海角大神

Conan O鈥橞rien may have tossed water at acting icon Tom Hanks on Tuesday (tee-hee), but the red-haired comic鈥檚 return to the late-night fray was anything but earth-shattering. Quite the opposite.

The fawning and pointedly non-ironic softball interviews (sorry, Conan) with newly-engaged Seth Rogan, on hand to tout the January release of 鈥淕reen Hornet鈥� 鈥� not to mention a perky Lea Michele from Fox鈥檚 鈥�Glee鈥� who pouted about how misunderstood her sexy GQ photo shoot was 鈥� were, if anything, a breath of stale air. While certainly not awful, the very 鈥渃onventionalness鈥� of the shows certainly don鈥檛 live up to the hype leading up to the return of "Team Coco."

Mr. O'Brien's shows this week are 鈥減erfectly acceptable presentations of the genre,鈥� says Robert Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, in a typical underwhelming review. Do they raise questions about the future of the late-night talk show? Sure, say plenty of media-watchers, including the very celebrity guests who are the bread and butter of these shows. As actor David Spade put it in a tweet Wednesday touting his appearance on 鈥�The Tonight Show鈥�: "on leno this evening. thinking of dumb stuff to chat about. tune in if out of sominex.鈥�

So, what鈥檚 the matter and what鈥檚 the future of one of the oldest formats on television?

The format is not the problem, says Benjamin Alba, author of "Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show." "Despite evolving viewing trends, the late-night talk/variety genre remains the only nighttime genre that has survived, and usually flourished, over the past five decades,鈥� he says via email. Other formats have come and gone, he points out, such as drama anthologies, musical-variety shows, dramatic miniseries, and Westerns. Even sitcoms today don't command the stature they once did, he notes.

But, he adds, 鈥渁s creator and first host of the "Tonight" show, Steve Allen invented the grammar of late night, which, with a few variations, remains intact in late night today: witty host, live audience, opening monologue, home-base desk, celebrity chats, comedy sketches, wild stunts, goofing around with the band leader, and visiting regular folks in the audience.鈥�

The problem today lies mostly with the hosts, agrees Mr. Thompson, who points out that Jay Leno, David Letterman, and now Conan O'Brien are all getting stale. 鈥淭hey are no longer the young turks they once were,鈥� he says.

Others suggest both the form and the folks who inhabit it are headed for history. New-media expert Paul Levinson points first of all to the fairly precipitous ratings fall-off, noting that both Jay Leno and David Letterman slumped to just above a million viewers apiece in October, a number that Comedy Central鈥檚 Jon Stewart bested with 1.3 million viewers in the most-coveted 18-to 49 demographic. Says Mr. Levinson, 鈥渘obody below the age of 60 is really tuning into these shows anymore.鈥� Rather, says the author of 鈥淣ew New Media,鈥� they are getting their entertainment from the Internet, their mobile phones, and other devices at all times of the day.鈥�

Beyond that, there is the inherently restrictive nature of the broadcast medium itself, says sociologist Alexander Riley, author of 鈥淚mpure Play.鈥� Truly 鈥渢ransgressive鈥� behavior does not sit well with the commercial interests behind most of the late-night shows. He points to the appearance in the 1970s of the Sex Pistols on a British talk show. The band members cursed the show鈥檚 host and generally flayed the entirety of middle-class British life. The ruckus that ensued went all the way up to the Queen. While hosts such as O鈥橞rien like to suggest they are wacky and out-of-the-box players, in reality, we should not expect 鈥渢ruly transformative behavior鈥� from mainstream commercial media, he says.

Rather, says marketing strategist Susan Harrow, what we will see in the future is less format experimentation and hosts going wacky, but more brand extensions. She points to Web clips and Jon Stewart's recent Washington rally as examples of this already underway. The upcoming simulcast of a Glenn Beck performance to 500 movie theaters nationwide is another example, she says, adding, 鈥減eople want the excitement of getting out of the studio, but they still want the intimacy of the talk show experience.鈥