Smallscreen News

Conan O'Brien protects staff in $40 million exit deal

By April MacIntyre Jan 19, 2010, 14:23 GMT

Conan O\'Brien - © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

Thinking not just of himself, late show host Conan O'Brien, who has been bedeviled by NBC honcho Jeff Zucker since their Harvard undergrad days, looks to leave the Peacock network with a cool $40 million, with a portion earmarked in severance for his staff.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Coco, O'Brien's nickname, is close to signing a nearly $40 million deal to leave the NBC institution, "The Tonight Show," that will also award some severance pay to his employees.

O'Brien, according to the WSJ, will earn $32.5 million to walk away, but there are caveats.  He cannot work on another TV show until the year is up.

The remaining $7.5 million will go in severance pay to Conan's staff of approximately 200 employees.

O'Brien faces another condition, according to the WSJ report. O'Brien may not bad-mouth his former NBC bosses.

Many blame NBC's Jeff Zucker's awkward handling of the whole late night mess.  Zucker has been the object of reporter Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood's many columns excoriating the NBC executive for one bad mistake after another.

From Deadline_Hollywood June 10, 2009:

One thing is certain: gone is Conan's all-too-brief honeymoon period with the press. Not even NBCU's PR War Room set up by Zucker will be able to spin this disaster. Because, while Conan's debut was the highest-rated Monday episode of the veteran franchise in four years, June 5th's was the lowest rated Friday episode in 6 months.

In the old days of network TV, a top executive who made such a horrendous mistake as Zucker did would not even wait to be fired: he'd have the class to offer his immediate resignation. But nothing seems to shame Jeff. Though many have tried. Just this past weekend, Marc Cherry reminded a packed audience at the "Produced By" Conference put on by the Producers Guild Of America about another error in judgment from the then NBC Entertainment President:

Cherry said that, after his Desperate Housewives became a huge hit for ABC in the fall of 2003, then NBCU chairman Bob Wright called and asked who at his network had passed on the show. Cherry told Wright that he'd given the pilot script to Karey Burke, then NBC's EVP of primetime series development, and she'd loved it. But then Burke gave it to Jeff Zucker, who passed. "The heat went onto Karey, who was soon looking for a new job," Cherry said. “They were looking for someone else to blame.” And Zucker? That December, he was promoted to president of NBC's Entertainment, News & Cable Group. And promoted again in 2004. And again in 2005. And promoted again in 2007 to his present job.

Conan's Job Offers (01/18/10) [2:06]

Conan reads a few of the jobs he's been offered...And asks people to vote on it!

LaBamba at the Rally (01/18/10) [2:11]

At the "I'm with Coco" Rally in LA, LaBamba makes a surprise appearance!

Deon's Theory (01/18/10) [2:22]

Coco Rally: