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Update: Reports have O’Brien, staff getting $40 million
Reports from various news sources say Conan O’Brien will pull in $30 million as he is freed from his NBC contract and clears the way for Jay Leno to return to The Tonight Show.
The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman (via AOL’s PopEater) is reporting the figure, saying O’Brien just needs to sign the deal. The site reports that Universal Chief Operating Officer Ron Meyer brokered the deal after talks between O’Brien’s camp and that of NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker came to an impasse.
Hollywood gossip site TMZ adds that the deal, while sweet monetarily for O’Brien, prevents the funnyman from trash-talking NBC, among other strings. The network will also insist O’Brien not take on another hosting job for a set period.
he has no need to trash NBC. their reputation is already zero in the public’s eyes.
If O’Brien doesn’t need to trash talk NBC, why does he engage in it?
take the money and run away, far far away!
@#2
Duh!! Because it’s funny, jackass!
I have never watched Leno because I did not find him funny. I will still not watch Leno because he is a backstabber and not funny! Everyone should turn off NBC and the Tonight show to show them they are scum.
NBC wasted big bucks by putting Conan on the air in the first place. Why did they think he could host his own show? I guess the NBC wheels felt they could mold a gag writer(?) into a gag host by creating someone in there own image….Fooooooie..It didn’t work. Conan reminded me of a wind driven gas station baloon model. Lots of crazy waving and flopping around and never doing anything worth repeating.
Conan sucks
He’s better than Jay ever was, and he’ll beat Jay in his new show. Jay’s image is destroyed now.
I always found Conan’s humor sophomoric at best. If he’s smart, take the money and run. I think Leno should have bowed out gracefully and let someone else take the reins. I wonder if Arsenio Hall is available.
Conan isn’t worth $30.
Maybe now he can use the money to get a proper hair stylist.
He should use Trump’s…
It doesn’t matter if Conan is worth more or not, the issue here is less Conan and more about what Leno did to him. It’s beyond reprehensible, and will damage the Tonight Show in ways that not going to be repairable.
Conan is a lot funnier than Jay Leno ever was, because he’s not a 1-trick pony. He doesn’t use his monologue like the other two do.
The older crowd doesn’t get it, but that’s ok, because most of the older folks that liked Leno are starting to go to bed a LOT earlier. Leno may have been popular in Cemetery Village, but he lost a lot of support even in that age group by what he’s done to Conan.
When Conan goes to Fox, he’ll end up beating Jay. Jay Leno won’t be able to get past what he did to Conan, because the public views it as a total scumbag move. The fact that Jay isn’t funny doesn’t help, either.
Conan is now more popular than he’s ever been, and the plan backfired. And since he’s more than likely going to have Howard Stern on this week, he won’t need to say anything bad about NBC. He’ll have someone more popular than Leno ever was doing it for him.
The new host of the Tonight Show should really be Jimmy Kimmel after how badly he destroyed Jay the other night.
Leno is a piece of dirt. I hope he gets chin cancer.
But Todzilla, Conan’s ratings have already demonstrated his very limited appeal. Jay Leno is sophisticated and intelligent in his humour, and Conan’s sophomoric. So there’s no contest.
I believe that you are an amazing supporter of Conan, and that is great, but your final comment; “I hope that Leno gets chin cancer”. I know that you were trying to be funny, but you actually are as funny as your friend Conan by saying that. People with manners don’t use the word “cancer” for joking
Don’t bring Arsenio into it. He really sucks, BIG TIME. And… maybe in more ways than one.
I knew this Conan deal was going to be a disaster when it was announced 5 years ago. I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. I have never been able to deal with Conan’s humor…too juvenile.
I never could stand Letterman either. Jay is funny and has always made money for NBC. He donates most of the money NBC pays him to charities and makes his big bucks on the weekends in stand up appearances all over the world. I can’t imagine anyone paying to see Conan.
Conan blew it.All he had to do is go with the time shift and all would have played out in the end. Now he is walking away from the best job he will ever have.
How come NBC is giving the Tonight Show back to Leno? If the 10pm Leno show is not working, they should just cancel HIM, and leave Conan alone. I’m not a conan fan, but it’s his gig.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU FOLKS. LENO DID NOT DO ANYTHING, N. B. C. IS THE ONE SHIFTING THE SCHEDULES AROUND. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO WATCH DON’T WATCH. LENO STILL HAS HIS FOLLOWING. CONAN WILL BE COMPENSATED FAIRLY OR HE WILL BE IN COURT. SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET.
If I added Conan to the list of talk shows that I watch it would still add up to zero. I am so glad that I have others things to do.
NBC is horrible, Conan is funnier than Jay will ever be, I hope he is sucessful somewhere else, and shows NBC up!!
They’re both horrible and you can’t even refer to them as comics, because they aren’t. So all the yakking about “No he’s better, No he’s the best” is pointless. They aren’t worth the effort to change the channel on the remote.
I am all for Conan. Even with the amount of money on the table, I don’t think it’s fair of NBC to state that Conan wouldn’t be allowed to do another hosting job for a set period of time. I don’t think any employer has the right to do that about someone’s future gigs/jobs. Hopefully, Fox will take him in…more people watch that channel than NBC anyhow.
