Conan O’Brien takes his late-night program to TBS: Very funny?

Hey Fox - Psych! (Scott Gries/Getty Images for Comedy Central)

It would appear that Time-Warner is doubling down on the Turner Broadcasting System’s new slogan of ‘Very Funny’ by acquiring Conan O’Brien’s brand of late night humor. From the press release:

Comedy icon Conan O’Brien is joining TBS to host a late-night talk show that is expected to debut in November. The Emmy-winning comedian’s new program will be followed by Lopez Tonight, which will shift to a midnight time slot.

O’Brien began talks in earnest with TBS just last week, after George Lopez personally called him to ask that he consider joining the network’s late-night line-up. “I can’t think of anything better than doing my show with Conan as my lead-in,” Lopez said. “It’s the beginning of a new era in late-night comedy.”

Said O’Brien: “In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly.”

via Turner Newsroom: Conan Picks a Home – And It’s TBS.

What a surprise. I remember when TBS was the place on cable that ran NASCAR and Braves games because of its Atlanta links. Now it’s getting a hot property in the form of Conan O’Brien, something that will take the network beyond its reputation for basic cable-sort-of-laughs on programs like ‘Monk’ and ‘Psych.‘ mediocrity like re-runs of Family Guy and The Office and a bunch of sitcoms watched, so obscure that I confuse them with shows from the USA Network that also ain’t funny. And I can’t tell you anything that I’ve heard about what goes on on the George Lopez Show – sorry George.

Not only is Conan going to be the flagship property for TBS’s comedy-leaning programming, he’s going to be squaring off directly against Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. And, he’s going to be competing with the local news programs at 11 PM that were the spark for his ouster from the NBC line-up because they felt Leno’s 10 PM nightly show was a weak lead-in.

Very interesting.

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I hope most of Team CoCo has basic cable, and that the Turner Entertainment Networks have a strong plan for leveraging O’Brien’s legion of online fans. It’s that base that’s going to make or break the success of this program (and, subsequently, that of George Lopez, whose show is moving to midnight).

But I gotta ask: What happened to Fox? Did Conan decide he couldn’t work under the heel of News Corp.? Can’t wait to hear those stories dribbling out. C’mon, guys, start leaking!