The Internet is always finding a cause to latch on to. A wrong to right and that justice be served. But sometimes the Internet gets behind a cause that makes it sound like an echo chamber of collective cry babies.  I’ve watched as the masses have flocked to the defense of Conan O’Brien. They’ve fought with their tweets and Facebook groups to show the big bad NBC just how they felt about it. But if we’re so supportive of Conan, why aren’t we watching his show?

NBC is a business. It’s not about tryouts and it’s not about “a fair shake” as shitty as that sounds. It’s about the bottom line, the almighty dollar. So why are we surprised by this? Any Joss Whedon fan knows that the vocal minority aren’t enough to make up for the fact that America isn’t watching. This same vocal minority is typically adverse to advertising too, so keeping the status quo is even less palpable to TV stations.

The common argument is that the outcries are coming from people who don’t watch Late Night in general, not specifically because of Conan. That’s a great point, in fact I’m in that same camp. (Which is why the decision won’t effect me) But there are plenty of people who do watch late night and according to the ratings, those people have stopped watching since Conan has taken over. I’m not a causation expert by any means, but I know that studio executives are looking at this as a cause/effect scenario. Their thinking is to put things back the way they were and see if they can at least reclaim their lost viewers. Isn’t this the basis of a free market? The market will react based on the interests of the individual?

If all the people that are up in arms about the cancellation are upset, they should watch Conan’s show. I’m not condoning what NBC has done. It’s the sign of a level of unprofessionalism that has probably existed long before the Internet was capable of dissemnating information in the blink of an eye. Conan has handled the situation admirably in But it’s part of the business and has been for awhile. I love that we have this medium to discuss our concern or our objections about things, but the real motivator is action that results in money. For consumer products, we vote with our dollar. For television we vote with our remotes.

If Twitter were around in 1994, I wonder if the Internet would have came to the aid of Toni Kukoc or Pete Meyers. After only 1 year of action they were benched because a guy named Michael Jordan decided to come out of retirement.

P.S. I understand that our rating system is flawed and not everyone who watches will have a Nielson Ratings box. We do need to improve our system for what it’s worth. The biggest thing is to make sure you accept a box when asked if you care what’s on TV. I know a few people who have refused them due to privacy or other concerns. It’s basically giving you the right to vote on what sucks on TV.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Internet, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.