Tonight Show Shakeup Leno Back In

[quote name='Chase']Here's a video from TMZ of Leno addressing matters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hWBEaWSRj4[/QUOTE]


PR Damage Control Leno style=FAIL. NBC why don't you just come out and admit it...the internet and public already knows what the hell happened, just say it publicly. But no you have to use Leno as your PR person to do your dirty work.

I do predict that Conan will Dominate Leno and Letterman once he gets back on the air at FOX.

What's going to happen when Leno returns to the tonight show and his ratings continue to drop as a result of this shit? They can't take back Conan because of their ego and not to admit they did wrong by screwing Conan.

Although he's pissed off and trying to be funny... Conan should tone down the NBC thrashing. Yes his departure deal said no more talking bad about NBC, yet he trashes them in a song. NBC's lawyers aren't laughing at that can could amend his deal or see it as a violation of the deal and not pay him squat. I expect this week, including his final show to be one of the highest rated shows in years.
 
^^^ It says he can't trash them when he leaves. Does it also say he can't trash them while he's still there?


[quote name='wildcpac']TMZ is reporting that Conan might be going to Fox. Fox purchased last week the website CONANONFOX.com.[/QUOTE]

After looking up the actual registrar info, I wouldn't bank on that site being legit. Arizona.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']
What's going to happen when Leno returns to the tonight show and his ratings continue to drop as a result of this shit?
[/QUOTE]

Sadly, he's ratings probably won't stay down much. Most Conan fans I know weren't Leno fans to begin with. They were people who'd watch Letterman (with The Daily Show before it many times, and some watched Colbert for the first half of Letterman) and then switched over to Conan.

That's anecdotal of course, but Leno and Conan have very different styles and appeal to pretty different demographics. So I think Leno will unfortunately end up with most of his audience back after 6 months or so and the controversy dying down. The old fogeys will tune in right away, and the other parts of his fanbase will tune back in over time.

I think that's part of what hurt Conan at 11:35 as well. A lot of people that did Letterman/Colbert then switched over to Conan, probably stuck with those shows vs. watching the Tonight Show.
 
I doubt that FOX, a corporation, would buy a domain name through GoDaddy.
 
[quote name='Brak']I doubt that FOX, a corporation, would buy a domain name through GoDaddy.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, probably just someone buying it in hopes that Conan goes to Fox and that they can get some cash selling the domain to Fox in the future.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']
Although he's pissed off and trying to be funny... Conan should tone down the NBC thrashing. Yes his departure deal said no more talking bad about NBC, yet he trashes them in a song. NBC's lawyers aren't laughing at that can could amend his deal or see it as a violation of the deal and not pay him squat. I expect this week, including his final show to be one of the highest rated shows in years.[/QUOTE]
Last nights show was toned down compared to last weeks shows.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']So Conan gets $32.5 million from NBC, but any salary he gets for a new show else where is removed from that.

Hope he signs a real low ball contract for that period, so NBC is stuck paying him most of the $32.5 million while the other network gets him mostly for free for a few years.[/QUOTE]

That's actually an interesting side note to the way this played out. If Conan really wanted to screw NBC over he could sign a $1 contract with Fox to have a show with them effectively meaning that NBC would be paying Conan's salary while he is working for Fox...

Hell, if you think about it he might not even have to sign a new contract with anyone then he's getting paid and not beholden to anybody but himself.
 
That was my thinking. But surely NBC's lawyers are smart enough to foresee that, and word the settlement to preclude taking a clearly undervalued contract (say below a certain percentage of his NBC Tonight Show deal) to screw NBC.

But it would be outstanding if they weren't and let it slip by in the settlement.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']So Conan gets $32.5 million from NBC, but any salary he gets for a new show else where is removed from that.

Hope he signs a real low ball contract for that period, so NBC is stuck paying him most of the $32.5 million while the other network gets him mostly for free for a few years.[/QUOTE]
Seriously, take a $1 million contract from Fox and have NBC pay to have a show on a competing network. Then Fox would have plenty to spend on marketing for his new show.

Sucks about Triumph...
 
