NBC is Destroying Their Valuable Brand

Imagine if you were at Comcast and were planning to buy NBC-Universal. Then, the fiasco between Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno begins. You have to sit on the sideline, unable to do anything about it, but knowing that the value of the brand you are about to buy is being hollowed out.

NBC demonstrated brain-dead management style in recent weeks. It made a deal in 2004 with Conan to assume the Tonight Show five years later. Leno was fine with it. Then, in 2009 Leno decided that things were going well and he wished he had never agreed to give up the Tonight Show. But, the deal was done so Leno was set up with a 10PM Show. The deal was a good one for NBC because doing a talk show at 10PM is a lot less expensive than developing a sit-com or drama for the time slot.

Well, we all know what happened. Leno bombed at 10PM. NBC was faced with a decision. What to do, what to do? Conan never really fit his comedy to middle America--he is a darling of a younger, urban set. The brains decide that they will give Leno a one-half hour show and push the Tonight Show to 12:05am, thereby also pushing the Late Show back and likely killing it. Never mind that the Tonight Show is the most valuable brand in late night TV. The execs at NBC sit back and thing: Leno's happy, NBC is happy. They might have expected that Conan would not be happy, but they likely also never imagined that he would turn his anger into a public vendetta against NBC. How dare Conan...he acted just like a spoiled Hollywood type--just like the NBC execs would act, but not what they expected form someone they thought they could push around. The entire thing becomes a "cause celeb" in the public forum.

This did not have to happen this way. A deal was a deal. It should never have been allowed to be acted out publicly. The new deal costs NBC $32.5 million to buy Conan out of his contract and an untold hit to its reputation and overall perceived value. Conan will likely launch a new program on Fox and NBC will be in even worse shape. Leno comes off as a self-absorbed Hollywood-type, which he likely is but didn't appear until now. He likely has damaged his standing with a good part of his audience and may not be able to get the advertising support needed in his new show. The kicker was when Tom Hanks, one the reportedly nicest people in Hollywood, came on the last Conan show and announced that "in my household you will always be the host of the Tonight Show". Word has it that NBC and Leno were heard whimpering over the slight. Leno will likely work with NBC to line up a blockbuster first week of guests that attempt to regain viewers. He will get a bump in the rating when he returns--people love to slow down to see car wrecks.

All the while, Comcast must sit by and watch this disaster unfold. I hope that Comcast is able to extract a discounted final price on its NBC-Universal deal since the brand has been diminished.