It's finally official, Conan O'Brien is walking out the door and taking $33 million with him. You may ask what was the hold up in the whole divorce from NBC? Conan, being the caring boss he is made sure that all 200 crew members were being taking care of as well. An additional $12 million, will be dispersed about the crew for severance pay. Ratings for the "Tonight Show" have been diving ever sense Jay Leno left the show for his own prime time trial. The nightly ratings which hit a high of 4.2 million with Leno hosting dropped to a low 2.5 million while O'Brien has been hosting. The original plan from NBC was to move O'Brien back 12:05 hr followed by "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", while Leno would have bumped back to his original time slot at 11:35. O'Brien said that shifting "Tonight" would "seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting,"and he declared his disappointment that NBC had given him less than a year to establish himself as a host at 11:35 PM slot. O'Brien is free to join another network as soon as September, but in the mean time he has setup a poll on the "Tonight Shows" website asking what he should do until then. Various idea's include starring in a porno titled "Conan the Bangbarian", taking his act to Jewish Life TV, starring as an IRA terrorist on the show "Sons of Anarchy",appear on "Dancing with the Star's next season, and being a DJ on Y-94 out of Fargo, North Dakota. Current poll readings have the Y-94 job as number 1 followed by Conan the Bangbarian.
An interesting note to point out, Will Ferrell will be the final guest on the O'Brien hosted "Tonight Show". Ferrell was also the first guest for the "Tonight Show" when O'Brien started hosting. Tom Hanks is also scheduled to appear on the finale O'Brien "Tonight Show". It is yet unsure if "The Jay Leno Show" will be moved over to the time slot or the "Tonight Show" staying. NBC will begin airing the Jay Leno hosted show starting March 1, 2010. Re runs of Conan O'Brien "Tonight Show" will run starting Monday, January 25th until Thursday February 11th. The Winter Olympics, which are being hosted by Vancouver this year is slated to take most air time for NBC from Feb. 12th through the 28th.
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It is nice to know that Conan’s crew of 200 people will be compensated for Jay Leno coming back to the Tonight show. Even though Conan’s contract is not even half over he got a nice compensation pay. I kind of view it as a payoff so he will leave happy. Conan’s poll should say something about what he is planning to possibly do after September when he could possibly go to another network or even do something totally different. At the very least it does not sound that there will be any bad feelings on anyone’s side on this issue. I really liked the post about this.
ReplyDeleteI don't normally watch these late night shows, but this has caught my interest. I think Conan O' Brien is funny and Jay Leno is funny, but the fact that once the ratings go down on O'
ReplyDeleteBrien's show they were talking about booting him right away, they really didn't even give him a chance to try and prove himself. If I were him I would be frustrated,I like that he is making jokes about the fact that Jay Leno is taking is spot and he is taking the money and running. NBC, not your best move ever, and I really hope he seriously thinks about coming to Fargo.
Personally I don’t think Conan O’Brien is funny at all, granted he does have a couple good jokes. I can see why NBC wants Jay Leno back, he is just better suited for the job. Even though I’m not fond of Conan, kudos to him for looking out for his people. That takes a real man to do when things are looking on the downside. Conan in Fargo would be pretty legit though, even if people think coming to North Dakota is the worst thing ever, he would probably enjoy it here.
ReplyDeleteIt is too bad things did not work out for NBC and Conan O’ Brien. It sounds like Conan is not too happy about not getting more time to prove that he is more than capable to take over the show. I bet NBC is pretty disappointed about how things turned out. I really liked the poll Conan created. It was a good way for him to create publicity. I have never watched the Conan O’ Brien show, but now that I see who he is having on for his final shows I may have to see how it is. Hopefully everything works out for NBC and Conan O’ Brien.
ReplyDeleteI don't really watch these shows so it is interesting to hear what is all going on. I don't think it is very fair for O'Brien to get that short of time. Maybe he will do better with a different job. The poll he created has been getting a lot of attention. I see many people are talking about it and voting themselves. That is funny.
ReplyDeleteI am a little suprised that Conan O'Brien didn't get more time to boost his ratings. I think that the 33 million would be a pretty nice parting gift. It is nice of O'Brien to think of his crew too getting the 200 hundred of them 12 million to split up as well. I am sure that what ever O'Brien does next he will be successfull even if he does become a porn star.
ReplyDeleteI think Conan definitely needs to sign with another talk show. As much as people in the FM area would love for him to come to y94, and as hilarious as it would be for him to star in "Conan the Bangbarian", I think he needs to stay with hosting talk shows because he is a very funny man and is very good at what he does. Any of the choices he gives on the poll wouldn't be good for his career and they don't fit what he does best. He just needs a better time slot when people are actually awake.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. I have not always been a fan of Conan O'Brien, but to see him leave NBC all together is, in my opinion, unnecessary. You do make a valid point about him being cut after less than a year, seven months to be exact. I believe programs, such as late night talk shows, should be given at least a year to be established. Also, is it better to lose O'Brien all together or to keep the 2.5 million viewers already established through O'Brien? Well if one thing is certian it is knowing that O'Brien has apprecited his time at NBC and truely cares for his crew members who have been with him every step of the way.
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