Wow. I wish I knew that the volume of that video was 18,000,000 decibels before I started playing it.
 
For people wondering about Conan's staff:

Rumor mill:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100120...DeW5fbW9zdF9wb3B1bGFyBHNsawNzb3VyY2VvYnJpZW4-

[quote name='AP']The sticking point in Conan O'Brien's complex exit negotiations with NBC involves his TV staff, not Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, a person familiar with the talks said Tuesday.

Although discussions also focused on whether NBC would keep the rights to familiar O'Brien comedy bits including Triumph, O'Brien's focus was ensuring severance deals for his "Tonight" staff and crew, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were intended to be private.

O'Brien is "dug in on that," the person said.

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."

"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.[/quote]
 
Even in victory, Leno still steals from Conan. Claiming he only took the Tonight Show back to "keep his people working." Now he's just trying to repair his image, probably after finding out almost everybody is on Team Conan.

I bet Conan spreads the $30-40 million to his staff. He seems like he really just isn't driven by money whatsoever.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']Even in victory, Leno still steals from Conan. Claiming he only took the Tonight Show back to "keep his people working." Now he's just trying to repair his image, probably after finding out almost everybody is on Team Conan.

I bet Conan spreads the $30-40 million to his staff. He seems like he really just isn't driven by money whatsoever.[/QUOTE]

He does drive a Ford Taurus after all. ;)
 
[quote name='62t']So what is NBC going to do with the intellectual property that Conan created?[/QUOTE]
Same thing they did with Letterman's IP: nothing, except threaten to sue when Conan does something similar.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']Even in victory, Leno still steals from Conan. Claiming he only took the Tonight Show back to "keep his people working." Now he's just trying to repair his image, probably after finding out almost everybody is on Team Conan.

I bet Conan spreads the $30-40 million to his staff. He seems like he really just isn't driven by money whatsoever.[/QUOTE]

Another 100 posts and I bet you guys will think he walks on water.
 
He paid his writers during the strike and is trying to negotiate severances for them now. He's clearly less motivated by money.

Dissenting opinions are cool stories though.
 
He's trying to get them bigger severances, but I doubt he sends much of his own severance their way unless NBC dicks them over (and I doubt he'd agree to such a settlement), since I'm sure he'll just take all of them that want to go to his new show on whatever channel in the fall as his form of loyalty.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']Even in victory, Leno still steals from Conan. Claiming he only took the Tonight Show back to "keep his people working." Now he's just trying to repair his image, probably after finding out almost everybody is on Team Conan.

I bet Conan spreads the $30-40 million to his staff. He seems like he really just isn't driven by money whatsoever.[/QUOTE]

To be fair, Leno paid his staff during the strike as well.
 
Conan's strike shows were some of the best late night programming ever broadcast, they were the one good side of the writer's strike.
 
[quote name='Strell']He paid his writers during the strike and is trying to negotiate severances for them now. He's clearly less motivated by money.

Dissenting opinions are cool stories though.[/QUOTE]

You guys act like he has absolutely no incentive to pay these people. He paid people during the strike because if he didn't his staff would have taken a hit, his show in the long run would have taken a hit, and his reputation in show business would have been hurt.
 
[quote name='neocisco']To be fair, Leno paid his staff during the strike as well.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, say what you will about Leno, he's crazy about his staff. As in literally crazy. Apparently he has the smallest office in the building (a windowless number in the basement), works some of the longest hours and has no assigned parking. Considering that part of his responsibility is to entertain clients/guests and sell the show, that's pretty kooky.

[quote name='CaseyRyback']You guys act like he has absolutely no incentive to pay these people. He paid people during the strike because if he didn't his staff would have taken a hit, his show in the long run would have taken a hit, and his reputation in show business would have been hurt.[/QUOTE]

Huge LOL on this one. This is modern America. Conan could treat his staff like shit, pay them dirt, and noone would really care as long as long as he continued to entertain. I think it's great that he stands up for his staff, but he could cut ties with all of them tomorrow because his M&Ms weren't properly separated by color and it wouldn't have a significant impact on his ratings.
 
