Conan’s Enemy Isn’t the 11:35 Slot, It’s Any Time Slot

newsweek:

Summers, writing in Tech Shifts, on why Conan should abandon network TV altogether:

Conan has always appeared to be more interested than his late-night peers in pushing the comedic envelope. David Letterman may break the fourth wall and make characters out of his crew, and Jimmy Fallon may have experimented with Webisodes before his program launched. But only Conan will improvise a joke about a nonexistent web site, www.hornymanatee.com—and then actually purchase the domain and fill it with content. Of all people, then, the floppy-haired goofball should realize that watching a show at its original time is obsolete. Watching “Saturday Night Live” live on Saturday night is the TV equivalent of churning butter. Tools have been invented to save you the labor! If one of the sketches is funny and worth your time, you will hear about it on Twitter or Facebook or even just e-mail. Trust your social network. The same is true of the late-night talk shows. It hasn’t really been necessary to watch Conan or Letterman live for years. (It has never been necessary to watch Jay Leno, live or otherwise.) If a bit is great, or horribly great, it bubbles up.