The LA Times has an update on the Fox & Conan saga today. Not a whole lot of new information other than the fact that a Fox exec claims they and Conan have "a deal we can live with". One of Conan's people claiming "We'll get there".
Some new items in the piece you may not have seen before:
- If Conan goes to Fox he may be delayed until January because of existing syndication agreements blocking certain time periods at some Fox affiliates.
- Trying to get clearance across all Fox affiliates at a uniform time is a major hurdle. A non-uniform time is much more difficult to market.
- Fox wants to spend $60 million a year on the show vs. the $90 million that was spent on The Tonight Show by NBC.
- It's possible that a new Conan show might use the same soundstage (leased from NBC) that he used for the Tonight Show.
we get reruns of TMZ after our local news at night. Conan would be a much better replacement.I hope the affiliates don't put up that much of a fight so we can all get our daily CoCo fix back.
Why would NBC help a dilute the market of one of their most profitable properties. I guess they might figure the show's going to do what it's going to do regardless of sound stage and might aswell make the lease money.
I would have thought Conan was going back to New York; but maybe not.
Conan would likely rate higher than much of what Fox affiliates air, but the problem is they get far more commercial time themselves for syndicated shows. Most spots during Conan would be national spots, with only a few for the affiliates.
Disappointing. I was really hoping Conan would go another route and go back to the creative side – writing and producing.
Makes no sense to me. Fox has news at 10. They have no shows at 10. Conan didn't do well at 11:30, and why would he do better on a secondary network? I'm glad *someone* has $60million to waste.
I thought Arsenio was very successful 20 years ago, and was even considered to replace Carson.
Would love to see Coco back as soon as possible.
He shouldn't be able to work for Fox until his contract runs out with NBC – since they paid him out for his contract.
In my area, Atlanta area, The local news is on at 10pm. Then they have another half hour news program on at 11PM. Then at 11:30 TMZ comes on so I don't see my local area abolishing their half hour for Conan. 11:30 maybe
That's not how it works =p.
“I guess they might figure the show's going to do what it's going to do regardless of sound stage and might as well make the lease money.”
That's exactly right. NBC lost a lot of money building that set, and now it's just sitting there.
“I would have thought Conan was going back to New York; but maybe not.”
His entire crew (not to mention his family) relocated to California, so moving back East isn't really an option.
Any money Conan earns from FOX before his NBC contract runs out will be subtracted from his NBC payout. This is great deal for FOX, actually, because Conan has no incentive to ask for a large initial salary. In fact, if he really wanted to, he could stick it to NBC by agreeing to host the show for 1 dollar a year until his NBC contract runs out, saving FOX millions and costing NBC the full 32.5 million they agreed to pay out.
He did Late Night for 16 years; $60 million a year is enough. I'm sure TTS budget was a whole lot of fun, but I have no doubts that he can do his show with less.
A show starting in January is actually sooner than I thought, and the timing should work out well. Bill Carter's book should be coming out around the time Conan's able to make appearances. Assuming renewed interest in the shift (which is a generous assumption, I know), a show in January gives Conan time to tell his side of the story. If he tried to make the talk show rounds right before a new show premiered, all people would want to ask him would be about Leno, TTS, and his live tour. With this timeline, he can get that out of the way before promotion begins.
Here’s hoping to a successful comeback from the funniest late night talk show host…Conan O’ Brien!!
DUH !!
Conan probably could not agree to host the show for a $1 salary without jeopardizing his payout from NBC. That doesn't mean the contract couldn't be structured as a shell game such that the net effect is that he is payed less than $1. Generally it is assumed (based on the way these sorts of contracts have worked in the past) that the separation contract allows NBC to reduce its payout if Conan does not make a good-faith effort to seek re-employment at a reasonable pay.
Don't know if this would work, seeing as Fox news is on at 10, unless Conan starts at 11, but don't see the affiliates being to happen about losing, a time-slot for something that might not succeed. It has to be a national broadcast putting it in different time-slots would just kill the show. However if FOX feels it can do it with the budget they want, and the NBC sound stage and figure out a way to make affiliates happen then I suppose FOX more then any other network could do it.
@Lurker it was reported that Conan and company will get the full amount of the buyout even if he gets paid by another company.
I can't believe Fox is naive enough to do this. Conan does NOT appeal to the masses. He appeals to SOME younger people BUT they don't sit and watch his show every night. They may catch it on highlights or Hulu or some other alternative media but many are not the traditional viewer the networks are looking for.
Conan will probably start out well but then he will lose viewers just like he did on Tonight when people realize he's NOT funny and then the affiliates will dump him and Fox will too.
Conan will get beat by both Letterman and Leno and probably Nightline too.
Legal wording is tricky. For example, what you said doesn't contradict anything I said but I have a feeling you were attempting to disagree with me.
i.e. the way these contracts work traditionally is that Conan and company will get paid the full amount of the buyout even if he gets paid by another company. The question is how much of that amount is paid by NBC and how much is paid by another company.