14 DAY TRIAL // The executive producer of the late night show Conan has suggested that the team was talking with Microsoft before deciding to take the show to TBS, after the very public split with previous show host NBC.
It seems that Microsoft was interested in getting a show that would launch exclusively on the Xbox Live service for its home console, as the main draw for a new channel that would focus completely on original content.
Jeff Ross, who is the executive producer of Conan, said at the “Hollywood Creative Masters” Super Session, that, “The Xbox thing - a lot of the conversations were 'well, it's a show, but it's not a show and there are no breaks, but maybe there are breaks and it's not 60 minutes, it's this' and nobody really knew what it was.”
He added, “It was interesting to sit and look at it and say, 'it would be great to be involved in this,' but at the end of the day, we had some eventual television offers and we basically shied away from the other.”
The Conan team ultimately decided to work with a lower rated television channel, but the new show relies heavily on cross promotion via social networking sites and has extra content that is delivered only on its Internet site.
Microsoft could probably now work out a deal with Conan for some sort of exclusive content to be delivered on Xbox Live, but getting a full TV like show might be a step too far for the console manufacturer.
Late in 2010 rumors appeared that Microsoft was in talks with television content creators to develop shows that would be exclusively delivered on Xbox Live.
The idea is to make the home console more interesting for those who want other forms of entertainment than video gaming and expand the possible customer base.