Government to subsidize Toronto broadcasts of NBC late night show
Late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien is coming to Toronto, and Canada’s taxpayers are helping to foot the bill.
The Ontario Ministry of Tourism and the federally funded Toronto03 Alliance program have put together $1 million to pay for the relocation of the cast and part of the crew of NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien, a New York City-based talk show aimed at the 18-to-35-year-old audience.
Proponents of the plan to bring the show to Toronto say the publicity generated by the show will far outweigh the cost to taxpayers.
“We’ve had a couple ad agencies look at this, and they measured it as being worth $100 million in positive media benefits,” said Peter Soumalias, founder of Canada’s Walk of Fame and the person who initially approached the Ontario and federal governments about funding the project.
Mr. Soumalias highlighted the fact that the show would give Toronto nightly exposure in the United States and across the world for a whole week. (Late Night is broadcast worldwide on NBC’s global business channel CNBC.)
Boosters of Mr. O’Brien’s appearance say that because it is a televised event, it could be a bigger boost to Toronto’s image than last summer’s rock concert, headlined by the Rolling Stones, during the city’s SARS outbreak.
Part of the funding for Mr. O’Brien’s appearance comes from Toronto03 Alliance, a one-year program designed to help the city’s economy rebound from SARS.
But not everyone agrees using government funds to help pay the bills for an American network is a good idea.
“One has to question whether this makes economic sense,” said Peter Kormos, the Ontario NDP’s shadow justice minister.
But Mr. Kormos pointed out that taxpayer money has been spent on less desirable TV events. “It’s still better than tax money being spent on Ralph Benmergui,” he said, referring to the former CBC late night talk show host.
Along with government cash, the event’s organizers have lined up a variety of corporate sponsors, including Labatt breweries, to fund a promotional campaign that will air on TV stations in U.S. border cities such as Buffalo and Detroit. The ads will offer U.S. residents the opportunity to win tickets to the taping of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, while at the same time giving them the chance to explore Canada’s largest city.
Discount carrier JetsGo has donated an aircraft to bring the Late Night crew to Toronto at no charge.
The producer of Late Night, Lorne Michaels, a native of Canada who made his name in New York as the executive producer of Saturday Night Live, met with Mr. Soumalias after the induction of Mr. Michaels into Canada’s Walk of Fame last summer, and it was during those meetings that the idea to bring Conan O’Brien to Toronto was born.
But, according to Mr. Soumalias, NBC would not agree to transplant the show to Toronto unless the additional costs of the move were covered by outside sponsors.
Mr. Michaels confirmed last month that a variety of high-profile Canadians would be featured during the show’s stint in Toronto, which will run from Feb. 10-13.
Though no specific celebrities have been confirmed, people close to the show have mentioned names such as Mike Myers and Jim Carrey, both of whom are Toronto natives.
The show is expected to make broadcast history, as this is the first time that an American late-night talk show will broadcast from Canada, and only the second time that one has broadcast from outside the United States. CBS’s David Letterman took his show to London in 1995.
The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, January 8, 2004
