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TV Notes
O’Brien’s ‘Tonight’ Era Ends With Some Jabs, and a Lot of Dollars
By Bill Carter, The New York Times, in the “Media Decoder” blog, January 21, 2010
The Conan O’Brien chapter of “The Tonight Show” ended officially Thursday with a lot of money – and some last recriminations — being dished out.
Mr. O’Brien’s settlement with NBC will pay him $32.5 million, essentially a pay-out of the remaining 2.5 years of his guaranteed contract. His salary, which has never been confirmed, has been estimated in the range of $12 million to $15 million a year.
Along with that, NBC will pay about $12 million to settle the contracts of others associated with show, including Mr. O’Brien’s longtime executive producer, and closest colleague, Jeff Ross. Some of the last-minute contentiousness surrounded the severance that NBC will pay to staff members who do not have contracts.
NBC executives emphasized that the network had stepped up and paid an additional $600,000 beyond the standard severance and sought to make it clear that it was a network decision to add that money, not one made by Mr. O’Brien’s side in the negotiations.
Gavin Polone, Mr. O’Brien’s manager, agreed with that characterization. “They did step up and Conan is appreciative of that,” he said. But he stressed that Mr. O’Brien has committed to paying additional money to staff members who have lost jobs with the end of the show—many of whom sold homes in New York and moved to Los Angeles to follow Mr. O’Brien.
Mr. Polone said, “Conan is paying them more beyond that out of his own pocket — a large seven-figure amount.”
In one glaring coincidence being noticed throughout the television business, the total amount that NBC is paying – just about $45 million – is precisely the amount that NBC had promised to Mr. O’Brien as a penalty payment if he did not get the “Tonight” show when it was first promised to him in 2004. In that case he himself would have received that entire amount, however, not him and his entire staff.
Jeff Gaspin, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, called the deal “a settlement that worked for both sides.”
In defending the decision to alter NBC’s late-night lineup — a decision that originally asked Mr. O’Brien to slide back a half hour to 12:05 p.m. to make room for the former “Tonight” host, Jay Leno — Mr. Gaspin repeated his argument that the network never wanted to lose Mr. O’Brien.
He agreed with the argument made by many fans of Mr. O’Brien that if he had been allowed to stay in the show, the comic had a good chance to increase his ratings over time
“Could it have grown? Absolutely,” Mr. Gaspin said. “We just couldn’t give him the time.” He pointed to the pressure that was being exerted by NBC’s affiliated stations for NBC to change its 10 p.m. lineup, where Mr. Leno has been moved.
“Our hand was forced,” Mr. Gaspin said.
But he went some lengths to justify the network’s choice to preserve Mr. Leno, who previously had been the dominant leader in late-night ratings. “For the first time ever ‘The Tonight Show’ is going to lose money this season,” Mr. Gaspin said. He called it “substantial money” and while he declined to name a figure said it amounts to “tens of millions of dollars.”
Mr. Polone said he “did not know NBC’s financials” but cited advertising figures and demand that still seemed strong for the show.
The reason for the loss, Mr. Gaspin said, was a falloff in ratings in “Tonight” that was far worse than NBC expected—and worse, he said, than the losses in lead-in audiences that Mr. O’Brien’s team has often mentioned as a chief reason the show’s audiences were down.
Mr. Gaspin said the ratings for NBC’s local newscasts, the direct lead-in to Mr. O’Brien, were down on average about 14 percent among households, while Mr. O’Brien was off by 49 percent from where Mr. Leno had been the year before.
In the 25 to 54 age group, the lead-in was down 16 percent, while Mr. O’Brien was down 31 percent, Mr. Gaspin said. And in the most important late-night audience — and one where Mr. O’Brien has always been strongest — viewers between 18 and 49, he was down 23 percent while the newscasts were down only 16 percent, Mr. Gaspin said.
“In spite of the declines, in spite of the fact that we were losing money, we didn’t want to lose Conan,” Mr. Gaspin said, repeating his opinion that a lineup of Mr. Leno for a half hour at 11:35 leading into Mr. O’Brien — still on a show called “Tonight” — was a reasonable compromise.
