Report: Conan to Leave NBC for $30 - $40 Million Dollar Payout

[MadBadger]

Categorized | Broadcast TV, Featured
Done Deal: Conan Out For $30-$40 Million Payout
Posted on 15 January 2010 by Robert Seidman



The Wrap reports Conan is out, walking away from The Tonight Show with a $30 million severance. OK, its not quite a done deal yet , the deal has yet to be signed and NBC is expected to make a statement later today this weekend. Update: the deal has been widely reported to be between $30-$40 million at this point, though The Wrap’s report suggest the payout goes down if/when Conan lands somewhere else.

No specifics yet on how long Conan’s non-compete will last or whether Conan will still do the Tonight Show next week.


But subsequent to the B&C report above (albeit by only minutes) Variety, THR and others are reporting a version similar to The Wrap’s. It seems like what NBC denied to B&C was that the deal is done; and even The Wrap report noted in its first version that it wasn’t signed yet. The Wrap did get wrong that the deal would get announced Friday night, but multiple outlets, including The Wrap, now report a weekend resolution is likely.

Stay tuned.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/01/15/done-deal-conan-out-for-30-million-payout/39094

[KharmaTrain]

1. What A Mess...

Whomever is writing Night Shift II has to be going crazy with this thing. Good to hear Conan gets his release and some of GE's money. Here's also hoping he's worked out a severance plan for those working for him...many who had to uproot lives and families and move to LA last summer. I expect he'll be back on Fox within the next year.

As far as Leno and Zucker...they better hope that the money spent results in ratings gold. Surely Comcast is watching this circus closely. The clock's now running on Zucker to find 5 new shows to restore ratings that Leno cost him at 10...and then that Leno can overtake Letterman (and/or Nightline and possibly Conan) at 11:30. That's a pretty tall order. Zucker better hope that the Olympics get high ratings as well.

[hlthe2b]

8. They gave away a hit a year ago with SouthLand--to TNT

because they didn't have room for it with Leno taking over all the prime "real estate." Now, they can't get it back and TNT is flying with it in its second season due to start in March. What morons.

[Leopolds Ghost]

22. Also because their new owners are trying to kill broadcast TV and sell all the good shows to cable

They are deliberately putting anything watchable on their own cable channels and turning broadcast into a "public facility of last resort" so they can kill broadcast audience and move all their audience to PAID digital programming to make way for combined Internet / TV / Phone service over wired subscriber connections. Kill the airwaves since they are owned by the public. Like they're trying to kill payphones, drinking fountains, and any other public facility.

[KharmaTrain]

28. The Big Money Is Still Off-The-Air

You're on the right track, but a little premature...at least as far as NBC is concerned. We're headed to the networks making its money from cable...through higher fees (like what Faux did to Time/Warner) and eventually moving the more popular shows behind the cable wall. Right now GE/NBC/Universal relies on the millions in over-the-air ad revenues. The going rate for a spot on the Tonight show is easily $100ks or more...but not if the ratings are down.

This whole circus is about ratings...the lower they are, the less money not only the network but the local affiliates can charge and make. It's the affiliates who wanted Leno out of 10pm cause he was sucking gas and this was hurting their local news where most stations make their real money. In some markets, the NBC affiliates went from top dog to third or fourth place in that 11pm slot...why the change was made.

Eventually, with the rise of wireless cable (V-cast and Mediaflo) and strictly digital systems, the day of seeing your favorite shows for free will be at an end...all that will be on over-the-air will be reruns and infomercials.

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. FTS.

:grr:

[WI_DEM]

3. NBC isn't too far-sighted. They should be thinking of the future.

Leno is old hat and comes across that way. David Letterman is a couple of years older but is still able to able to have a biting edge to his comedy. In the end they should have kept Conan who is more than a decade younger and has a hipper and sharper sense of comedy. Leno can't keep on doing "Tonight" forever can he?

[Leopolds Ghost]

6. According to a Leno friend in LAT this deal "clears way for Leno to keep TTS for many years to come"

And analysts agree he will get his old audience back, cheering the departure of Conan.

[JamesA1102]

10. A lot of those analysts though Leno at 10PM was a good idea.

I work in advertising and we saw this as a disaster when NBC announced it last year. Moving Leno back to the Tonight Show is another bad idea. He's damaged goods now. He failed at 10PM and is widely seen as pushing Conan under a bus.

NBC is being very short sighted on this. They'll get another 5 years or so out of Leno with an aging audience whereas they would have gotten 15 or 20 out of Conan with a much younger, more affluent audience.

