Who says you can’t keep a cult comedian down? Tom Green, who has hosted The Tom Green Show, and then The New Tom Green Show (are you sensing a pattern?), will get a shot at syndication in January with a simulcast of his late-night internet talk show, “Tom Green Live!,” according to Variety.
The show, which is produced on a nightly basis out of his living room, has reached cult status with its public-access feel, weird in-studio bits, and celebrity guests who enjoy the loose atmosphere rarely found on regular television. According to Broadcasting and Cable, Tom Green Live! gets about 20,000 live viewers each night at 11pm PT, but thanks to YouTube and MySpace, clips from the show have been viewed over 650,000 times.
The show might be a test of whether internet success can translate into successful television numbers. With internet celebrities like “LonelyGirl15” and Chris “Leave Britney Alone!” Crocker getting development deals, television executives have had no problem mining the web for potentially entertaining television. The problem is, they are mostly flash-in-the-pan sensations, who are forgotten before the ink is dry on the contract. Since Green already has name recognition, and celebs like Pamela Anderson and Bob Saget are willing to hang out in his living room for the enjoyment of others, we could be seeing the start of a new trend in late-night TV.
According to Variety, Debmar-Mercury, who is distributing the show, wants to launch Tom Green Live! on only a few stations to see how it goes, and will aim for the 11pm (or later) timeslot on Fox, CW and MyNetwork affiliates, who will be looking to compete with the standard network talk shows.
Although the show will try to keep its low budget, on-the-net look, Green plans on hiring a larger writing staff, and take bits to the street like his previous MTV shows. But with television comes restrictions on content, pressure for bigger and better guests, and bowing to affiliates to get the show on the air. Can the guy who used to suck cow udders get away with the same stuff he did pre-Janet Jackson? We’ll see if Tom Green if can make TV viewers laugh the way that guy in the window used to on his old MTV show.
