Leno out, Leno in? What gives?

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on July 23rd, 2007

Michael Learmonth, writing on Variety.com details the zany goings on at “the Peacock” concerning the upcoming transition at 11:35 PM weeknights, from Jay Leno to Conan O’Brien. It looks like whoever swung the deal in the first place screwed the pooch.

Or did they? Are these guys so devious that they cooked up this deal a couple years ago knowing that they’d hafta fork over $40 million to O’Brien just to stay put at 12:35? Even in the $urreal world of TV, forty mill is still a good chunk of money. (Heck, they say that the annual revenue from Tonight is only $160 million. That would make the “We’re sorry” check to O’Brien approximately 4 per cent of NBC’s total annual revenue.)

The network also has the option, which many outsiders believe still must be on the table, to back out of the deal, pay a reported $40 million penalty to O’Brien and sign Leno to another five-year deal, a move that would protect the “Tonight” franchise through the end of Letterman’s deal at CBS in 2010, and the possible transition at the Eye to Jon Stewart.

Musical chairs. Stay tuned.

Here’s another weird part of the deal: NBC says that they’d ask O’Brien to move (with his staff) to Los Angeles. Not everybody is happy about that prospect. And that, since they’re on an hour earlier, they’d hafta ditch some recurring characters like The Masturbating Bear.

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