Yeee-OWCH! But mandatory reading!

Her setup:

Which is worse? Network execs too scared to change a successful formula. Or network execs too willing to turn everything on its head. It’s clear that Conan’s version of NBC’s cash cow The Tonight Show is just more of the same old/same old. And that’s how O’Brien’s longtime exec producer Jeff Ross and boss Jeff Zucker want it. But while they were golfing together this weekend in a foursome at Riviera Country Club (Ross, who just moved out here, is the better player, while Zucker has a 14 handicap and can barely keep up), they both worried how to prevent primetime’s The Jay Leno Show from cannibalizing Conan’s late night show this fall. And my info is that it’s already getting ugly.

Read the rest.

Okay… this is twice in one month that we’ve linked to Nikki Finke and actually agreed with some of what she’s written. (Only remarkable because we’ve called her all sorts of awful names in the past.)

We like her advice. And we especially like this:

Zucker and Silverman keep spinning how NBC is now the Comedy Network. Fine, then make The Jay Leno Show into the Comedy Hour, not the Talking Heads Hour. Yes, Leno is so insecure that he abandoned The Tonight Show’s long and noble tradition under Johnny Carson of spotlighting the kind of raw stand-up talent who went on to become household names: Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr, Garry Shandling, Drew Carey, Louie Anderson, Steven Wright, Rita Rudner, Gallagher. (Well, everyone but him…) Bring back that segment. Lengthen it. Reassure Jay that this isn’t an audition for his hosting spot in 2012.

Okay, we could do without the gratuitous Gallagher dig, but you get the point.

And we like how she advises the producers of the show to raid the talent of other shows on NBC and its competitors to come in and do skits and appearances and videos for a week at a shot– “These young and old and quirky types will be like swigs of Red Bull for the mainstream audience.” Did she say “old?” Talk about thinking outside the box! This kind of talk could get her killed.

Okay, a lot of what Finke is saying might be total horseshit. It wouldn’t be the first time she “amplified” something to grab unique visitors– its part of what she does. And she is way too hard on Leno (and a bit too effusive in her praise of Don Ohlmeyer). But we have been speculating for some time that Leno dropping into primetime might have a positive effect on standup comics… especially standup comics with a bit of experience. As the majors compete with cable and gaming and the internet, the demo narrows and sharpens into somewhat more… experienced viewers. (Nothing like CBS, though– they’re acknowledged in the industry to be the one net that specializes in old people and their parents.)

So… it oughta be interesting to see how the new show in the new time slot, with the paranoid suits influences the booking policy and the sensibilities of the new show.

(Choose carefully which of Finke’s commenters to read fully… some of them are just atrocious!)