Have you all been as endlessly entertained by the squabble over The Tonight Show as I have? Figures that it would take a big controversy like this to make the late night shows required viewing for once.
Reuters just announced that NBC has reached an agreement with Conan O’Brien to end his run as the host of The Tonight Show so that Leno can step back in and dumb down comedy some more. Conan will be getting a nice little severance package as well: 45 million dollars. 32.5 million will go straight to his pockets and around 12 to his staff.
This means that tomorrow night’s episode will be his last. Afterwards The Tonight Show will run repeats till February 11th (when the Olympics hit), and Leno will chin his way back to his former slot starting on March 1st. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will continue on, unscathed. Under the deal Conan is allowed to return to television… in September. Fox is a possibility but it looks like ABC isn’t interested in him.
Perhaps this is time for Conan to get into film? In any case, while it’s not what he wanted it’s good that he at least made out decently with the shitty way that NBC treated him.