A Creative Communications Agency

In a recent adage.com article, Leno, Conan will return, but will viewers? they explain that the NBC late night talk shows will be returning to air in January. The writers strike may not seem to be affecting the average persons life but there have been large impacts on the shows that we love to watch.

Since the strike  NBC, CBS and Comedy Central late night shows have been running repeats. The biggest appeal for these shows is the timely analysis of current events. Whether it jokes about whats happening in the news or guests that are promoting the movies coming out soon, the shows don’t have the impact as reruns. It’s getting so serious that the NBC shows are already planning to return without the writers staff that made them so successful.

The Adage.com article goes into detail on how the ratings have dropped for all the players in the late night game and because of this advertisers are getting upset. The late night audience is typically made up of the meat of the marketing demographic, 18-49 year olds. The advertisers are getting upset because the shows are not delivering what they use to and it is all because the content of the shows has been lost.

This once again, shows that the content must be there to draw in the viewers. The shows have their audiences set because of the content and once that gets old the audience is sure to leave. That is why the most popular TV shows, websites and magazines know that they must keep the content current. That is what we at ECMS continue to push our clients to do to be successful. Why would someone want to come back to your website or read your print ad if it is the same thing they have seen before. In today’s environment you must have the latest information and be able to provide a user with news that they didn’t already know.

How much advertising dollars could a news magazine or newspaper get if they were reprinting months old issues instead of the latest headlines?

I ask the late night shows to take the experience of the professional sports leagues into consideration. Don’t try and bring in scabs during a strike and tell us the games just as good as it use to be. Yes, it is still “professional football” but the players stink. And the jokes will probably stink too.