Conan O’Brien Jabs Oprah Winfrey And Ted Turner At Turner Broadcasting Upfront
The late-night comic didn’t bring his best material this year. Conan O’Brien told advertisers that if the upfront event were held on Skype, then “we wouldn’t have to wear pants.” He also zinged Turner Broadcasting for the relatively low-key affair, a contrast to the big networks’ lavish upfront spending from their heyday. “In 1993 it was ice sculptures and caviar.” he said. “Now we’re sending interns over to Dunkin’ Donuts to buy day-old Munchkins.” Jumping on the company’s emphasis on digital expansion, O’Brien says he has 5.5M followers on Twitter “and a pedophile on MySpace.”
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He saved his best lines for a version of a feature on his show: Audience Craigslist Ads. He showed Oprah Winfrey with an ad saying “For Sale: Controlling interest in OWN. $10 or best offer.” Company founder Ted Turner wanted to sell his remote control: “I keep turning to TBS for (Atlanta) Braves games…Where are the goddamn Braves?” And a picture of Turner Broadcasting sales president David Levy showed him selling a book of advice on how to succeed when you look like “an adult version of Turtle from Entourage.” Earlier, one of O’Brien’s writers and performers, Deon Cole, gave his take on a show he’s preparing for TBS called Deon Cole’s Black Box. It’s “a clip show from a unique perspective,” he said. “And when I say ‘unique perspective’, I mean a black perspective.”
Yeah, that was the best he had.
Look at that photo. What a d–k.
(That Oprah bit was funny, though)
Completely disagree that he did not bring good material. He was in top form – something sadly missing from his show in recent years. The Oprah jab was great, as was the Iger Craiglist ad with 5,000 John Carter XXL t-shirts for sale to sell to kids in Africa.
His TBS show sucks…and I rooted for him, truly. But it’s a weird mix of the late show and the Tonight show stuff that doesn’t seem to gel.
Why is it that when deadline pokes fun at these people, they virtually pat themselves on the pack before the punchline. But whenever someone else does it, they’re the first to claim how unfunny it was?
Anyone else noticing a trend here…
has this guy not gone away yet?
I seriously doubt that he is the one to comment about Oprah — he could have gone anywhere he wanted to but chose to be a recluse on tbs. This is the epitome of bad decision making.
Uh,you’re wrong there.
He couldn’t go “anywhere” because there were few places that had room for an 11:30 talkshow, especially not one hosted by someone who flopped so badly and publicly. TBS was pretty much the only place willing to take him.
Sorry Catrina, I didn’t realize boring old vanilla giant chin Leno was your hero. How old are you 80? It’s 2012 not 1995.
Conan is getting the bad luck he deserves he was a fool for ever leaving his 12:35 show it was brilliant it was perfect for him. He was stupid and now he’s paying the penalty. TBS will cancel his show very soon and then he’ll have to hope and pray he can take over for Letterman. He had the best gig in the world at NBC but he wanted the Tonight Show and it killed his unique and original comedy his 12:35 show was better than Letterman’s show and it was a million times funnier than Jimmy Fallon.