The employees wouldn't have left even if Conan and Leno didn't pay them. They just lucked out and got a paycheck. Those on strike had an impressive level of solidarity. Granted, the janitors and mailroom dudes (easily replaceable anyway) might go get other jobs, but the writers and whatnot wouldn't want to be called a scab for crossing the strike line and potentially have trouble getting work if the guy hiring was pro-union.
 
[quote name='camoor']

Huge LOL on this one. This is modern America. Conan could treat his staff like shit, pay them dirt, and noone would really care as long as long as he continued to entertain. I think it's great that he stands up for his staff, but he could cut ties with all of them tomorrow because his M&Ms weren't properly separated by color and it wouldn't have a significant impact on his ratings.[/QUOTE]

So I guess that you think that no matter who is behind the scenes the product out front wouldn't sufffer? You think that talented people want to work for people who are assholes and treat them like shit?

Not only did paying them make himself look good but it also ensured that those with talent would feel some sort of obligation to stick by him.
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']You think that talented people want to work for people who are assholes and treat them like shit? [/QUOTE]

Did I really just read this?
 
Definitely a good show tonight. At least up through Sandler, didn't get a chance to watch the rest of the show beyond that.

Loved the bits about sticking it to NBC with the most expensive songs they could use etc.!
 
Before he started the bits about spending NBC's money I was thinking last week that they should only play songs by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc. due to royalty costs just to mess with NBC. You're welcome for my telepathically sent idea, Conesy. :D
 
I haven't watched Conan.. err... the Tonight show in a while, actually probably since he switched. It's nice now though because it's reverted to HIS show and not the Tonight show. It doesn't seem like his actions are tied up into the execs lack of humor or for that matter Leno's dated act.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']Conan's strike shows were some of the best late night programming ever broadcast, they were the one good side of the writer's strike.[/QUOTE]

Kimmel's best shows were during the strike as well... hands down.
 
I wish this wasn't happening during an olympic year. We'll have to wait to see if Leno really tanks when he goes back to the tonight show. I've never liked Letterman much, but i guess i'll be watching him.
 
[quote name='ananag112']The last Tonight Show with Conan could be as soon as today. After tonight, I will probably only watch NBC on Thursdays.[/QUOTE]

Buh? Why not Friday?

EDIT: Trakan, the average person could start their morning with a 6-pack of Olde English, go to work, and do a better job than Jeff Zucker. In terms of operating a company, motherfucker makes Bob Nardelli's runs at Home Depot and Chrysler look like google's IPO.[/dennis miller]
 
Yeah, Conan got screwed, but why should I feel sorry for a guy that just got $33 million to leave? I loved Conan on Late Night, but his act on the Tonight Show was painful to watch at times. Plus, why all the hate for Jay? All he did was accept NBC's offer to return back to the 11:30 slot. Yeah, he could have said no, but I don't fault a guy for wanting to return to a show that he apparently never wanted to leave. Most of your hate should be directed at NBC, for lying to both Conan and Jay, and for screwing with two successful late night franchises.
 
You should feel sorry for him and his staff because they got up and moved themselves and their families across the country to do the Tonight Show and they only got to work for 7 months. They were assuming that Conan would have the show for years. Would you be cool about it you moved across the country for a job and got let go after 7 months?

Yeah the money is good but give Conan the option of $33 million or hosting his childhood dream I bet he would take the show. Sometimes other things are more important than money.
 
[quote name='PenguinoMF']You should feel sorry for him and his staff because they got up and moved themselves and their families across the country to do the Tonight Show and they only got to work for 7 months. They were assuming that Conan would have the show for years. Would you be cool about it you moved across the country for a job and got let go after 7 months?

Yeah the money is good but give Conan the option of $33 million or hosting his childhood dream I bet he would take the show. Sometimes other things are more important than money.[/QUOTE]

Every single one of my childhood dreams could be combined and flushed down the toilet if I was written a check for $33 million. Money doesn't buy everything or happiness but I sure as hell would be happier not having to worry about whether I can write my rent check every month without it bounching.
 
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