And so it was, on January 22nd, the year 2010 Conan O'Brien said his final goodnight...on NBC. The Late Night Wars Part Deux came to a close and it seems the only one coming out ahead is, well, probably David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel. I wrote on the Motivators Company Blog how strongly people fought to try to keep Conan on the air but in the end it was not enough for NBC. Unless you were living under a rock you should know by now the basic story. 5-6 years ago, NBC was afraid of losing Conan to another network (ironically) so they talked Jay Leno into retiring at the end of his contract to give Conan "The Tonight Show", those years came and went and Jay Leno went all Brett Favre on NBC and decided not to retire. So as not to upset the "Aaron Rodgers" of this situation (Brett Favre's backup who had been awaiting the starting QB job) NBC decided to let Jay Leno stay on TV but at 10 PM. NBC had told Jay to wait until the summer months and his ratings would soar. Jay's prime-time show failed, causing a ratings domino effect across NBC. So, Leno's show is cancelled and he is put back to "The Tonight Show" forcing out Conan. Trust me, that's the much longer story short. For the 2-3 weeks this controversy was going down there was sniping everywhere, Leno and Conan sniping NBC, Leno and Conan sniping each other, Letterman and Leno sniping each other, and the best part of the whole thing Jimmy Kimmel sniping Leno, both on and off Leno's show. Conan may have been the sharpest though, being able to laugh at the situation and make the best of it, his ratings doubled during the battle. At the end of it all though, in case you missed it, Conan O'Brien went out like the true professional he is. For his last show he made no negative comments towards his employers, he thanked them and told them he appreciated and loved the work they did together for 20 years. He had Tom Hanks on to support the Haiti telethon. For those that didn't see it he also had a heartfelt thank and goodbye to all his fans, clearly holding back tears. Whether you love him or hate him it was something everyone should watch on the Internet. He said:

"To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I'll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."

Classy to the end.This is a blog, so I must put out one very specific opinion of my own here. I have heard many people say "Conan will be fine, he got his millions of dollars from NBC." Every one of us does a job and we do it with pride. Unlike most of us Conan does (or did) his job on a larger stage than any of us can fathom.  I have no reason not to believe Conan would have traded every last penny of that money for the chance to live out his dream job for more than the 7 months NBC gave him to work miracles. He would have traded that money to not be silenced for another 7 months and had every joke and character from his 15 years of late night hosting taken from never to be used again. If there is such thing as karma, Conan will land on Fox and crush Leno and Letterman. 

When most people watch award shows, the last thing they care about is where the awards are being held. Most people watch to see who's making the latest fashion faux paux or to see if they can get the latest scoop on what's going on on their favorite shows. And when I sat down last night to tune in, I certainly didn't care where the awards were being held. I was much more interested in seeing Neil Patrick Harris in a tux and waiting to see if Jane Lynch would be robbed of her much deserved supporting actress trophy. NPH, of course looked fantastic and sadly Jane was indeed robbed. But by the time the awards actually started, I could easily tell you that they were being held at the Beverly Hilton.

No it wasn't mentioned by Ryan Seacrest or anyone else from the E! team. Well, perhaps it was in passing, but I definitely missed it. There were no blatant ads for the Beverly Hilton during the broadcast and no one mentioned it from what I could tell. So how did I know? Easy: promotional umbrellas.

The rain proved treacherous for hair stylists last evening as they all worked overtime to make sure that the stars' styles weren't completely ruined. Juiliana Marguiles joked that she skipped the red carpet because her hair would turn into a complete frizz ball. NPH tweeted that he was so glad he didn't choose an up-do. (Do we see why I love him?) But for the stars who did brave the red carpet to meet with the press core, promotional umbrellas had them covered and those promotional umbrellas were courtesy of the Beverly Hilton.

These oversized red and white golf umbrellas caused massive traffic jams. In fact, the picture above was tweeted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Marshall of Modern Family) with the caption, "Umbrella gridlock on the red carpet!" But thanks to these bad boys and hardworking hair stylists who probably downing xanax like M&Ms to deal with the pressure, all hair was kept safe and looked lovely.

And unrelated side note but not really: huge congrats to Glee (the favorite show of several Motivators) for their win for best comedy. That almost made Jane Lynch's loss acceptable. *Almost*

Ahh, Vegas. The city of sin. The city of fun. The city of...Bones fans???

Well, kinda.

