THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 16, 1994 TAG: 9408160037
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
ON THE DAY WHEN Tom Snyder announced that he had signed a four-year contract with CBS to follow David Letterman's ``Late Show,'' who should be Snyder's guest on his CNBC talk show but Conan O'Brien.
They were so-o-o-o nice to each other.
But come December, Snyder on CBS and O'Brien on NBC will likely be competing for the attention of the insomniacs, nursing mothers, unemployed actors, dorm rats and others who stay up past 12:35 a.m. with the TV on. (NBC has yet to say when and if O'Brien's contract will be extended.)
With the ink still wet on his CBS contract, Snyder was asking CNBC viewers to follow him when he moves to CBS five months from now.
``Come on over,'' said Snyder.
Come on over to where, Tom?
CBS hasn't said how many affiliates will carry Snyder's new show. There is no guarantee that WTKR in Norfolk will be on board in December.
The CBS bosses lobbied long and hard to get stations to drop such profitable syndicated programming as ``Cheers'' and ``Love Connection'' to take Letterman at 11:35. Now the Black Rock brass is back again, asking affiliates for another hour that could be converted into a money-making infomercial at 12:35.
When I was schmoozing with NBC executives in Southern California last month, some said they were delighted to hear that CBS wanted Snyder to follow Letterman. NBC's chief of programming on the West Coast, Don Ohlmeyer, seemed to be the happiest of all the Peacock executives.
``I'd much rather go up against Tom Snyder at 12:35 than reruns of `Murphy Brown' or `M*A*S*H,' '' Ohlmeyer said. He estimates that Snyder's audience will be largely made up viewers 50 and older, who don't appeal to advertisers nearly as much as 30-year-olds. Haven't you heard? You turn 50 and die.
O'Brien has the late-night young audience locked up, said Ohlmeyer.
``College kids watch Conan and have been watching him all along, but the ratings don't reflect that because Nielsen, in its infinite wisdom, chooses to disenfranchise college students living in dorms. While they've been home for the summer, they've been watching NBC at 12:35, and it's given Conan a nice little spike in the ratings.''
I predict that Snyder will also draw the young to his talk show - particularly the women. He's older, grayer, thinner and less impetuous than he was hosting ``Tomorrow'' on NBC a decade ago, but Snyder is still a compelling broadcaster - still magnetic, still interesting.
And if NBC is so high on O'Brien, why hasn't the network announced that he has been rehired for another season?
When I elbowed next to O'Brien at a crowded Hollywood party not long ago, I asked him about that. Has NBC renewed his contract?
Well, not exactly. . . .
``Our show doesn't work that way. We're not a sitcom delivering a product for 22 or 26 weeks. We're an ongoing franchise that doesn't have to be renewed every year. NBC must be pleased with what I'm doing, or I wouldn't be here partying with you guys,'' O'Brien said at a gathering of the Television Critics Association.
O'Brien said he doesn't do ``Late Night'' with the college crowd in mind.
``Before I go on, I don't say, `Let's go out and get those 18- to 35-year olds.' I do a show that I would watch, and young people respond to it. We have a lot of commercials for beer on the show. But our show was never meant to be exclusively for the young. I do a show as funny as I can do with all viewers in mind.''
What has he learned about talk-show TV in the year since NBC delivered him from obscurity to succeed Letterman?
Being prepared is not always the best way to go, he said.
``Before I start interviewing my guests, I go over a sheet with a list of questions on it. In the best interviews I've done, I never asked one question that was on that sheet.''
Anything else about his first season on TV?
``Yes. I've learned to get my hair under control.'' by CNB