Conan's career is over, Leno returns to his rightful throne as King of Late Nite

[The Fake Shemp]

I am actually thinking about using my passes to see Legion just to yuk it up in theaters.

[cool breeze]

Tarantino is laughing on the inside

[BobFromPikeCreek]

I am actually thinking about using my passes to see Legion just to yuk it up in theaters.

Yeah. It looks like it could be pretty funny.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

It costs the network a lot of money when we play Zeppelin.

[Himu]

"It costs the network a lot of money when we play Zeppelin"

 

[CajoleJuice]

[The Fake Shemp]

 

[TakingBackSunday]

conan

Spoon is 

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Here's the gawker page with tonight's Letterman stuff:
http://tv.gawker.com/5452391/david-letterman-jay-leno-is-a-thief

[CajoleJuice]

I actually like Spoon, at least some of their stuff, but this sucks.

[drew]

spoon is so 2006

[Madrun Badrun]

norm was great 

[TakingBackSunday]

http://www.getwhirled.com/jaybombs.html

[ManaByte]

FOX is now saying they have nothing to do with that domain.

[drew]

I am actually thinking about using my passes to see Legion just to yuk it up in theaters.

and you wonder why i and many other people feel no remorse for pirating movies

[The Fake Shemp]

... I don't know what the correlation is, other than a complete lack of morals, but okay!

[Ichirou]

This is awesome!!!

[youtube=560,345]-y04H5mFUFM[/youtube]

[Eel O'Brian]

Here's the gawker page with tonight's Letterman stuff:
http://tv.gawker.com/5452391/david-letterman-jay-leno-is-a-thief

i love how in these gawker articles they cheer on letterman's personal attacks, yet brand leno as the personification of evil for his

dave's no good guy, either, folks

[Ichirou]

Dave's jokes and insults are related to Jay's work and the very current situation and they're very mild in comparison to what Jay's doing.  Jay is taking a months-old scandal and dredging it up because he knows he's coming out of this whole situation covered in Zucker's shit and is trying desperately to deflect it onto Letterman.

And in the end all he's doing is recycling all of his old Clinton/Lewinsky jokes, right down to saying Letterman was nailing interns (he wasn't, btw).

[Eel O'Brian]

uh, yes he was (former Late Show intern Holly Hester says he even had a secret bedroom at the studio), and it is totally fair game

i suspect all this indignity about it wouldn't be present were the situations reversed and it was letterman making all the cracks about affairs leno had

doesn't matter if they're mild cracks, he's already mentioned jay's wife and home life several times - i'd say that's pretty personal

but you guys have already decided who's the white knight and who's the dragon in this whole deal, so carry on

[brawndolicious]

Seriously, why do you guys care who's right or wrong or screwed or sucked?  They're all just a bunch of fucking millionaires because they can make some mediocre jokes.

The only thing of interest to me is seeing the NBC get a lot of shit rubbed in its face by their own employee every night on national TV.  That shtick will all be done in a few weeks at most and there'll be no reason to pay attention to these shows again.

[Eel O'Brian]

i don't really care, and you are correct

[Ichirou]

The affairs were with co-workers, not interns.

The story is months old and Leno is only bringing it on now because he's feeling the heat.  It may be fair game, but it does feel sleazy as hell.  Letterman makes cracks about Leno's work ethic, and Leno is like "Oh-oh yeah? WELL YOU CHEATED ON YOUR WIFE AND I BET YOU USE VIAGRA TOO!"

I've only seen the clips and stuff, but the only home life things he's mentioned have been Jay's cars...what has he said about Jay's wife?

[Eel O'Brian]

holly hester was an intern when she and letterman had an affair

he's only mentioned the name of leno's wife several times in the context of his cracks about leno's home life, but in my mind it's still encroaching personal territory considering she has absolutely nothing to do with any of this

[Ichirou]

Didn't know who Holly Hester was.  The only one I knew about was Stephanie Burkitt (sp?).  Just googled her, and you're right.  Guess this means Leno can safely recycle all the intern jokes he's had in a drawer somewhere since Clinton left office!

Personally, I think Leno's behavior has been completely sleazy and underhanded.  Your mileage may vary.  Letterman's personal screw-up was pretty bad, but he pretty much came out and accepted responsibility.  Leno's attitude of "HEY IT'S NOT MY FAULT I'M JUST SUCH A NICE GUY AND BTW DON'T BLAME CONAN (even though no one is blaming Conan) EVEN THOUGH HE WAS NOT DOING WELL AND HIS MANAGERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR GETTING ME KICKED OFF THE TONIGHT SHOW"

Seriously, fuck Leno.

