14 DAY TRIAL // Speculation continues to abound as regards Conan O’Brien’s supposedly imminent departure from NBC and The Tonight Show. While no official announcement has yet been made, all signs seem to be pointing to O’Brien being replaced by Jay Leno on the Show come the end of this month. It won’t be without a serious payoff from NBC, though, TMZ has learned.
As we were also telling you over the weekend, the network is currently negotiating with Conan to get him to leave the Show despite having a contract that entitles him to it, so that Leno can come and take his place. As early as then, word had it that NBC would be offering the host serious compensation, especially since he could take the network to court for breach of contract. As per TMZ, said compensation is of about $32.5 million, in exchange for the promise of staying off air until fall and several other conditions.
“Conan O’Brien is losing The Tonight Show but he’ll be getting a $32.5 million consolation prize courtesy of NBC... sources tell TMZ. In return, we’ve learned Conan has agreed to sit on the bench until September. Translation – he can’t host another show until the fall. In addition to the $32.5 mil, we’ve learned NBC is also paying severance to Conan’s Tonight Show employees. In all, we’re told NBC's payout is around $40 million,” TMZ reports.
However, as with any deal, there are several conditions that must be respected for Conan to get the money. “Conan probably won’t see close to the $32.5 mil. Under the deal, any money Conan makes during the remaining contract period with NBC will offset the network’s obligation. So, if Fox were to make a deal with Conan and pay him $25 mil during the NBC contract period, Conan would only score $7.5 mil from NBC,” the same report goes on to explain.
What this could mean is that NBC is paying Conan to stay off the air, by keeping him contractually bound (of sorts) to it but without actually allowing him to have his show. Moreover, NBC retains intellectual property rights over the characters O’Brien created while with the network, TMZ further says. The deal is not yet final, but is expected to become so in a couple of days at the most. Keep an eye on this space for when it does.