can you actually see the picture you do get a lot more channels, and thanks to WTTW 11 for showing the best of TV from the UK. However I have been finding much more value in Hulu as it is basically a DVR for your computer. I hope for those in the UK that you get access to Hulu soon as I know it’ll be as big as the BBC iPlayer. Also I wish the BBC and allow access to the iPlayer from over here!
Moving onto the other major switchover that has happened, Leno to O’Brien. There really is no equivalent in the UK. The weeknight talk shows are a US institution and something they do extraordinarily well. The only shows that come close are the Graham Norton Show and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.
O’Brien has been lined up for many years now as Leno’s replacement when the time finally came to pass on the reigns. Mean while he has been on the show directly following Leno’s, NBC’s the Late Night Show. On here he gained a loyal following and on June 1st O’Brien started his stint on the Tonight Show. Meanwhile Jimmy Fallon (a former regular on Saturday Night Live) took over the Late Night Show back in March so that O’Brien could prepare his new show. Whether or not Jimmy is going to be lined up to take over the Tonight Show as well is yet to be seen. The writing needs to improve a lot as there are often awkward un-funny moments (and we are 67 shows in now, you would have thought they would be in full swing by now).
The Tonight Show I think is great and I have enjoyed watching O’Brien as he spoofs the daily news and celebrities with his own very unique sense of humor. This doesn’t mean though that he hasn’t experienced some problems as there has been a failry sharp drop in viewers from the first night. I think this is probably only an initial drop and that once the Tonight Show starts getting into its rhythm it’ll be a sure fire hit.
However there is another man whose weeknight show is still going strong, and many argue should have been the one still running the Tonight Show, David Letterman. At 62 years of age he still looks to be a strong contender for best weeknight show with The Late Show on CBS. Still as entertaining and often controversial as ever he is a real character, not just a stand up, and someone who can move very easily from comedy to serious and almost effortlessly interview those that go on the show, getting interesting and fun comments from the guests.
I find both shows entertaining and if I had cable I would certainly DVR them so that I could watch both.However my favourite late night talk show will always remain The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
