Conan O'Brien, NBC Agree on $45M Divorce Deal

By PopEater Staff Posted Jan 21st 2010 07:42AM

Following several days of often tense negotiations, NBC and Conan O'Brien inked a deal early Thursday to end the host's short tenure on 'The Tonight Show,' NBC has confirmed. This paves the way for allowing Jay Leno to return to late night from his unsuccessful run at 10 p.m.

According to the network, O'Brien will receive $33 million and his staff another $12 million. The sticking point in O'Brien's complex exit negotiations with NBC had involved his employees. It's also believed the agreement includes a provision that would bar O'Brien from appearing on other shows.

► O'Brien (Intentionally) Wastes NBC's Money | Stern Warned Him Years Ago

His final show will be Friday, when his guests will be Tom Hanks and Will Ferrell (O'Brien's first guest on 'Tonight'). Leno will return to his old gig on March 1.

"In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket," his manager, Gavin Polone, told The Wall Street Journal. "Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible."

The proposal allows O'Brien, who would exit 'Tonight' less than a year after taking over from Leno, to start work on a competing network as early as September. But he would be barred from making NBC the butt of jokes. Speculation that the Fox network might court O'Brien for a late-night show when he leaves NBC prompted a monologue joke Tuesday.

Listing things he might do with "all my new free time," O'Brien concluded with "Make a big move to Fox. Megan Fox."

The fate of characters developed by O'Brien and his staff was also part of the negotiations. Since they are technically the intellectual property of NBC, O'Brien deemed it the right time on Wednesday's show to bring out an old friend, one last time:

The negotiations became heated on Wednesday, with NBC brushing back criticism from O'Brien's camp.

O'Brien was "dug in" on getting his staffers a good severance package, but NBC fired back in a statement, saying "it was Conan's decision to leave NBC that resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work."

Adding: "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," the network said.

O'Brien asked to be released from his contract, which has about two-and-a-half years left, after rejecting NBC's plan to push him and 'Tonight' to 12:05 a.m. EST to make way for a half-hour show with Leno at 11:35 p.m.

The network, hit by poor ratings for its prime-time experiment, 'The Jay Leno Show,' and for O'Brien's 'Tonight,' was trying to keep both comedians on board.

O'Brien has seen his viewership jump in recent days. Ratings for Leno in the same window, however, remained flat.

The dispute has repeatedly spilled on-air, with jokes aplenty made about it by Leno, O'Brien and hosts at other networks. CBS' David Letterman has been especially brutal on NBC and Leno, whom he has dubbed "Big Jaw" during several scathing monologues.

A pro-O'Brien fan protest held Monday outside Universal Studios, one of several such big-city rallies, included a mock martial arts fight between a man wearing a white Leno wig and one in a red O'Brien wig. The fake O'Brien won.

The crowd was rewarded with a studio rooftop wave from O'Brien and a few words from his 'Tonight' sidekick, Andy Richter, who thanked them and said it's been a tough time but also a "really fun" one.

"The lawyers won't let me say anything else," Richter added.

Tags: conan obrien

Comments

(116)

Thursday 21 January

By sunstpools

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I wish they would both just go away!

By magusap

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45M AS IN MILLION!!! WHAT DOES THIS MAN DO TO MAKE THIS MUCH MONEY??? SOLDIERS, POLICE OFFICERS, FIREFIGHTERS DON'T MAKE THAT MUCH MONEY AND THEY SAVE LIVES...
OKAY, OKAY CALM DOWN LITTLE DOGGIE! I WISH HIM ALL THE BEST AND GOOD LUCK... REMEMBER TO SHARE YOUR WEALTH AND ALWAY BE GREATFUL NO MATTER WHERE YOUR LIFE TAKES YOU...

By RBROZ

Conan,Leno,Letterman--who really cares.They all make way too much to entertain people for roughly 5 hours a week.

Leno needs to retire,he no longer is relavent and his 10:00 show proved that he does not have tha type of clout that NBC thought he did.Letterman is always consistent,but late night
TV needs something different.

Bring back Honeymooners re runs or the Odd Couple,Then Ill watch.

By Bev

Conan acts like a child with his antics and is not funny. ON the other hand, Jay is a class act and if Conan hadn't threatened to quit he never would have forced Jay to another time slot. Once again he is playing the injured one when he never should have gotten the Tonight Show.

By Karine

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Wooooooooohooooooooo Jay will be back :) Thank God and Raise the Draw bridge so Conan can get his big ego across the river. Conan to me is to stuck up on himself - a legend in his own lunch time. I remember how I laughed when Jay took over for Johnny- well, Jay tought me a lesson - he is grrrreat :)

I cna imagine that Conan can hardly wait to send some of his not deserved sevverance to those in Haiti. Ya think? NOT He is just another stuck on himself snob !

By dipstick1

Cocan just take the money and run you suck you're just like a banker did a sorry job and still gets paid

By ronjohnron

Conan O'brien is a worthless, no talent, slog. If NBC is so FN stupid to give him any money, yet alone millions, they deserve to go bankrupt.

By ejk

Maybe Jay and Conan should have exchanged time slots!
Or better yet, Jay should have exchanged slots with Jimmie!

By Robert

Waa waa waa. Give the babies their bottles! Are you kidding me?! Tho I dont really care or following this majorly. BUT what I do know these stars have big money, big egos a since of entitlement and in these 2 cases a BIG Chin and BIG Hair! Ok a few days spent on this to know whats up was fine but day in and day about someone losing their job and getting 45,000,000.00 in the process should go do back flips and everyone just shut the hell up! If I were to lose my job tomorrow I'd be lucky to recieve unemployment at a fraction of what I was making prior. So give me a big fat stinkin 45 Million dollar break!!!

By Bea

Jay is OK the first 1/2 hour. Tried to watch Conan and couldn't find the humor. Dave is funny sometimes. Now I just watch Rachel Maddow.

By realjnny

I still do not understand why they didn't just move The Jay Leno show to 7pm - an hour before primetime. Old people can have dinner, watch Leno and go to bed. The lose of a few reruns would not mess up anyone lives.

By betty

Used to watch the tonight show with Leno. Then switched to Dave instead of Conan. Got tired of Dave and watched Conan and really liked him. Sorry to see him go. I will watch him on another channel definitely. Very tired of Dave and Leno, too many old jokes that are not funny anymore. Really did not Leno's show and won't watch Leno on the tonight show again. Count me as an x-Leno fan.

By Dean

Conan needs to grow up and be a man instead of the cry baby he is.

By eastadam

Letterman, Letterman, Letterman. The BEST! The true successor to Carson's chair (even if it had to be on another network). Johnny Carson NEVER apperied on Jay's version of the Tonight Show, but did Appear twice on Dave's. He wanted David to be the Tonight Show host

By nick

Only in America could a screw up Jew like this getting milliojns for being a Obama talking head, where is the outrage on these batards.

By Dottie

Has anybody seen the "octo-mom's" new body? She says she works out 2 hrs a day! How can a mother of 14 possiby find time to workout that much? She must be getting ready to start trolling again!!

By Boston Blackie

Not at all bad. I wish that I had been paid even half when I quit my job a few years ago.........

By Ronald

Konan. What a phony

By hotrodqd

now I know I dont like nbc or leno .....

.....smashing all ge appliances and going to buy another brand ...hopefully made in china by slave laborers making a dollar a day and eating dogs-rats & cats with theyre rice dinners ! cuz thats all they can afford !!!! america supports oppression so can I !!! conan the wonder boy rocked....you should of never stopped him from exploiting politicains and other clowns with his tv set !!! got to be political correct wimps !

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