[KharmaTrain]

13. Second Acts Are Never As Successful

I think a portion of Leno's audience were people waiting for Conan. Nothing stays static...when you make changes like this, audiences change...they find viewing alternatives and if they become comfortable with those changes, it's real hard to lure them back. In many ways, Leno's failure at 10 says a lot of his "core" audience either didn't follow or weren' comfortable with him being on at that hour. Now moving back doesn't assure him that the clock will turn back to last June...Leno will have to win back an audience...and do it under the cloud of this ham-handed power play by what appears to be a panicked Zucker.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

27. That's right. I never really liked Leno, but I'd watch him sometimes while waiting for Conan.

But now I wouldn't watch that egotistical prick if you paid me.

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. Sad thing is, half of America hates Conan and will cheer his firing and Leno getting old job back.

You can see it in the replies to all the blog posts, especially from Republicans and illiterate backwash.

[alsame]

5. NBC is going to have a hell of time finding the next Leno

replacement when he eventually retires for real. Between the bungled Carson retirement and this fiasco, they have proven they are not to be trusted. The next anointed host would be wise to think twice before leaving a successful show and uprooting their family.

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. The next Leno? He never should have hosted Tonight Show, he's an unfunny prick.

Conan was the best thing that ever happened to the Tonight Show in the past 20 years.

[alsame]

9. I said 'the next Leno replacement', the sentence continues in

the text box. :)

ITA about Leno - Letterman deserved the TS after Carson retired.

[MadBadger]

11. In what sense?

You can call him an unfunny prick all you want, but that doesnt mean he didnt beat Letterman by over 1 million viewers daily, and top him in 18-49 year olds and 25-54 year olds.

How does it look when the Tonight Show is finishing behind Letterman and Nightline? Not like show that put Late night TV on the map

[JamesA1102]

14. Leno never beat Letterman by more than half a rating point.

That's not much. Letterman always had better demograghics, a younger, more educated and more affluent audience.

When Conan took over things flipped. Letterman started beating Conan in overall viewers but Conan had the younger audience and was competitive in the 18-49 and 18-34 demos.

The truth is NBC is making Conan pay for Leno's failure at 10PM. The affiliates didn't demand that Conan be dumped, they demanded that Leno's 10PM show be canceled because he was killing the ratings of their late news shows.

Now part of Leno's ratings success over the years was that NBC affiliates in 150 markets had the number one late local news. But Leno's 10PM show damaged that and on average those stations saw a 30% decline in their late news ratings.

[MadBadger]

15. Letterman's average viewer was younger, but Leno had more younger viewers.

Edit: I'm referring to 18-49 year olds

[JamesA1102]

19. Yes but Letterman had far less older viewers.

Hence the lower average.

[MadBadger]

20. That's true, but it doesnt matter how many older viewers Leno has

As long as he had more 18-49 year olds than Letterman.

[JamesA1102]

23. But it depends on how that group skews

in terms of median age and income. Just having more isn't enough. It quality vs. quantity.

[MadBadger]

25. Actually, i just read in an article that Letterman's average viewer was 54, Leno 55

This was when Leno did the Tonight Show.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/ask_the_answer_bitch/b162165_who_likes_jay_leno_much_anyway.html

[JamesA1102]

26. I don't know where Forbes got it's numbers but

MRI has Leno a couple years older and Letterman closer to 50. But age is not the only factor in demographics, so are income and education. And Letterman always had a more educated and affluent audience.

[left coaster]

17. McDonald's sells a lot of 'burgers' too..

..doesn't mean they taste good.. TTS is a late night TV institution, and I think that a good majority of those daily viewers would have tuned in no matter who was hosting.. I agree with the other poster that Leno is bland, and mostly unfunny, so I don't think those ratings numbers were really a reflection on Leno's talent or drawing power..


IMO, Letterman and Conan are both much funnier, and have better host personalities than Leno does, by far.. but that's just me..

[Skink]

12. maybe conan should do movies.

Write , direct , produce that Kind of thing.

[roamer65]

16. Letterman should have O'Brien on his show.

Immediately after he leaves NBC.

It would be coup for them both and a great bash Leno fest.

[MadHound]

18. The life and times of multi-millionaires

OMG, Leno is getting his old slot back, and making millions. Conan is pissed, but making millions. Letterman is having a field day with all of this, and making millions.

Amazing the shiny objects that can capture the public's attention.

[Leopolds Ghost]

21. Until you consider the wishes of the viewing public and the fact that many backwash are cheering

They want Conan sacked and humiliated for being an "east coast elitist".

Who cares if the Tonight Show goes down with it? They are Leno fans.

So they engineered his departure much like they sacked Dan Rather.

Another "millionaire we supposedly don't miss".

[UrbScotty]

24. So much for my cure for insomnia

Conan's boring 'jokes' have helped me get some much-needed sleep! What am I going to do now??

:evilfrown: