Detox

It's been at least a year and a half since I relinquished my television. It was old and very heavy. I didn't have a place to put it and didn't want to pay to move it, so I let it go.

I am not a devoted television viewer. There have been shows that I liked to watch, but television isn't important to me.

Antennas don't work well in New York, so it is difficult to get any reception without cable. Regardless, I am amazed that most people spend a minimum of $40 a month to watch television.

So, it was a little perplexing to find myself avidly following Conan O'Brien's split from NBC. I read every New York Times article about it, and even watched numerous highlights from the final shows on You Tube.

Very little bores me, but I consider Jay Leno boring. His shtick might have been edgy in the days of Lawrence Welk; it is embarrassingly unfunny now. I am not a great fan of Conan, but his sense of humor is far move relevant than Leno's. Besides, Leno's new show bombed.

Therefore, NBC's decision to pay Conan to go away so Leno could take his spot seemed bizarre.

It wasn't until I was viewing the final show that I realized Conan's situation was similar to a lay off. Sure, he was paid handsomely to go away, but he was forced out and publicly humiliated like the rest of us cashing unemployment checks.

It was cathartic to watch him rant about NBC and his ill treatment. Many viewers probably lived revenge fantasies vicariously through Conan as he complained about his soon-to-be-ex-employer to a huge audience and performed skits in which he pretended to waste NBC's money flagrantly.

His severance package is enough to last him several lifetimes. I am using my nest egg to pay for rent, health insurance, and groceries. So, there is little similarity in our positions. Yet I appreciate that his situation highlighted another dumb decision by a big US corporation. How can anyone defend the notion of self-correcting capitalism when high-paid executives are making poor decisions repeatedly?

NBC's split agreement prohibited Conan from hosting a television show for 8 months. Network TV's audience is being leached away by the internet. Are TV executives the last people to understand that television needs to move to the internet to survive? The same cable companies carrying television signals also supply broadband internet service. It's flowing through the same hardware. When Katie Couric's interviewed Sarah Palin in September 2008, more people saw it on You Tube than CBS.

It seems to me that Conan could cause more "damage" to Leno/NBC by hosting an internet-based show rather than a television show. The average person knows television is not going to regain market share in its present format, but the big bosses at the networks seem unaware of it and chose to bet tens of millions of dollars that a has-been like Leno is going to lure viewers.

It's another indicator of the type of poor decision making that has lead to the topsy-turvy economic situation in this country.