Thread: The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

Conan has fallen from the sky. But that’s not an unexpected outcome when you shoot for the moon. NBC execs have made a big mistake 5 years ago when they placed their bet on Conan as a future replacement for Jay. And they lost! Conan is not a good fit for The Tonight Show and its time slot, which is supposed to appeal to a much broader audience than Conan ever did.

But don’t feel bad for Conan! It was his choice to leave. He could’ve stayed in his traditional spot for another couple of decades if he wanted. And falling from the sky in front of millions of viewers may not be such a bad thing, especially when you have a golden parachute.

If he can land at FOX, or some other network, the eventual outcome may not be that bad: Jay will keep his traditional spot and Conan may get a better time slot, than the one he used to have for many years – if he really wants that...

$30-$40 million deal expected to be sealed this weekend

MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

CoCo will go go.Just seven months after inheriting the "Tonight Show," Conan O’Brien -- faced with a timeslot demotion -- is close to finalizing his exit from NBC.

Source & More:
variety.com

By Nellie Andreeva and James Hibberd

The teams of representatives for NBC and O’Brien on Friday night were still finalizing a financial settlement that would end the network and the late-night host’s 21-year relationship.
Details about a settlement are still fuzzy, but sources estimated that the payoff to O’Brien could reach $40 million.

Source & More:
thrfeed.com

By Sharon Waxman
Published: January 16, 2010

Even as the final details are completed on the agreement for Conan O’Brien to leave NBC, the late night host’s manager has called TheWrap with a plea to reverse the whole thing while accusing the other camp of “an outrageous lie.”

Source & More:
thewrap.com

Leno had Jimmy Kimmel on his 10 at 10 segment the other night, and Kimmel just skewered Leno. It was funny as hell!
"Jay, remember we (Kimmel and Conan) have kids to feed and you only have your cars......"

Leno is the bad guy in all of this.......he's the one that should move on, his show was canceled.

Originally Posted by MikeD-C05

I think Jay was wrong to come back and take the Tonight show. He said he was retired and he should of stayed retired. To come back and Kick Conan out after he moved to L.A. with his family and all his show writers etc was just plain wrong. I never liked Jay Leno style of comedy and this will just cement my dislike of him as a person also.

When dd Leno "retire?" Back in 2004 he signed a four year deal for the Tonight Show. Shortly thereafter NBC announced that o'Brien would take over after that. For quite some time there were rumors about what Leno would do with him going to ABC, Fox and WGN all being mentioned. He finally agred to stay at NBC at 10 PM.

Sure Leno took his old job back when it was ofefred. Maybe he even asked for it but he did not set all this in motion.


The bad guy is NBC. They screwed up on this one. this little swap menat lower prime time ratings, angry affiliates because it hurt their 11 PM newscasts, and lower ratings at 11:35 and 12:35.

Originally Posted by Geronimo

When dd Leno "retire?" Back in 2004 he signed a four year deal for the Tonight Show. Shortly thereafter NBC announced that o'Brien would take over after that. For quite some time there were rumors about what Leno would do with him going to ABC, Fox and WGN all being mentioned. He finally agred to stay at NBC at 10 PM.

Sure Leno took his old job back when it was ofefred. Maybe he even asked for it but he did not set all this in motion.


The bad guy is NBC. They screwed up on this one. this little swap menat lower prime time ratings, angry affiliates because it hurt their 11 PM newscasts, and lower ratings at 11:35 and 12:35.

Doesn't matter who caused it , Jay should of been the bigger man and should of done the right thing. He could of easily said to NBC : NO! I will not go back on my word to Conan. I watched it myself when Leno said on live tv that he was leaving and giving the Tonight show time slot to Conan. Instead the multi-millionaire himself had no problem going back to his old time slot because of his gigantic EGO! Conan got screwed! I only hope in a year he can start over on FOX and run right up against Leno on suck ass NBC and beat him in ratings.

Conan quit, who else does NBC have that could take the Job that he (Jay) never should have left...

Conan quit because NBC wanted to push him back to after 12:05/11:05 at night. Like he wasn't good enough for the 11:30/10:30. That was an insult to Conan and I don't blame him for quitting. Now he can take his $40 million for buying out what's left of his contract and he can go to another network in a year and start over. I like Conan and I think he has been really very adult about this. After all if Jay had been a success at the 10:00/9:00 time slot , no one would of had to quit and everything would of been fine. So Jay bombing at his earlier time slot and causing the local news lead ins to drop , has caused this whole thing to happen.