JuryDuty

$30M isn't that much to NBC, when you consider they feel they'll be able to charge that for commercials in a short time on Leno--especially with how little Leno's show costs them. But for Conan as an individual, he's going to have some nice cash. :P

redrum

When does Idol finale come on? Would be amazing to have him premier following that

Michael Corvin

That sounds about right. How much do you want to bet the start time of this new program will be spelled out multiple times in his contract.

Michael Ballack

That and I'm sure whatever Conan chooses to do and where to go, he'll own the show much like Letterman does.

Darknite39

Maybe Fox could have him host some specials or something between now and the new show (assuming that's the path he is taking).

Deftones

probably mid may. that could be enough time to get him back on the air, but that would really be pushing it.

Michael Ballack

I'm very interested to see what Conan does after this. I'm not convinced after this screw job that he'll want to do another talk show. He could use his past SNL and The Simpsons skills to create a comedy show or something different.

Deftones

There's no doubt in my mind he'll do another talk show. He's already produced several tv shows (many of which haven't been successful), and as Letterman has shown, you can do that and still do a talkshow. I think he's telling the truth when he said he's always wanted to do the Tonight Show. Now, that's even more reason for him to go to another network to fuck over NBC and Leno.

Jimmy James

Good settlement all around. Good to see the NBC lawyers have more competence than Zucker does.

I'm guessing October for Conan's new show, and it wouldn't shock me to see it on HBO. Wasn't the rumor that they were in the running for Leno? Conan seems to fit them better, anyway.

Now I want to see Jay Leno run the Tonight Show into the motherfucking ground.

Michael Ballack

You might be right, but everyone is just assuming he's going to pull a Letterman but with Fox. Anything can happen.

Drexl

I think when it gets to the point when Jay is ready to step down (and he means it), they'll know to test out a potential host from time to time at 11:30, the way that Leno guest hosted for Carson. Ferguson was tested before his permanent gig as well.

That may have been part of the problem. They just didn't know if Conan could draw well enough at that time slot.

Jadzia

I am watching the DVD of the Late Shift right now. It was interesting that Dick Ebersol was no fan of Jay Leno back then.

Jimmy James

The problem was clearly that they shit the bed with the affiliates and had to put Jay, ever popular with affiliates, back where he was to placate them.

Jadzia

MOD NOTE:

Please remember that personal attacks are against forum rules. Posts that name-call someone will be deleted.

There are a lot of strong opinions here, please be respectful of each other, even when you disagree.

Thanks.

anomynous

Conan just ripped on Zucker.

Rypro 525

According to Nielson, we have gotten very high ratings this week.... if you like that wait till you see what we got lined up for Feb

Rypro 525

Jeff Bridges singin a song=pure win. I think Crazy Heart is playing by me too

redrum

Darknite39

Conan's final guest? Possibly Manilow.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/01/15/c...final-guest%2F

Achtung

His fans will stick with him until their clogged arteries give out.

Jimmy James

Hopefully they'll be too stupid to realize that he's on after the news now.

Hokeyboy

I'd sooner fellate Bea Arthur's reanimated corpse than watch 'The Tonight Show' with Jay Leno.

RichC2

Hahah

http://www.teefury.com/

RayChuang

Jadzia, thanks for the reminder.

Mind you, it's hard to avoid strong opinions because the whole thing feels like a near-perfect repeat of how NBC lost David Letterman to CBS of that debacle between 1991 and 1993. Mind you, what helped Letterman back then was that he was represented by Mike Ovitz (who headed the Creative Artists Agency back then), and Ovitz's name back in the early 1990's scared everyone in Hollywood silly.

I wonder who is Conan O'Brien's agent, because a top-notch agent would have put his or her foot down and ended this debacle a LONG time ago.

movieking

Conan O'Brien and NBC have reached a settlement in principle and the big announcement is expected Saturday, sources tell TMZ.

We're told NBC has already given Conan's lawyers a draft of the agreement and his hired guns were going over it Friday night. The deal should be finalized Saturday.

Once the deal gets inked, NBC will announce Conan is leaving the network. The network will also announce what we first reported -- that Jay Leno will get the full hour from 11:35 PM to 12:35 AM and it will be called "The Tonight Show" -- just like old times.