Well, no one saw this coming: It's been announced that Conan O'Brien will begin hosting a late night show for TBS. It starts in November and will air at 11 PM, bumping George Lopez's show back to Midnight. Some will note the irony that after what went on at NBC, O'Brien's show will be forcing someone else into a later time slot…but that's the way these things always go in TV programming. You can't get a time slot without taking one that someone else wants. And for all his complaining about weak lead-ins at NBC, he's now going to be following — unless TBS has the bucks left to buy more original programming — things like reruns of My Name is Earl.
I'll be glad to see Conan back on TV and I guess this move makes sense, especially since there was apparently no acceptable offer from Fox. Lopez's show has done okay in that slot. TBS must figure Conan can helm a modestly-budgeted show that will do at least as well and probably better…and they'll have a two-hour bloc that might not be competitive with Leno and Letterman but will make money. The channel no doubt dreams of expanding its new programming and chucking the reruns some day and this is another solid step in that direction. I'm curious if they gave a lot of consideration to putting Conan on at 10 PM or earlier so he wouldn't be going head-to-head with The Daily Show followed by Mr. Colbert. Those are pretty strong contenders for his key demographic so why wasn't that done? Because Leno didn't work at 10? That show wouldn't have worked in any time slot.
No word on whether O'Brien will come to us from L.A. or New York but I'm guessing the former. I'm also guessing that TBS will run each show twice a night, as they presently do with Lopez. Given that this has to represent a hefty investment for them, I wouldn't be surprised to see them reairing shows on the weekends too, or even on weekday afternoons. I'll sure be watching, albeit via TiVo.