CoCo's Back on NBC ... Sort Of

By PopEater Staff Posted Jan 27th 2010 07:38AM

Less than a week after his NBC and 'Tonight Show' finale, Conan O'Brien is back to work on a new show for the Peacock Network -- only this time, in a smaller, less-hands-on capacity. The network has picked up the pilot for 'Justice,' a legal show created by Conan's production company, Conaco.

While not a whole lot is known about 'Justice,' but The Hollywood Reporter claims it was written by John Eisendrath, and is "a new take on a law show with a larger-than-life character at the center." It won't be a comedy by any means, going far away from Conan's comedian roots -- but he may get the last laugh if the show's a hit.

Last Friday was Conan's final 'Tonight' gig after weeks of dramatic and heated public feuds with NBC and Jay Leno. In the end, Conan opted to leave NBC, taking a $45 million buyout package as severance for Jay Leno taking over 'The Tonight Show.' As a part of the severance deal, Conan can't be the host of a show for any network until September.

In the lead-up to Conan's departure, he and Jay Leno sparred via monologues, dividing the late-night world across all channels. In support of Conan, other late-nighters including David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon all ganged up on Leno and sided with Team Conan.

Tags: conan obrien

Comments

(50)

Wednesday 27 January

By Jon

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Sounds like Conan got the best end of the deal..."Here take 45 million and go on vacation until September." Geee too bad.

Although, I don't agree with bringing back Leno for the Tonight Show.

By Gargamel Poupee

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I have no interest in discussing who is right or wrong or who is funnier. However, I thought i read somewhere that Conan's contract with NBC allowed the network to move his show to no later than 12:05 AM if they so desired. If that is the case and Conan refused to accept the move, then why is NBC paying for a buyout?

By the truth

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Did you ever watched the Tonight Show with Jay Leno ?
That was the only time that the ratings were great. Leno beat Letterman for over 8 years straight. He doubled his audience.
So who has no talent can we say CONAN ?

By mongoose

They are paying because their lame attempt to void the contract by putting The Tonight Show at 12:05 blew up in their face. It's been at 11:35 for 40 years running. No court would have bought that "12:05 Tonight Show" garbage as it clearly went against the intent of the agreement. Now that the dust has settled, NBC realizes they cannot move that iconic show to 12:05 without destroying the franchise. Conan called their 12:05 bluff (or just had more integrity and reverance for the show) and now NBC has to pay up per the contract. Simple as that.

By Al

What's all this fuss about Conan? When Jay Leno left the Tonight show, is when I stopped watching. Conan is not that good, and his ratings were not as good as Leno,s

By Steve

You don't understand because you are an idiot, Al.

Well Conan DID have to contend with that albatross of a failure at 10:00pm. No one in Tonight Show history has had to contend with that kind of awful (and talk show) lead in. It's a miracle Conan had any ratings at all after that 10pm talk show debacle. People turned off NBC in droves at 10pm.

By Bob Snyder

Conan is 10 times funnier than Jay. Look at the demographics of Jay's market. Its all older people. Conan attracts a much younger crowd, and the crowd that the advertisers want to reach. Put Conan on HBO at 11:30 and he will kick everyone's butt in the ratings. This situation can't end well for NBC and the Tonight Show. In protest our family has quit watching ANYTHING on NBC.

By Betsy

Eh.... excuse me....... Conan WAS on at 11:30 and kicked NO ONES butt!

By cyberma777

While you are most likely correct about Conan's demographic, that is not the point. Whoever his demographic was, they were not tuning in. This is all about viewer numbers and money. The 46 million that Conan and his crew received is a drop in the bucket against the higher viewer numbers and higher advertising revenue that NBC will receive when Jay returns to late night. Older or not, Jay's fans actually watched his late night show. Conan's didn't. That's what counts.

By Shirley Temby

Get Conan off of the tv, don;t care for his looks and humor,he just is not funny no matter what he does. I predicted that he would not last in Jay's tv spot, and boy was I right, he will not be missed.

By yaj onel

Ok Grandman but whats going to happen in month or so when you and all of you buddies at the old folks home die off, thier won't be any body around to watch that big jaw hair lip jackass anymore, BOBA BOWY, BOBA BOWY,

By jacky

I thought Jimmy Fallon kept it pretty neutral?

By cazlyn

YES, you are right....he did....he gave kudos
to Leno AND Conan for helping him in his career and
being inspirations to him..he did NOT take sides...
I hate when they wrire falsehoods just for a read!!!

By Big Dave

Jay sucks...Always has,always will.

He needs a stick with a wheel on it to hold up that stupid looking chin.... Go Coco !!!

Thursday 28 January

By Bob

Why does NBC think Jay failed at 10:00 pm? At 11:35 Jay had a good lead in with NBC dramas at 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm and the NBC local news at 11:00 pm to 11:35 pm. Conan never had that luxury of a good lead in. He had to follow Jay. Jay didn't bring his audience with him from the Tonight Show to 10:00 pm. This is why the local NBC affiliates were in revolt, no one was watching their newscasts, where they make most of their advertising bucks. It was the heat from the affiliates that got Leno canceled. Jay's Tonight Show was kind of like a popular restaurant that only older people eat at. Eventually all of your clientele dies and your restaurant has no customers.

By Rosa

I prefer Leno to O'Brien! We quit watching the Late Show when Leno left. Leno is much funnier and I love his show!

By mongoose65

But you didn't watch him at 10pm, did you? Of course not, no one did.

By Walter Kovacs

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This sounds like it might be a 10 PM drama type of show ... so Conan would be taking Leno's time slot.

By Bud Maxwell

For whatever unexplained reasons, DirecTV satellite does not broadcast the NBC network here in Hannibal, Missouri. For even stranger reasons, aside from missing out watching Saturday Night Live, after all the mishmash about the Tonight Show, we are quite content to view all the rest of the networks instead. If Conan moves to one of the networks we do have, they can jolly-well shut that off also.

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