Conan O'Brien is close to signing a nearly $40 million deal to walk
away from his job hosting NBC's "The Tonight Show," in a new move that
will also award severance pay to his employees, The Wall Street
Journal reported Tuesday. The deal, which has been fiercely negotiated
for the last week, will give O'Brien $32.5 million to go on garden
leave until September. This would prevent him from hosting any other
TV shows if he pockets the cash, but gives him an option to sign other
deals. The remaining $7.5 million will go in severance pay to about
200 of Conan's "Tonight Show" employees after they expressed outrage
about the prospect of going penniless, reports said.
O'Brien decided to leave NBC after executives said they would push his
show to a slot after midnight in favor of the Jay Leno Show.
The exit agreement, which could be completed as early as Tuesday, bars
O'Brien from bad-mouthing his former NBC bosses.
News of the deal comes hours after Leno tried to explain his side of
the dispute with NBC during the monologue of his soon-to-be cancelled
10 p.m. show. He said his expected return to 11:35 p.m. could become
official today -- and called frenemy Conan O'Brien a "great guy." His
remarks (text below) came on the heels of reports O'Brien was close to
signing a $40 million exit deal with NBC after refusing to move his
"Tonight Show" to 12:05 a.m.
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