Mr. Polone said, “I don’t agree with their interpretation of the numbers,” and added, “The numbers this week speak for themselves.”
This week, as Mr. O’Brien has come out swinging against NBC, his ratings have soared.
“In the end Conan will benefit from this,” Mr. Polone said.
The settlement allows Mr. O’Brien to come back with a new show as early as Sept. 1. Mr. Polone said he and Mr. O’Brien’s agents would begin soliciting offers for the star immediately with a goal of landing a new network show as close to that date as possible. The Fox network has already expressed interest in exploring that option.
“The show is working,” Mr. Polone said, warming up his pitch. He noted that Mr. O’Brien has been “very up” over the past week despite the protracted negotiations over his future. “He is incredibly grateful for the 500,000 people on Facebook supporting him and the people staging protests. The energy in that room has been fantastic.”
As he has before, Mr. Polone again cited how Mr. Leno had first taken off as the “Tonight” host when an outside event—he had Hugh Grant as a guest just after the actor was involved in an arrest for soliciting a prostitute—brought hordes of viewers into the show. “It’s ironic, but this week was that event for Conan,” Mr. Polone said.
Mr. Leno meanwhile has been mostly on the sideline of the NBC face-off with Mr. O’Brien, though he has taken the brunt of much criticism by Mr. O’Brien’s fans, who accuse him of being unwilling to voluntarily walk away to leave Mr. O’Brien in place.
NBC has reshaped Mr. Leno’s own contract to reflect the fact that he is returning as host of “Tonight,” NBC executives said. His show will also be reshaped between now and the end of the Winter Olympics in February, when Mr. Leno will return.
Nothing has been officially announced but NBC expects Mr. Leno will remain in the studio that was built for his 10 p.m. show. It will be reconfigured as a “Tonight Show” set, Mr. Gaspin said, though some details –like the return of the host desk—have not been worked out yet.
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...ediadecodernyt
O’Brien’s ‘Tonight’ Era Ends With Some Jabs, and a Lot of Dollars
By Bill Carter, The New York Times, in the “Media Decoder” blog, January 21, 2010
The Conan O’Brien chapter of “The Tonight Show” ended officially Thursday with a lot of money – and some last recriminations — being dished out.
Mr. O’Brien’s settlement with NBC will pay him $32.5 million, essentially a pay-out of the remaining 2.5 years of his guaranteed contract. His salary, which has never been confirmed, has been estimated in the range of $12 million to $15 million a year.
Along with that, NBC will pay about $12 million to settle the contracts of others associated with show, including Mr. O’Brien’s longtime executive producer, and closest colleague, Jeff Ross. Some of the last-minute contentiousness surrounded the severance that NBC will pay to staff members who do not have contracts.
NBC executives emphasized that the network had stepped up and paid an additional $600,000 beyond the standard severance and sought to make it clear that it was a network decision to add that money, not one made by Mr. O’Brien’s side in the negotiations.
Gavin Polone, Mr. O’Brien’s manager, agreed with that characterization. “They did step up and Conan is appreciative of that,” he said. But he stressed that Mr. O’Brien has committed to paying additional money to staff members who have lost jobs with the end of the show—many of whom sold homes in New York and moved to Los Angeles to follow Mr. O’Brien.
Mr. Polone said, “Conan is paying them more beyond that out of his own pocket — a large seven-figure amount.”
In one glaring coincidence being noticed throughout the television business, the total amount that NBC is paying – just about $45 million – is precisely the amount that NBC had promised to Mr. O’Brien as a penalty payment if he did not get the “Tonight” show when it was first promised to him in 2004. In that case he himself would have received that entire amount, however, not him and his entire staff.
Jeff Gaspin, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, called the deal “a settlement that worked for both sides.”
In defending the decision to alter NBC’s late-night lineup — a decision that originally asked Mr. O’Brien to slide back a half hour to 12:05 p.m. to make room for the former “Tonight” host, Jay Leno — Mr. Gaspin repeated his argument that the network never wanted to lose Mr. O’Brien.
