NBC vs. Social Media: I’m with CoCo (as long as it’s easy)

There’s a lot of buzz going round about the madness over at NBC all about The Tonight Show, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and low ratings.

Then I see people are changing their Avatar to the above in supposrt of Conan keeping the Tonight Show in it’s early time slot.  They tweet about the madness.  They blog about how much it sucks.  Consumerist released the names and e-mails of NBC executives so people can write in support.

But here’s the thing.

NBC doesn’t care too much about how much you tweet, or change your avatar, or send them mindless e-mails. NBC cares about money.  They see you care when you turn your hearts, minds, and television sets to NBC.  When they have more viewers, advertisers pay more to be in their commercial breaks, and then NBC keeps paying to make the show so it makes more money.

It costs NBC more money to read your angry tweets, e-mails, and look at your avatar. It’s cheaper for them to ignore you and put the new programming in place.  NBC is in the television industry to MAKE money, not lose it drowning in sea of angry digital messages.

The way I see it, if you want to make a real difference, you’ve got two options.

1. Keep giving them money. Don’t mass e-mail them.  Instead, make it a nightly habit to watch The Tonight Show with Conan every single night you can.  Boost his ratings, and give NBC the incentive to keep him exactly where he is.
2. Cut them off: Mass E-mail NBC.  Tell them you won’t watch ANY NBC Universal programming unless Conan is kept on the Tonight Show at 11:35.  Then stick to your guns and make them bleed.

Take action to hit them where it hurts, or give the incentive to keep things the way they are.  That’s how you change what’s on your TV.  Changing your Facebook pic only makes you look like you jumped on a bandwagon.

As for me?  I’m with Letterman.  Have been since I was 10, and plan to stay that way.