Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert Rallies Might Suck Air Out of "Conan" Launch
Even though it's been rumored for weeks, the announcements late last week that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, would, indeed, march on Washington in competing parodies of Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally, set my mind racing. Has it really gotten to the point where two comedy shows are the best answer to what many people would describe as the lunatic fringe of our political process -- or are both Beck's rally and the ones planned by Stewart and Colbert just an example of how to evolve already-popular entertainment brands? You know, since none of these guys can sing, is holding a potentially money-making rally their answer to the fact that the Fox show, Glee, gets additional revenue by selling music on iTunes?
Oh, and what about Conan O'Brien? (More on that in a minute.)
Actually, the answer to the first two questions is yes. It has come to the point where laughter is the best weapon, while it's also true that these days in the entertainment/politics industrial complex, it's all about brand extension. Whatever you think of Beck, he certainly furthered the Beck brand -- and that of Fox News -- by staging a rally. Stewart and Colbert, who will be hosting The Rally to Restore Sanity and the March to Keep Fear Alive, respectively, on Oct. 30 in Washington, will bring in money -- even if it's not directly from the event. And that, whether the competition is Glenn Beck or not, is a great thing for their shows and their network.
In fact, if you think Beck is the real competitor here, you're a little off point. Though there's no sign these rallies are being staged specifically to blunt the comedy competition, this does hurt Stewart and Colbert's soon-to-be real competitor -- and that is late night comedy's designated victim: Conan O'Brien, who is going head-to-head with Stewart and Colbert in the same time slot, on Nov. 8.
Unfortunately for O'Brien, the build-up to his show will be concurrent with the build-up to these rallies -- and it will be all targeted to the same young male demographic. The rallies, however, being unprecedented in the world of marches, political parody and parody itself, have the potential to suck all the air out of the room.
Sure, they'll be held during the usually dead airtime of a Saturday afternoon, but what really matters in the world of media is how the event will feed on itself beforehand. Big audiences will no doubt watch Stewart's Daily Show and The Colbert Report in the days leading up to the rallies; we can also expect plenty of other news, faux and otherwise, to be generated from all of this, from announcements of what other celebrities will be attending to whether it's smart for Stewart and Colbert to take their dramatis personae this deep into the political landscape.
Then, of course, there's the aftermath, which will occur in the week leading up to O'Brien's debut: How many people attended, and most importantly, was it funny? All of that limits the impact that O'Brien's pre-launch can have. In other words, Conan -- whatever you were planning to do to promote your launch -- it's time to rethink it.
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