He agreed with the argument made by many fans of Mr. O’Brien that if he had been allowed to stay in the show, the comic had a good chance to increase his ratings over time
“Could it have grown? Absolutely,” Mr. Gaspin said. “We just couldn’t give him the time.” He pointed to the pressure that was being exerted by NBC’s affiliated stations for NBC to change its 10 p.m. lineup, where Mr. Leno has been moved.
“Our hand was forced,” Mr. Gaspin said.
But he went some lengths to justify the network’s choice to preserve Mr. Leno, who previously had been the dominant leader in late-night ratings. “For the first time ever ‘The Tonight Show’ is going to lose money this season,” Mr. Gaspin said. He called it “substantial money” and while he declined to name a figure said it amounts to “tens of millions of dollars.”
Mr. Polone said he “did not know NBC’s financials” but cited advertising figures and demand that still seemed strong for the show.
The reason for the loss, Mr. Gaspin said, was a falloff in ratings in “Tonight” that was far worse than NBC expected—and worse, he said, than the losses in lead-in audiences that Mr. O’Brien’s team has often mentioned as a chief reason the show’s audiences were down.
Mr. Gaspin said the ratings for NBC’s local newscasts, the direct lead-in to Mr. O’Brien, were down on average about 14 percent among households, while Mr. O’Brien was off by 49 percent from where Mr. Leno had been the year before.
In the 25 to 54 age group, the lead-in was down 16 percent, while Mr. O’Brien was down 31 percent, Mr. Gaspin said. And in the most important late-night audience — and one where Mr. O’Brien has always been strongest — viewers between 18 and 49, he was down 23 percent while the newscasts were down only 16 percent, Mr. Gaspin said.
“In spite of the declines, in spite of the fact that we were losing money, we didn’t want to lose Conan,” Mr. Gaspin said, repeating his opinion that a lineup of Mr. Leno for a half hour at 11:35 leading into Mr. O’Brien — still on a show called “Tonight” — was a reasonable compromise.
Mr. Polone said, “I don’t agree with their interpretation of the numbers,” and added, “The numbers this week speak for themselves.”
This week, as Mr. O’Brien has come out swinging against NBC, his ratings have soared.
“In the end Conan will benefit from this,” Mr. Polone said.
The settlement allows Mr. O’Brien to come back with a new show as early as Sept. 1. Mr. Polone said he and Mr. O’Brien’s agents would begin soliciting offers for the star immediately with a goal of landing a new network show as close to that date as possible. The Fox network has already expressed interest in exploring that option.
“The show is working,” Mr. Polone said, warming up his pitch. He noted that Mr. O’Brien has been “very up” over the past week despite the protracted negotiations over his future. “He is incredibly grateful for the 500,000 people on Facebook supporting him and the people staging protests. The energy in that room has been fantastic.”
As he has before, Mr. Polone again cited how Mr. Leno had first taken off as the “Tonight” host when an outside event—he had Hugh Grant as a guest just after the actor was involved in an arrest for soliciting a prostitute—brought hordes of viewers into the show. “It’s ironic, but this week was that event for Conan,” Mr. Polone said.
Mr. Leno meanwhile has been mostly on the sideline of the NBC face-off with Mr. O’Brien, though he has taken the brunt of much criticism by Mr. O’Brien’s fans, who accuse him of being unwilling to voluntarily walk away to leave Mr. O’Brien in place.
NBC has reshaped Mr. Leno’s own contract to reflect the fact that he is returning as host of “Tonight,” NBC executives said. His show will also be reshaped between now and the end of the Winter Olympics in February, when Mr. Leno will return.
Nothing has been officially announced but NBC expects Mr. Leno will remain in the studio that was built for his 10 p.m. show. It will be reconfigured as a “Tonight Show” set, Mr. Gaspin said, though some details –like the return of the host desk—have not been worked out yet.
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...ediadecodernyt
