Talk Show Battle Royal

After only a sheer seven months as host of the Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien takes his leave from NBC along with an eight-figure settlement.

This conclusion was reached late last week after NBC announced that ratings for Jay Leno’s show during primetime were below the networks projected expectations. Early this month, NBC began making plans to adjust the time slots of talk show host O’Brien to 12:05 to make way for Leno’s The Jay Leno Show which was much more successful at 11:30. But O’Brien rejected the offer and opted for the payout instead.

The agreement was reached early Thursday when NBC agreed to pay Conan a hefty $33 million and an additional $12 million towards his laid-off staff members for his departure.  He is also restricted from working elsewhere until this fall, including doing guest appearances on talk shows and personal interviews. “I think Conon will be fine where ever he goes,” said junior Serenity Hanrahan. “ He’s funny, talented and creative. I’m sure he will find something. I don’t think anything can top the tonight show, but a new show for him will allow him to be more creative. With all this hype, people are going to be dying to see what happens next.”  There is already talk about several networks being interested in O’Brien, particularly Fox, that many supporters believe would best suit him.

Dana Padilla, a sophomore at the University of Tampa, doesn’t care about the issue but had this to say. “A year off [for Conan] will give him an opportunity to explore new things. $33 million is more than enough; it’s enough for all of Haiti. This shows a lot about America and how it can just throw around money. This is not a serious issue or problem. It is definitely not the end of the world.”

Others, like junior Ian DeSantis, are picking sides in this late night battle. “ Jay Leno is a dick and he needs to give it up. It’s just not his time anymore. Other than that , this really doesn’t even affect me.” Though this may be the case, it was always speculated that O’Brien would have stayed in the shadows of Leno. “He just wasn’t as popular as his predecessor Jay Leno and his ratings can prove that,” said junior Shalini Debideen.  “ Conan may be more popular among the younger generation but Leno has been around for years and when I think about late night shows I automatically think of Leno.”

Jeff Gaspin, NBC Universal TV chief, said that unfortunately they were not able to wait around for O’Brien’s audience to grow.  “ We thought it was possible he’d understand the difficult situation we were in,” said Gaspin. As of March 1, new shows will replace Leno’s ten o’clock time spot and NBC will slowly start rebuilding itself again.