14 DAY TRIAL // Conan O’Brien’s run with NBC as host of The Tonight Show ended this past Friday, one decade too early, as the funnyman himself put it. Though he’s reportedly bound by contract to the network for a few months more, offers are already pouring in, with Fox making the first step to securing him for an upcoming show, Radar Online has learned.
Nothing is official yet – as neither will it be for another while, on account of the aforementioned binding contract that should keep Coco off the air for an estimated 7-8 months more – but rumors are strong that Fox has already taken the necessary steps and arranged a meeting with O’Brien. This should happen sometime this week, in view of reaching an understanding as regards an upcoming late night show, industry insiders are telling the media.
“Conan O’Brien is unemployed, but probably not for long: the ex-host of The Tonight Show and Fox could talk as soon as early as this week about bringing the NBC cast-off back to late night. ‘Chances like this don't come around very often,’ an inside source told the NY Post. ‘If Fox wants to be in late night, now’s the time.’ Fox’s entertainment president Peter Reilly did little to dispel rumors of the network’s keen interest in the comic, who he called ‘one of the few guys on the planet who has demonstrated he can do one of these shows every night’ in an interview last week,” Radar writes.
Though last week Conan himself denied rumors that he was already getting offers from other networks even before his contract with NBC had been terminated, it would seem that this rumor is picking up speed. There is also the issue of the money O’Brien would lose if he signed another agreement before his contract with NBC expired, as the amount he’d get from another network would be deducted from the $32.5 million he got from NBC to agree to an early termination of his contract, it is being said.
On a much brighter note, the last episode of The Tonight Show with O’Brien as host (Coco’s swan song, as it’s been dubbed in the media), pulled in monster ratings, Zap2It says. “NBC: The Tonight Show 7.0 rating/16 share; NBC: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 3.3/10; CBS: Late Show with David Letterman 2.5/5; CBS: Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson 1.5/4; ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live 1.3/4,” the publication says, citing The Nielsen Company. Translation: 8 million viewers.