wm lopez

NBC knows what makes money. If it's worth keeping Leno or try and hire today's hottest comic to replace him. Who that is I don't know.
Larry the cable guy?
I can't remember anybody getting cancelled on t.v. acting like such a wuss other than Conan.

Mike86

He acted like a wuss how exactly? By going out on his own terms and not giving into what NBC wanted him to do? Conan isn't crying about it or anything he seems perfectly happy and has already moved on by doing his tour and his upcoming TBS show.

Dr. Mantle

The only real wuss here is Leno. According to whom? Jay Leno!

He says that he didn't want to sign the contract through 2009 back in '04. But he did it anyway 'cause that's what the network wanted. WUSS!!

Conan on the other hand, said that he wanted the Tonight Show, and if the network wouldn't agree to give it to him in a reasonable time frame, he would go somewhere else.

Fast forward a few years. Leno has a failing show at 10pm. Network wants to move it to 11:35. Leno goes along with it. And Conan will go to 12:05. Is Conan okay with that? HELL NO! And he put out a press release to say it.

Conan? BALLS.

Leno? WUSS.

Dr. Mantle

And just out of curiosity, to wm lopez, why do you find Leno funny and/or entertaining? ( If indeed you are a Leno fan.)

majorjoe23

I don't think you guys get how liberal global warming Al Gore this thing goes.

Nefarious

Letterman took the opportunity last night to rip Leno again during his monologue.

http://tv.gawker.com/5530329/david-l...y-lets-hear-it

devilshalo

NBC: Conan O'Brien lied on '60 Minutes' about Jay Leno's severance and 'Tonight Show' money loss
By Soraya Roberts
Tuesday, May 4th 2010, 10:52 AM

"Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien, right, talks with "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft. According to NBC sources, O'Brien lied when he said his severance package was cheaper than Jay Leno's.


Conan O'Brien's appearance on "60 Minutes" Sunday has NBC seeing red.

The network is accusing CoCo of lying when he claimed NBC bought him out because Leno's severance package would have cost more, TMZ reports.

According to sources at NBC, Leno's severance package would have been equivalent to what O'Brien walked home with -- $32.5 million.

The network also took issue with Big Red's response to Steve Kroft's statement that "The Tonight Show" was losing money.

"I don't see how that's, I honestly don't see how that's possible," O'Brien told the “60 Minutes” interviewer. "It's really not possible. It isn't possible."

NBC’s sources claim they had a discussion with O’Brien in which they told him the show would lose $5 million a year if he stayed on.

Darknite39

Since they told him that was the case, it must be true!

Mike86

NBC really seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel to get back at Conan I highly, highly doubt that Leno's severance package would have been equivalent to what Conan got. Its easy for them to just say that now but in reality if that had been the case and Leno had left I bet he'd have gotten more. Obviously though Conan is an idiot and NBC knows all and what they say has to be true

Jack Straw

Easy for you to say.

Double_Oh_7

Wasn't there something like a $100 million penalty in Leno's contract if they cancelled his 10pm show? Which is why they negotiated with him to move him back to 11:30.

MarineCorps

150 million IIRC. Thats the number I heard thrown around in Jan

[QUOTE]NBC’s sources claim they had a discussion with O’Brien in which they told him the show would lose $5 million a year if he stayed on./QUOTE]

Yeah right.

Mike86

The numbers we've heard tossed around about the worth of Leno's contract and some kind of penalty for if he was to be let go early are nowhere near the settlement amount Conan received. If I recall it was somewhere around the $150 million range. There's no way he'd have only gotten $32.5 million out of that..it just makes no sense. Why else was NBC so eager to keep Leno on and kick Conan to the curb as fast as they could? After all his show is arguably what caused this whole mess to begin with.

Nefarious

I find it interesting that NBC did nothing to dispute those reports about Leno's severance/cancellation package being in the $150 million range when it was like wildfire all over the news. But they take the time to dispute it in a rebuke of Conan's interview.

As for The Tonight Show losing money. There's probably some truth to both sides. I'm sure NBC could make it look like it was losing money if they wanted to. As previously mentioned by others, if they throw in all the costs to re-do the soundstage and maybe some additional marketing push they did...then maybe they could show it was going to "lose" money initially.

But I'm sure Conan and his people are right in that in terms of cost of ongoing, normal production and what it was bringing in...it likely was not losing money. I don't blame Conan for taking umbrage with the assertion if it is profitable under normal operating circumstances. NBC is just taking a page out of the, "How to Lie with Statistics" handbook.

I think it speaks volumes that NBC's only two retorts are that they wouldn't have had to pay Jay more and that the show was losing money.

outcastja

A little OT, but this year Jimmy Fallon will be hosting the Emmy's that will air on NBC. Here's hoping The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien gets nominated and wins.

pinata242

Candidates:

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Jay Leno Show
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno v2.0

Double_Oh_7

So then, yeah, it was cheaper to get rid of Conan than Jay.

wm lopez

In the 80's if I was up late I would watch Letterman.
I would watch Johnny only to see the guests. But loved Joan Rivers when she would host. I didn't get to watching TONITE SHOW till 2007. I found Jay funny and I liked that way he treated Bill O'Reilly on the show. I've never seen Jay treat a guest bad. Letterman is another story.
Conan I would catch once in while late night and was good.
When Jay was removed and Conan took over he didn't hold my attention.
Only thing I have against Conan is he can't get it through his head that the viewers didn't like him and acted like a spoiled child.
Chevy Chase or that guy from WHEEL OF FORTUNE didn't act like this when their late show was cancelled.

dolphinboy

Oh my god, how does my head not explode?

Chevy and "the guy from Wheel of Fortune" weren't nearly as successful as Conan to begin with. They weren't promised the Tonight Show by NBC and Leno, when NBC decided (not Conan) rather than let Conan go elsewhere and establish himself on another network (which he would have and which he will at TBS) that they'd GIVE Conan the show. What do you not get about the fact that Leno could have said "No, I'm not giving up this show, it's mine, and I'm number 1. If you want to give him the show, then I'm going to go elsewhere and kick your ass in ratings?"

Conan waited 5 years faithfully serving his "partners" at NBC and Jay never made a peep about it. Instead he hung around and was a major part of why Conan didn't do that well in the whole 6 months they gave him. If NBC had given Jay's Tonight Show a lead-in of 5 nights a week of Conan doing basically an earlier version of Jay's show, Jay would have freaked out.

But, hey, as long as Jay is nice to Billy O'Reilly, an extremely rude person his own self, then you should bash Conan for things you're completely wrong about. Good to know your bizarre and extreme political beliefs color your views of every single thing in your life.

And for full disclosure, Coco is my 3rd favorite late night host behind Letterman and Ferguson, so I didn't even watch the guy very often. I just think what happened is pretty clear to anyone who actually paid attention.

wm lopez

But hey Coco will have his TBS show to pound Leno and Letterman in the ratings. But of course that will only happen in Conan's mind.

Mike86

What is your problem? Seriously. You don't like the guy we get it. Why do you feel the need to go on and on about it?

superfro

El-oh-el.

Chew

The same can be said about the numerous Leno bashing posts.

Nefarious

No, no, no, no, no. Like Letterman said, "If you don't have something nice to say about Jay, well let's hear it."

Darknite39

Twittered Wormsworth (Conan's barefoot drummer): "What's up with Weinberg?"

His reply: "LPB." (that's short for Legally Prohibited Band, which is what they are for the moment)

Looks like he's out, to correspond to that earlier report.