This week, the annual Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) expo is going on in Vegas and because we are promo product pros, we've got a team out there covering all the action. I'm currently still cubicle dwelling, but with the advances in technology like twitter and aim, I'm not missing any of the action. In fact, I've been providing twitter tech support to Sarah E and Jenn as they roam the trade show aisles. And they reward me by sending me pictures of things I'd love, like for example: the coolest custom tumbler I think I have ever seen in my life.

The custom 3D design of the skull protruding right above the Bones logo is definitely eye catching, which is the point of all things branded, now isn't it? I love following Michael Ausiello and all the TV critics on twitter and checking their twitpics to see what awesome custom merchandise they get sent, but when I get to see an awesome example of it done by my favorite show at an a trade show for my industry? Well, that's just gravy.

And now comes the most important question. I'm not going to ask who designed it (already know) and I'm not going to talk about price point (found that out too). I would like to know when it got created (if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Season 2) and I'd love to know what these were used for (ie, event, press kits, ect) but truly there really is a more important question that needs to be addressed.

Where the heck do I get mine?!

Props to Sarah E and Jenn for keeping their eyes out and texting me that lovely picture last night. It truly made my evening. And big props to Hart Hanson and the merchandising team over at Fox for knowing that eye catching promotional products are just what you need to remind people of the awesomeness of the most dynamic duo since Batman and Robin.

Fox clearly knows how to win over their critics: promotional products! This past weekend and on into this week the TCA's are currently going on out in LA. TCA stands for Television Critics Asssociation and the TCA's are, in short, a massive publicity stunt done by networks to get their casts and showrunners mingling with the people who write about them. In my opinion, it seems to be one of the best things about being a critic. After all, TV critics are at heart TV fans right? Seriously, can you imagine this conversation? "What's on your agenda for the day?" *Sigh* "I've got to go have lunch with David Boreanaz and talk to him about Bones and then I've got to go to another event and talk with Zachary Levi about Chuck and at some point I have to squeeze in drinks with Jane Lynch from Glee and  then chat with Christopher Meloni for Law and Order SVU" Whew. Rough life.

In a brilliant article entitled TV and Twitter Go Together Like Cats and the Internet over at The Huffington Post, pop culture writer Annie Stamell makes a great point about the evolution of technology and its ability to include the critics who couldn't make it out to the TCAs (or those who weren't invited. Motivators TV isn't that legit...yet). She writes:

"You could essentially sit at home and just follow five random TV critics to know what is going on."

And that, my friends is exactly what I did. Being a huge TV fan, I've got my set list of TV critics that I follow in addition to the casts and showrunners associated with my favorite shows. And as many times as I've tried to spin the whole argument that I need to be sent places to truly get all the info on the promotional products given out at said event, it's not necessarily true. Regardless, I'd like to believe that I've made compelling arguments in the past, even if they've gotten shot down faster than a clay pigeon (cough cough Comic Con.) And sure, I've been able to go places, like the Glee event that Anthony, Tony and I attended earlier this year, but as Ms. Stamell points out, if you're following the right people on Twitter, you don't need to be there.

For example, thanks to my fabulous list of TV critics, I know that at yesterday's Bones breakfast waiters were decked out in custom apparel, Jeffersonian lab coats to be specific. Aside from being fun, it's a great way to encorporate the show into the event. And I know that both creator Hart Hanson (@harthanson) and executive producer Stephen Nathan (@squarechicken) were early to the event, which allowed them to have an impropmtu photo shoot via twitpics and that when the event was over Hart left with David Boreanaz and Ian Toynton to scout a location for the 100th episode which begins filming later this week (which I know because Eric Milligan (@ericmillegan) mentioned on twitter that he's flying out to LA on Thursday to begin filming!).

But aside from the custom lab coats worn by waiters that morning, Fox seemingly outdid themselves with 24 promo items. According to Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) , the TV critic for the Star Ledger the show handed out promotional caps, New York style. they were designed to look like Yankees or Mets hats but with the 24 logo instead. Seems cool right? Well later on that night Sepinwall twitpic'd for all of his followers that wanted to be on the inside track.

So thanks to twitter and the phenomenal critics, casts, and showrunners out there that understand that we fans want to be in on the action. Granted, it's not quite the same as having a bagel with Boreanaz or a danish with Deschanel, but it's closer than many of us have ever been. 

Oh, and should you happen to need a list of awesomeness to follow on Twitter, head on over to the Motivators Staff on Twitter and click on my TV list. It's a work in progress, but for the most part it's awesome.