just started to rain. larry: and how many how much time are you going to spend on this tour? are you just doing a one-night coverage and then back to new york? i ll do this one. i ll probably do l.a. and then i ll probably do new york, but i thought that i should come to the first one and see the scene and everything. larry: all right. you re always in on the know. you are surprised by this? i was surprised it happened. there was no glimmer or hint this was going on. frankly, i thought the fox thing was really the best and only option it seemed for conan to be really competitive. but i think tbs came up with a very aggressive offer and fox was not really moving forward with their offer. so it happened really fast. but it does surprise me in a way. i didn t think he would jump to cable. i thought he would want to stay on network and be one of the network players. larry: well now he s part of our family, the time warner group.
larry: back in january, conan said he wouldn t move the tonight show back 30 minutes so jay leno could start at 11:30. here s how george lopez joked about that at the time. conan o brien sent a letter saying he wouldn t move to 12:05 to make room for jay leno at 11:35, which i don t understand, because latinos have no problems to be told to come into work a half hour later! right? larry: all right, are you surprised, lynnette rice that george lopez completely agreed with in move to go back a half hour later? you know, i m not surprised. i think having a lead-in like conan is going to be just incredible for him. i mention, he s had he s definitely enjoyed some press, because he s start this new late-night talk show on tbs. he was not getting the kind of press that the late-night stars are getting. you know that conan got when he
just can t wait to get on the road again larry: and now with willie on friday night that s going to be fun. two great songwriters told meet other day he s the best singer alive, willie nelson. bill carter, he s with the new york times national media reporter. he s in eugene, oregon, because tonight conan o brien s tour starts. it s titled legally prohibited from being funny on television tour. kicks off tonight. first time conan s ever done standup in theaters. lynnette rice is senior writer with entertainment weekly, and lauren sanchez is correspondent for extra. okay what about his lead-in, lauren? his lead-in is what on tbs? what is tbs saying. family guy it s the perfect lead-in. larry: an hour show? yeah it s a half hour. it s the perfect lead-in for conan. i believe it s a hamphour ihope it is. because it s that younger audience. it s comedy. it s funny. i mean it s a perfect lead-in
now they re going to follow him to tbs which is unbelievable. that s what you want. you want the young viewers. tbs is digging the fact they got a couple of 40-plus men now like george and now conan entertaining 20, 30-somethings. a pretty cool thing to brag about. larry: does he keep match one and the whole crew, there the band and everything, do you know? yes. i think he s going to keep the whole crew. jeff ross, the ep. the key is if they get andy richter. it if he comes along. there is a lot of people that love that man. there s no word yet. and he owns it. he owns the show. incredible. larry: it starts when, november? november. he ll have the promotional push off the baseball playoffs which will be a good thing. if they start in september they would have to preempt it. start it after baseball. tbs is going to spend a lot of money they said on promotion. not an exact start but they did say in november. larry: bill carter now joined us from eugene, oregon. he s t
currently occupies that 11:00 time slot. but it s a win-win for everyone. tbs, conan and george who has a successful show but now will have the lead in of conan. larry: and tbs in 95% of the homes. lynnette, what do you make of this? on paper it probably doesn t say something sexy as saying you re working for a broadcast network like fox. and this deal wouldn t have been made possible had they been able to work a deal with fox. fox had the problem of trying to convince the stations to clear the 11:00 time slots. but it s cool. because if you look at somebody like john stewart or stephen colbert they don t have those big tent rateings that a jay leno or a david letterman have but they sweep the emmys every year, they re very cool. critics like us love them and it s definitely a great job. larry: and a lot more leeway on tv. yes. they insist he can do whatever he wants there. he can get as edgy as possible. larry: here s what conan had to say in the statement about the move. i