The news have started trickling in. This one from the Buenos Aires Herald:
On Sunday, attorneys from both sides were putting the final touches on a financial settlement that ends O’Brien’s seven-month stint as “Tonight” host. The payoff to O’Brien is said to be close to $40 million.
The pact also includes sizable severance packages for O’Brien’s longtime executive producer Jeff Ross and the rest of the “Tonight” staff, some of it possibly coming out of O’Brien’s settlement paycheck.
And NBC has already started the re-build of Jay Leno’s image in this article in the Tennessean:
“Jay doesn’t have the power to make these decisions. The decisions are made by NBC,” [Tracie Fiss, a co-producer who has worked with Leno for 18 years,] said.
If FX actually picks up Conan’s show, it’s said to happen either soon or in the fall at the latest. I just hope they put him in the same time slot as Jay.
If that happened, Leno can say goodbye to his ratings, since he would ACTUALLY be competing with Conan (as opposed to before when they were shown at different times on the same network). In the same time slot, we could call this a fair fight. Good luck, chinny!
ina