[AdmiralViscen]

If Letterman wanted to he could be calling Jay's 10pm show a complete shitfuck failure. Instead he calls it a 'nice little variety show.' He only says Mavis when he's using Leno's voice and calling for a wrench or something, and Jay always throws out his wife's name on TV. Bringing up the sex scandal is not equivalent to Letterman's lectures IMO

[Himu]

This is awesome!!!

[youtube=560,345]-y04H5mFUFM[/youtube]

That made my night.

And it has now made my day.

[drew]

... I don't know what the correlation is, other than a complete lack of morals, but okay!

if even the people working within the industry dont pony up then why should i?

[ferrarimanf355]

This is awesome!!!

[youtube=560,345]-y04H5mFUFM[/youtube]

The fuck did I just watch?

[The Fake Shemp]

if even the people working within the industry dont pony up then why should i?

We already had this discussion and the outcome was the same: you're morally bankrupt.

[ferrarimanf355]

I totally see Tarentino as a guy that chokes chicks for sexual gratification.

:lenowned

[Great Rumbler]

MASTURBATING BEAR!! 

[Great Rumbler]

"If he gets killed by crystal meth tweakers...who cares? He's *beep* out of luck!"

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Bugatti Veyron mouse.

[CajoleJuice]

at this skit and playing Rolling Stones

[AdmiralViscen]

Smash the windshield Conan

[Beezy]

 

[BobFromPikeCreek]

[CajoleJuice]

Smash the windshield Conan

Yeah, he totally should've destroyed it.

[Great Rumbler]

Smash the windshield Conan

Yeah, he totally should've destroyed it.

That would've been spectacular.  

[cool breeze]

If he smashed the Veyron I would boycott him  

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Damaging the Veyron would have actually pissed people off. Like big time.

[AdmiralViscen]

Then he shoulda given it away to an audience member and let NBC sue them to reclaim it.

[CajoleJuice]

JETS REPRESENT

[CajoleJuice]

Spade and Schneider

[BlueTsunami]

Sandler is actually awesome

[BobFromPikeCreek]

The Sandman and The cheeseburger 

[CajoleJuice]

fire crotch and super jew

[CajoleJuice]

I feel like Joel McHale is gonna be awesome.

Although I just remembered he stars on Community, which is on NBC.

[Mr. Gundam]

I feel like Joel McHale is gonna be awesome.

Although I just remembered he stars on Community, which is on NBC.

He's also on E!, which is owned by NBC's soon-to-be owners.

[CajoleJuice]

Ah, I didn't know that about E!

[BlueTsunami]

Et tu, douchebag?

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Adam Sandler's having the best time.

[CajoleJuice]

Sandler is fucking great. Conversely, I'm sure I will want to punch Will Farrell in the face when he comes on.

[Beezy]

I can count until you're dead.

[fistfulofmetal]

disappointed Joel didn't make a joke about giving Conan The Soup then taking it back a few months later.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

So I left the TV on...

Everyone who has said Jimmy Fallon has improved is a filthy liar.

[ManaByte]

http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/new-nbc-breaking-story-13241

UPDATE 6:27 AM CDT/4:27 AM PST

From an NBC spokeswoman:

"NBC confirms a deal is signed and an official announcement will be made this morning."
 

ORIGINAL POST 3 AM CDT/ 1 AM PST

Our long national late-night nightmare is over.

After nearly two weeks of protracted, oft-bitter and highly publicized divorce proceedings, "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien and NBC have finally put pen to paper on a $40 million-plus breakup agreement. O'Brien's manager, Gavin Polone, confirmed the signing to TheWrap early Thursday.

"It's signed," Polone said.

Among the final sticking points, according to reports in recent days, was severance for O'Brien's staff. There were other issues as well, insiders said.

"In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket," Polone told TheWrap. "Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible."

NBC reps couldn't immediately be reached early Thursday. (Update: An NBC rep, reached early Thursday morning, declined comment.)

O'Brien will end his seven-month stewardship of a national institution Friday, unwillingly handing back custody of an iconic television brand badly bruised by a series of management missteps breathtaking in their ineptitude.

Then, it's expected that on March 1, "Tonight" will return with new/old host Jay Leno, the well-liked but never beloved stand-up comic who unapologetically campaigned to replace Johnny Carson in the 1990s, dominated the ratings through much of 2000s and now finds himself charged with maintaining the relevancy of a 60-year talk-show formula threatened with extinction in an era of viral comedy and ceaseless celebrity exposure.

Among the biggest unanswered questions linked to the crisis: What will O'Brien do now? Can Leno salvage his good guy reputation with the public? And will the barrage of negative coverage related to the past week's events lead to NBCU chief executive officer Jeff Zucker's ouster -- or is that just wishful thinking on the part of Zucker's many Hollywood enemies?

O'Brien will be free to begin work for another network on Sept. 1, said a person familiar with the deal. No formal conversations with any other outlets have started, but Fox has already started flirting with Coco.

NBC will end up taking a massive financial hit to make its Conan problem go away, with insiders estimating the cost of various buyouts and penalties directly related to his exit in excess of $40 million. That doesn't count the millions wasted on creating, marketing and promoting the new "Tonight," including an estimated $50 million spent building a new studio and office complex for Conan on the Universal lot.

O'Brien's personal payday -- estimated to be in the vicinity of $30 million -- will be more than the value left on his lucrative deal with NBC, with other monies being used to pay for buyouts for executive producer Jeff Ross and other staffers.

A final deal was held up as NBC and O'Brien's camp haggled over severance packages for employees who uprooted their families to head west for "Tonight."

O'Brien and NBC negotiated severance packages for non-union workers who don't have long-term deals. Those severance agreements are said to be "much better" than the typical NBC buyout.

It's understood O'Brien will divert some of his own settlement funds toward a pool of monies to be used for the staff exit packages.

Other contract players, including announcer Andy Richter and band leader Max Weinberg, will settle out their own deals with NBC separately, people with knowledge of the situation said.

Amazingly, dumping O'Brien -- costly though it will be -- may have been the smarter financial move for the network, at least in the short term.

That's because had NBC decided to kill Leno at 10, but not offer him "Tonight" (or a half-hour 11:35 show), it's believed Leno's contract with the network would have been even more expensive to buy out than O'Brien's pact, one industry insider close to the situation said.

Because Leno has no agent or manager, however, details of his deal have been harder to confirm.

In any case, NBC's exit package with O'Brien will buy -- at least for a while -- the host's silence. With the deal signed, O'Brien has agreed to a short period of time in which he can't give any media interviews or slam NBC publicly. NBC has also agreed to a media blackout.

He will be able to make NBC jokes on any new show he might host -- though the Peacock always has the option to sue for defamation if it wants to. This shouldn't be a problem for O'Brien, however, since the host is said to not to be interested in continuing his recent on-air NBC bashing or in getting into any future spats with the network.

Indeed, O'Brien is expected to keep a low profile in the weeks after he leaves "Tonight," most likely not doing interviews or talk show appearances right away.

NBC, not surprisingly, will own bits and characters created by O'Brien during his 17 years at the network. That doesn't mean some schtick couldn't still pop up on a new show: David Letterman found a way to tweak his Top Ten lists when he moved to CBS, and "the Letterman template" could be followed by O'Brien.

Insiders confirmed that there have been some early conversations about the possibility of O'Brien remaining in his newly built Universal City studio and office complex, with his new network leasing the space back from NBC U.

But such a scenario remains highly hypothetical, since O'Brien's team has no idea what he'll do next -- or where he'll do it.

It's possible O'Brien might choose to leave L.A. and return to New York. And even he stays in LA, until it's known what kind of show O'Brien will host, it's impossible to say whether he'll need a large facility such as the one now used for "Tonight."

"If he did a 'Daily Show'-style program, he wouldn't need such a large facility," one industry insider speculated. 

Barring any lease deal, O'Brien's exit package  with NBC will give "Tonight Show staffers just a few weeks to clear out of their offices.

[ferrarimanf355]

Wait, so NBC owns the rights to the Masterbating Bear?  :'(

Oh, and apparently the Veyron Mouse clip was cut from Hulu, but you can watch it here.

http://jalopnik.com/5453417/conan-obriens-15-million-bugatti-veyron-mouse

[brawndolicious]

They probably knew a bunch of hipsters were going to spam hulu for that skit.