Conan O’Brien is finally strutting away from the Peacock network.
Following weeks of drama and late-night zingers, NBC reached a $45 million deal with O’Brien in order to secure his exit from the “Tonight” show — opening the door for Jay Leno to return to the program he has hosted for nearly 20 years, the network announced today.
Under the agreement, which came seven months after O’Brien took over the 11:35 p.m. show from Leno, the red-headed funnyman will get an estimated $33 million, while his 200-person staff will receive a severance payout out of a $12 million pot.
The deal allows O’Brien to appear on another network starting Sept. 1.
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“We’re pleased that Jay is returning to host the franchise that he helmed brilliantly and successfully for many years,” NBC said in a statement. “He is an enormous talent, a consummate professional and one of the hardest-working performers on television.”
O’Brien’s final show will be tomorrow night with Tom Hanks slated to appear along with Will Ferrell — the first guest he welcomed as “Tonight” host last June — and musical guest Neil Young.
Leno will return to “Tonight” on March 1 after the show goes on hiatus due to the Winter Olympics.
“In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket,” his manager, Gavin Polone, told The Wall Street Journal. “Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.”
O’Brien landed the “Tonight” show gig after successfully hosting “Late Night,” which airs an hour later, since 1993. However, he quickly stumbled in the ratings race against his CBS gap-toothed rival David Letterman once he took over for Leno. Under Leno, the “Tonight” show was a ratings juggernaut, but he proved a disaster with his prime time show.
The move to oust O’Brien came after disgruntled network affiliate stations said they had lost viewers and advertising bucks since “The Jay Leno Show” premiered. In a clear vote of no confidence, some stations had even threatened to drop “The Jay Leno Show” and air their own programming.
The network had been counting on O’Brien’s cooperation, and wanted an answer quickly, so it could have the configured lineup ready to launch after the Winter Olympics, which will dominate NBC’s schedule next month. When O’Brien refused to host the “Tonight” show at 12:05 a.m., following a 30-minute show featuring Leno, it triggered a public relations mess for the network.
O’Brien had said that moving “Tonight” would “seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting.”
The Peacock network announced last week that the five-hour gap in prime time left by Leno will be filled by scripted and reality shows aimed at bringing NBC affiliates a more robust lead-in audience for their local newscasts than Leno had been delivering.