Just seven months after he took the job as host of the Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien and NBC agreed early this morning on a buy-out for the remainder of his contract, which will allow NBC to replace Conan with Jay Leno. The New York Times says…
The deal is worth a reported $44 million.
Network spokeswoman Allison Gollust confirmed the deal early Thursday but did not offer any other details. Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that O’Brien will get $32 million and that the network agreed to pay his staff $12 million in severance.
And to make sure they pissed away as much money as possible, NBC caved on the “mitigation” clause. If that were still in place, and Conan had signed a deal with Fox paying him 25M a year for example, then NBC would only have been responsible for 7 of the 32M. Now he gets 32 no matter what.
So, to recap, Conan hosted a very successful and popular talk show on NBC for 16 years, but then his show moved 60 minutes earlier and NBC decided he forgot how to host a talk show. Then they freaked the fuck out and panicked like some kind of woman. By some accounts this will cost NBC $250 million, partially because of lost ad revenue but mostly between moving Conan, firing Conan, hiring Jimmy Fallon, and creating a show for Leno. It’s fiscal leadership like this that took NBC from a $1.8 billion profit 8 years ago to a $600 million loss this year. Horny 16-year-olds think about the consequences of their actions better than this. You could take Steve Jobs, chase him with a bear, and he still would have figured this all out better than NBC did.
couldn’t sleep … suddenly I’m sleepy again
anyone?
dead horse, dead horse . . . . .
i’m a day ahead so maybe that helps
Woods how much longer till you get back to your time zone? In time for Olympic hockey I hope.
Nope. Dont care about this either
Whatiz:
Yup - heading back in about a week. It will’ve been over a month.
safe trip woods
Jebus! he posted the whole show!
Wood! How you doing? Did you hear the world renowned health care specialist Brock Lesnar describing Canada’s health care as “third world”? What a fucking brainless plug. He’s in the middle of fucking nowhere Manitoba and he judges the countries health care on that? He should stick to being an overrated fighter and keep his genius to himself.
Does this mean there won’t be anymore “late night” posts? I am looking forward to Conan’s new show on Fox.
Ohmwrecker, that line about Nate Kaeding becoming a sad-faced circus clown was pretty funny. Adam Sandler should redo this video with clips from Sunday’s game–
http://www.spike.com/video/adam-sandler/2787374
Woods,
What’s it like in the future?
Do we have flying cars yet?
Why is anyone interested in Brock Lesnar’s opinion on healthcare?
Why is anyone interested in Brock Lesnars opinion about anything?
I wouldn’t say I’m interested in what he has to say Ohm. It was a surprise to hear his comments but to say I care is not accurate. I’m just surprised his handlers would allow him to show how genuinely stupid he truly is.
Rem, that bitch the Queen still sucking air?
Ohm, It’s hard to trust Brock Lesnars opinion on anything after finding out he likes Coors Light better than Bud Light.
I’d win in a fight against Brock. Truly, I would. I’d belt him on the collar bone with a saw, pull a pry bar from my pants and crack him 2 or 3 times against the face….knocking him to his knees….grab my glock and pop him in the dome. Fuck him.
ok great. so now it’s settled and all this Conan / Lenno stuff is over with right? we can move on now?