Redemption stories work for me. Especially redemption stories that include lessons about creative destruction and rubbing it in the faces of the clowns that fired you. Steve Jobs coming back to Apple is the classic redemption story. Now we have Conan O'Brien.
You know the basic part of the story. It's the classic boy has dream, boy gets dream job, boy loses dream job because another boy with a giant chin wants his job back. What you don't know is this turns out to be the best thing to happen to O'Brien. He accidentally discovers Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and connects to a new plugged in generation. It all starts innocently enough with a "I'm With Coco" Facebook page created by a fan. Coincidentally, this is the same day O'Brien resigns from NBC. Overnight the page has 100,000 fans. A light turns on inside team O'Brien's head and they embrace a new path. Turns out The Tonight Show was the dream job for the last era. In the new era, Conan connects to his fans through a variety of media and his new show is the hub. Oh and another thing. O'Brien owns the show.
Even better is stunned execs at NBC wondering what hits them as O'Brien gets bigger and NBC looks worse during his hiatus from TV. Months after the firing, the head of NBC resigns.
It's good to be the Coco.
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