The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

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O'Brien exit talks stall on compensation for staffers - latimes.com

NBC is facing $40 million to $50 million in "Tonight Show" severance payments, including about $30 million to O'Brien, according to people close to the situation.

Earlier this month, NBC decided to shift Leno back to 11:35 p.m. after affiliate TV stations threatened to preempt his prime-time show because they were losing viewers for their late local newscasts.

When NBC tried to push O'Brien's show to 12:05 a.m. to make room for a half-hour Leno show, O'Brien refused.

"We are fighting hard to get as much as possible to these people who are going to be out of work," Gavin Polone, O'Brien's manager, said Tuesday.

NBC officials bristled at the suggestion that they were being insensitive to staff members.

"It was Conan's decision to leave NBC that resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work. We have already agreed to pay millions of dollars to compensate every one of them. This latest posturing is nothing more than a PR ploy," NBC said in a statement.
 
TNGTony said:
The destruction of the local late news audience was an UNEXPECTED side effect and the ONLY reason for Jay's show being canceled. Yes it should have been expected, but the geniuses at NBC overlooked it in their miopic numbers crunching. Had the affiliates not threatened to mutiny and desert the network, NBC would have been happy with the ratings performance. Why? Because for what it costs to produce a 1 hour Law & Order episode NBC can produce almost two weeks of the Jay Leno show. This means that they can afford to fly the white flag and concede last place, but still make money since the are spending less money. That was really the plan. Jay Leno was never given the chance to see how the plan would work out during the summer months whn everything is in reruns for 12 weeks.
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Give the execs some credit, they did know the risks back in 2008 and decided to go with it anyway. Seems pretty prophetic to me:

That does not mean that either the network or Mr. Leno has no risk in the move. Mr. Leno’s shows tend to fare best in their first half hour; if they were to decline too much in the second half hour, NBC’s affiliated stations would see their news shows adversely affected. And there may be some question about whether Mr. Leno’s show at 10 might diminish the stature of Mr. O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” at 11:35.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/business/media/09leno.html
 
Throw everything else out. Here is what it all boils down to...what do you do as a BUSINESS decision?
TNGTony said:
So, you own the business. You want 11:30 viewers to come back as quickly as possible.
Do you:
1) Stay with the man who is still losing audience at 11:30 hoping that a new lead-in to the lead-in that isn't even in production has some people sticking around long enough to help stabalize the downward slide of the ratings ?
2) Bring back the man who was #1 in the time slot only 9 months ago in hopes to regain audience quickly and hopefully help the lead-in get slightly higher ratings from people tuning in early?
3) Cancel both hosts and get a new host to bring in viewers.
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TNGTony said:
Throw everything else out. Here is what it all boils down to...what do you do as a BUSINESS decision?

1) Stay with the man [strike]who is still losing audience[/strike] at 11:30 hoping that a new lead-in to the lead-in [strike]that isn't even in production[/strike] has some people sticking around long enough to help stabalize the [strike]downward slide of the[/strike] ratings ?
2) Bring back the man who was #1 in the time slot only 9 months ago in hopes to regain audience quickly and hopefully help the lead-in get slightly higher ratings from people tuning in early?
3) Cancel both hosts and get a new host to bring in viewers.
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Number 1, without a doubt (and I fixed it for you ;))

Why do you say the 10pm replacement programming "isn't even in production"?? NBC has already announced the lineup changes:

New and veteran NBC dramas and a comedy produced by Jerry Seinfeld will take over the bulk of the prime-time slots soon to be vacated by Jay Leno.

NBC announced Thursday that the freshman drama "Parenthood" and the relocated "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" will fill three slots. Another will go to the comedy panel series "The Marriage Ref" from Seinfeld. "Dateline NBC" will fill the other 10 p.m. slot.
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Parenthood has a lot of potential with a great cast and Mariska Hargitay is thrilled to have Law & Order SVU return to the 10pm slot.

NBC sets new 10 p.m. lineup - Los Angeles Times

This Just In: Mariska Hargitay Says Leno Move "Ruined Our Numbers" - E! Online
 
The parts you crossed out on my statement are key critical points. If you just want to ignore that, you are operating on emotion rather than reality.

There are no new programs in production that were designed specifically for that time slot. NBC is playing a fancy shell game with existing programming and adding one series they had originally passed on to fill in the gap for now.
 
TNGTony said:
The parts you crossed out on my statement are key critical points. If you just want to ignore that, you are operating on emotion rather than reality.

There are no new programs in production that were designed specifically for that time slot. NBC is playing a fancy shell game with existing programming and adding one series they had originally passed on to fill in the gap for now.
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I heard a couple of the time slots will have Dateline in them.
 
TNGTony said:
The parts you crossed out on my statement are key critical points. If you just want to ignore that, you are operating on emotion rather than reality.

There are no new programs in production that were designed specifically for that time slot. NBC is playing a fancy shell game with existing programming and adding one series they had originally passed on to fill in the gap for now.
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You're right, they are key and critical, but incorrect. They are based solely on the emotion you are referring to.

Conan is not still losing audience, the new and moved programming has already been announced (what, you expect brand-new produced shows to arise that quickly to replace the 10pm monumental failure?? :eek: OK :confused:) and the ratings were stabilized, they just needed a better lead-in to help them improve.
 
NBC: Hedging bets with Jay Leno

Thanks to tvweek, check out the following from December...
NBC: Hedging bets with Jay Leno

This morning's press conference (full coverage here) was a joyless scene. NBC employees and reporters, mutually shell-shocked from layoffs and advertising revenue worries; antagonists by original design, now comrades in a downsizing economy.
Ben Silverman, Marc Graboff and Jay Leno on a stage together, none seeming entirely comfortable with the other -- three very different people.
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“NBC has committed to Conan for ‘The Tonight Show’ and will go through with it. It’s less of a financial decision, because the $40-45 million penalty payment is not super relevant. If they went to Jay and said, ‘we need you to split the payment,’ he’d do it. They’ve made a public commitment to Conan and don’t want to get beaten up over it. NBC will do everything to try to keep Jay. Morning shows, afternoon shows, daytime shows – he won’t take any of those. They will try to keep Jay in the fold so if Conan fails on ‘The Tonight Show’ they will put Jay right back in there. Jeff Zucker will call Jay into his office with big wink and say, 'if you say it publicly I’ll deny it, but if Conan fails, I want you back.' That’s just the way NBC works. Back when Dave and Jay were fighting over 'The Tonight Show,’ they tried to see if they could do the same thing. That’s what they’re going to try and do here with Jay and Conan, only they are more likely to pull it off this time. One of the most important things to remember about NBC, is they had Coke with Carson. There was no Pepsi. They gave birth to Dave, then they suddenly had a cola war. They cannot bear the idea of Conan or Jay going across the street."
​
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Source & More: thrfeed.com
 

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