Conan Begins Tonight

Conan O'Brien's new show begins tonight on TBS at 10pm.

I'll be sure to watch some of these early shows but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to watch from night to night as the weeks roll along. 10 o'clock is when Shannon and I are often part way through a movie. I'm thrilled that Conan and his crew will be producing new comedy on a regular basis but I'll probably be catching clips on internet within a few months.

My hope is that people like Conan O'Brien see that television is changing. Just like the music industry has changed from selling you $18 tapes and CDs (mostly filled with content you don't want) to selling 99¢ singles over the internet, television may be moving away from network programming and cable packages (mostly filled with content you don't want) to a la carte programming, perhaps also delivered over the internet. If this happens, people will tune-in, subscribe, or outright pay for Conan in higher numbers than they would most of the drivel on television today. This democratization of television programming might be the best possible outcome for the consumer and the truly talented; it'll take the idiot studio heads that fired Conan out of the driver's seat.