Jeff Zucker, an NBC executive is now threatening comedian and former Saturday Night Live writer Conan O’Brien with legal action in order to keep Conan off the air if he does not agree to let NBC switch back to its previous late night schedule where Conan would be following Jay Leno again as Jay once again takes over the prime time slot with the Tonight Show.
This is amid rumors that Conan is considering a huge contract offer from FOX executives in order to develop a late night television talk show for them.
Zucker would certainly put the breaks on such an agreement with FOX and likely never allow Conan to appear on the air for that company.
Conan has been making jokes on his show about only hosting the show for seven months until he is now being asked to leave by people like Jeff Zucker.
O’Brien fans have now formed a team on the internet called Team Coco which is a reference to one of the jokes on O’Brien’s show as a way to show support for NBC keeping Conan as host of the Tonight Show as Conan would prefer.
Jay Leno is making more money than Conan in that time slot so it is more likely Leno will win out according to media reports.
Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, NBC Sports executive Dick Ebersol has defended Jay Leno calling O’Brien and Letterman “chicken-hearted and gutless to blame a guy you couldn’t beat in the ratings.”
“They’re just striking out at Jay,” he added. “It seems like professional jealousy.”
Ebersol suggested O’Brien is to blame for the late night mess.
“What this is really all about is an astounding failure by Conan,” Ebersol added, referring to “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien’s” ratings, which have fallen since O’Brien took over the reigns.
F U C K U N B C !
I’ve never liked Jay Leno, and I especially don’t like him now. And Ebersol should re-check the Letterman ratings before casting apsersions.
This seems pretty outdated.
The current word according to articles posted the last 48-72 hours is that Zucker has backed off on the whole thing about stopping Conan from working for years. They’re close to a settlement that should take care of both Conan and his people and have him available to be on the air again maybe next fall. Things are mostly hammered out.
It’s also generally agreed that, while Fox has expressed interest, they wouldn’t be able to offer a contract like he had at NBC and there are a lot of risk with their affiliates since the current 11pm sitcom reruns are highly profitable.
Also lots of articles about how Ebersol shouldn’t be talking since he’s failed time and again at NBC Sports.
Of course Conan’s ratings are down. Everyone’s ratings are down since Leno was put as the opener. Affiliate stations basically forced NBC to drop Leno’s prime time show because by the time he was done there was no one left watching the channel for their newscasts. You can’t have that kind of lead-in and expect to have good ratings.