Let’s face it, Carson left HUGe shoes to fill and no one as measured up. NBC,Conan, and Leno will all survive,…..it’s the American way of things.
15 minute of Fame, Fifteen minute of blame,…..one in the same.
Late night shows are finished anyway. The alphabet channels are becoming extinct for primetime and late night. They are dying and can hardly make a profit. Letterman and his show the last leftist trailer trash show left with any type of following at all. Dave is as funny as a heart attach. Just like the once great America car industry, now it is the once great American broadcast industry. The libs are giving away the store like Jeffery Zucker and friends. Follow ideological the trail.
All over this great country, hardworking american citizens are investing their hard earned dollars for a 27 million to one chance to win a lottery somewhere. The average american would tell you without reservation, “just let me win a small jackpot, 2 to three million and I will never work again. I will be set for life”. Conan…. shut your mouth take the money and run. Invest wisely and enjoy the rest of your life. Your EGO really does not need the spot light. …. really.Call your momma and daddy tell them you all need some therapy, and that you want to grow out of this adolescent need for attention. Best of luck dude.
After the Conan/Leno dust settles . . I am hoping that Jimmy Falon will be on earlier. . I think he’s grand and could be the next Leno :)
Hey, Conan,
Here’s your hat and coat, wht’s your hurry? By the way, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. B’bye now. Don’t come back now. Ya hear?
Does anyone still watch network television anyway? I can’t recall the last time I did…
Conan can’t suck enough
Things change – NBC and Leno thought it would work at 10:00 doing the exact same show as he did at 11:30. People want mindless TV at 11:30. At 10 pm I still want to be stimulated (Jay just doesn’t do it). Had they changed the format to be more interesting or exciting then maybe…… Each of these guys have a good following. I certainly knew this would bomb when it first announced. Conan’s folks should have anticipated this and had a plan set up (maybe this is it, and we’re just caught up in the drama). Jay goes back, Conan goes to another network a few bucks richer and life on NBC goes back to normal.
Nobody gets into the fact that NBC did a big bonehead move by allowing Leno to remain at all if they had faith that O’Brien was going to be able to captain the Tonight ship. Capt. Leno sez “I’m retiring”, NBC names a new capt. and basically did the same thing to O’Brien as they did to Letterman, except O’Brien isn’t as funny as Letterman. Plus, NBC does even more stupid and puts a talk show in prime time as a regular spot. In the history of television, has a talk show of any stripe ever worked in prime time as a regular spot?? Variety shows really stopped working in the 70′s unless you’re on Spanish or Italian TV. So the fact that they thought people would sit around and watch two shows that are basically the same format but an hour and half apart is mind boggling. Newsflash–Comedy Central already got you on this format, homey–if people want to see two unfunny comedy shows an hour and a half apart, just leave it there, leave the room for an hour and a half and come back in. Mission accomplished without NBC.
Then there’s their selection of Leno to replace Johnny initially. When they didn’t pick Letterman, they should have gone with Joan Rivers–she would still have a Johhny style Tonight show going. The side jokes and banter would still be there had she taken over the show instead of Jay. She could get the right ensemble mix needed for a late night talk show to work.
That’s why O’Brien sucks. O’Brien always strikes me as a smarmy geek who’s always giggling at some unfunny inside joke. Smart–hell yes, but we all know that smart people are not always the funniest because they can’t stop trying to demonstrate their superior intellect long enough to stop stepping on the punchline. Insult humor only works when you use it to allow people to join in your self-righteous attack pomposity, not when you aren’t using it to promote your own mental superiority. “See how smart I am” isn’t funny-it’s like a proud toddler showing you his doody.
Letterman is mean and sharp, but a real cool jerk. He’s an a-hole, but he’s OUR a-hole! NBC, in failing to give the Tonight show to Letterman way back when, proved who they really are–an energy company that tries only to use entertainment to pick up some loose dollars in the marketplace. They aren’t interested in being creative, thought provoking, innovative, or controversial. They just want to have a 7-Eleven or Mickey D’s on every corner.
Leno has never been anything but comedy’s version of the Golden Corral–which is fine if you gotta feed a family of eight cheaply, but you won’t get any enlightenment. You’ll only get something mediocre that the whole family can watch without triggering any flare-ups. Plus there will be an ice cream bar. Leno shows what NBC always has sought to promote with the Tonight Show–the kind of TV show that the fictonal Ward Cleaver could sink his teeth into.
Now O’Brien gets 30 million for basically getting fired from a job he couldn’t hold in the first place. He should get on his knees and pray to God every single day for his luck and good fortune because when you suck in comparison to Jay Leno, you REALLY suck. Conan, write a show or movie that someone else can deliver with skill–cause when YOU do your own stuff, you remind people why they need to beat up smart alecks on a regular and recurring basis.
That is so crazy I cannot believe it! People in Haiti are dying and this nonsense is going on in Hollywood.
30million, 40million, 1 trillion, anything to get rid of conan! he is a big idiot and not very funny at all! i understand he graduated from Harvard, but he should of used his degree in something productive. jay leno is more entertaining to watch and i love him.
Really, it hardly matters much at all. Craig Fergusson’s ratings are through the roof. Also interestingly enough Fergusson is actually consistently funny even when interviewing most of his guests.