The Obligatory Post-Super Bowl Post

Here we are again. Another Monday following another Sunday with a major pop culture event. Raise your hand if you watched the Super Bowl last night. If your hand is up, you are part of the 35.03% of Americans who set a new television-watching record.

The 2010 Super Bowl garnered 106.5 million viewers, which set a new record for most viewers for a single television program. With 500,000 more viewers, it surpassed the series finale of M*A*S*H, which had held the record since 1983, though with the increased number of television sets in homes, its actually a lower percentage.

But with 35.03% of Americans tuning in to the Super Bowl, there were roughly 51.7% of American office employees talking about the Saints' gutsy onside kick, Peyton Manning's late game interception and the incredible amount of money GoDaddy.com wasted.

With this continued interest in the sporting event and the hoopla surrounding it, it's no wonder than CBS can continue to rake in $2.5 - 3 million per 30-second spot. But is it worth it? For a major brand, is shelling out the cash for enough spots to make a splash really going to help the bottom line?

That's the question Pepsi poses as it chose to forgo Super Bowl ads this year and instead direct funding toward its Refresh Project, a crowd-sourced philanthropic endeavor to give away grants to worthy causes. And while the majority of this morning's water cooler conversations might not have included Pepsi, some did, whereas shelling out the cash for Super Bowl ads might not have made Pepsi a Twitter trending topic anyway.

What shall be interesting to watch is whether other major brands, with solid marketshare, reputation, brand recognition and loyalty choose to follow suit. If these brands pull out of the Super Bowl and opt for a more long-burning activity than this flash in the pan, that will shape the way viewers, networks and advertisers approach the game.

If major brands pull out, smaller brands and start-ups (who need an initial splash of name recognition) can get in...if they can afford it. If fewer brands can afford to buy spots, networks will have to drop the ad price, which opens up a whole new demographic of companies to the possibility of Super Bowl advertisement. But will these companies still be shelling out for production value? Will we see a decline in interest in the commercials and people return to timing their "pit stops" during commercials? Have Super Bowl ads "jumped the shark"?

Team Coco!

You probably never thought you'd be asked if you were "Team Leno" or "Team Coco". After Jay Leno took over as host of "The Tonight Show" on NBC, there was some discussion around "Leno or Letterman" as people debated which host they preferred for post-local news TV.

But as ratings continued to plummet for "The Jay Leno Show" (apparently we don't like him at 10pm) and ratings for "The Tonight Show" hosted by Conan O'Brien were lackluster, there was talk of shifting Leno back to his role as host of "The Tonight Show" to try to regain viewers.

Drama ensued. Here's the recap:

NBC: We gotta do something about these ratings. Maybe we send Leno back to 11:35pm and slide Conan back a slot. Or maybe we quit airing both of them and show more reality TV instead. Whatever we do, we cant lose advertisers.

Leno: Yeah, I guess I'll go back to the 11:35pm time slot. I was king of that time slot. Jay-walking is WAY funnier after the local news.

Conan: So...I'll go after that? "The Tonight Show" will actually air at 12:05am the next day? That's whack.

NBC: Yeah, well, we're gonna make a change.

Yada, yada, yada, tonight is the final taping of "The Tonight Show" hosted by Conan O'Brien.

What's really interesting is that in the first week of this drama, the internet blew up with chatter about "Leno vs. O'Brien vs. NBC". Twitter conversation about the two hosts jumped from next-to-nothing to near the heights of much-discussed TV shows "Glee" and "Jersey Shore".

Widely-read pop culture blogs asked for editorial cartoons from readers and people began replacing their Facebook profile pic with images of their favorite host.

And now that the decision has been made, the commentary ranges from lashing out against NBC, claiming that they treated Conan unfairly to speculation over NBC's wisdom in giving Conan a large buyout* when their earnings are down. MarketWatch raises the question of whether NBC's choice to send Leno back to "Tonight" will be the ratings savior they need to keep a tight grasp on hard-to-come-by network TV advertising dollars. Or if this is another sign that network TV is flailing and NBC has a 'For Sale' sign in its future.

*The terms of the deal releasing Conan from his contract with NBC included a $33million payout for the host and $12million for his writing & production staff. The deal also stipulates that on September 1, 2010, O'Brien will be free to accept a new contract and transfer his brand to another network. Fans are speculating that he'll land anywhere from FOX to Comedy Central to the internet. As a long time Conan fan, I hope to see him somewhere soon. Until then, I may just have to get by with clips like this on YouTube:

Desperate times call for....wait, what?!?

Earlier this week, Tyra Banks (known for her work as a Victoria's Secret model) highlighted tapeworms as a method for losing weight.

This method, while effective, is kinda like the drugs whose commercials spend more than half the length of the ad describing the potential side effects. And while it's unclear whether Tyra actually advocates woman try this approach, the inclusion of it on her show brings it into the limelight and makes more people try it. The comments on the show's Web site include SEVERAL from people saying "thank you for letting me know about this option, I'm going to try it!"

Oh Ty-ty. You've had moments of brilliance (the first few cycles of ANTM, your reaction to the infamous bathing suit situation) but it seems that your latest forays into pop culture have been...um...misguided? This might be the thing that catapults you over the great white you've been swimming with for a while now.