There are some interesting parallels between the current shift in our late night television programming and our educational institutions.
In 1996, HBO produced a movie called “The Late Shift” which dramatized the behind-the-scenes network shift to replace Johnny Carson’s position as the King of Late Night. In the early 90s, Carson had wanted David Letterman as his successor but the network and Jay Leno’s manager (at the time: Helen Kushnik) wanted something entirely different. It is an interesting story about the politics and power plays in the entertainment field. It was a shift in the television entertainment industry that was well worth documenting.
But now, we have a new shift that I wonder about its impact on an audience that no longer watches network late night television?
NBC thought that by moving Jay Leno to an earlier hour and producing a variety show would be a good idea. Jay Leno had the most consistently highest ratings for late night talk shows. He had consistently beaten David Letterman for the last couple of years. He had successfully become the new King of Late Night but the network moved the king to a new country. This move infuriated the affiliates (local television programming) who had to change their late news schedules to accommodate the change in televised time schedules. Not only this, but the advertisers lost millions of dollars in revenue from both the new Jay Leno show and the Late Show with Conan O’Brien. They lost on-air time as it took several months for shows to change sets and develop their programs.
All of this current history is documented in the articles surrounding the movements of Jay and Conan right now in the media. My review is short and bitter because I don’t have time or space to do a complete dissection of this issue. There is a lot more to the story and I hope HBO considers making Late Shift 2 to explain it all so well.
The shift now is in what’s happening with the network (NBC) having to undo the changes they made and admit their mistakes. And this is coming at a time when the younger audience has gradually been shifting away from network programming to other forms of media. NBC is now going back to TTWWADI – This is The Way We’ve Always Done It. The Late Show is on at 11:30 (eastern). The format is the host does a introduction with jokes, there are three segments with guests and a musical performance. Sometimes the host completes pre-taped bits for the air. Guest interviews are light-hearted and really it is only a commercial vehicle for whatever project they are working on. The entire televised hour is a commercial by trade with some witty comments spread throughout.
I document all this because I feel it is important to note the TTWWADI in our culture. Who is watching these shows? Who is talking about these shows? Are the Nielsen ratings showing interest from the younger generation? The NET generation? Nope. They watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Cobert. They listen to satellite radio or mobile music devices.
While television is going on in the den, they are in their cars, in coffee shops, in malls, at the gym, at the library, or in their rooms NOT watching the night shift. If they want to see celebrities, they visit the blogger’s online like TMZ, Perez Hilton, or D-Listed. Even better, they may follow their celebrities on Twitter and get up to the second news about where these people are and what they are doing.
Even more than that, this generation is using the tools of social media to become producers of their own media content. They are the celebrities of YouTube, Vimeo, PhotoBucket, Facebook, MySpace, and the thousands of other media sharing sites. They don’t need Jay Leno to interview them for their 15 minutes of fame.
Who’s better? Jay, Dave, Conan, Jimmy, Craig, Carson, etc.? The networks – pshaw! – this is where you start seeing the shift. My prediction is Jay returns, Conan goes out of the game but the audience/Internet viewership sides with Conan. He will get publicly trampled and the people on the sidelines will feel bad for him. The viewership will turn on the network and all late night programming – across the Big 3 networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) will see a shift they weren’t prepared to handle. The Late Shift movie covered a shift that wasn’t publicly detailed. This new shift will be a public blood-bath….at least until a bigger news crisis takes place.
I don’t have a point to all this. It really is more of a reflective journal entry about what I have floating in my head. I don’t really have a “one to grow on” message for educators here except to say that it is always hard to watch innovation reversed to TTWWADI for anyone – including the billionaires of television programming. I don’t wish this on anyone because it is a publicized flogging.
And it happens to any of us in innovative education. It happens in small and big decisions. It happens daily and it happens more than we all like to admit to each other. I like to think that we all understand and know how our audience has changed. We know that the receiver of instruction has changed how they receive while the delivery has stayed the same – much like network television.
Our districts continue to put the same type of programming up each year. Sometimes the names of the shows change but it’s still Barney Miller in a hipper cast. The schedule is still the same like a late night talk show: segments, some witty dialogue, and someone sitting at a desk running the show.
