Conan has a contract. He wants to quit. NBC is talking about paying him $40M to settle. Settle what? Has NBC broken the contract somehow? Is merely moving the start time of The Tonight Show a violation of the contract?
I didn’t post this question in the other ongoing thread about this whole flap because I have a very specific question and that thread is a stream-of-consciousness discussion.
AFAIK there was no show time stipuated in the contract which was an error on Conan’s solicitors behalf. That said neither party wants to end up in court over this from a PR perspective alone so I’d say NBC are just payingthe money to end this as soon as possible.
I don’t know any of the details but I guess it is also to use the “Late Night” name. Jay Leno had the “Jay Leno Show” but Conan was under contract to host the “Late Night Show”. The original suggestion was to put JLS at 11:35pm and LNS at 12:00am. Now by paying off Conan, Jay Leno retakes control of the Late Night name at 11:35pm.
My guess is that Conan’s lawyers would argue that changing the time slot does indeed violate the terms of the contract. NBC, of course, would disagree, and a lengthy legal dispute could ensue. NBC probably figures that settling now will be easier and less costly in the long run.
Also, though there’s been plenty of speculation around what is and isn’t in Conan’s contract, I don’t believe the actual text thereof has been made public. So we don’t really know who would stand the best chance of coming out ahead in the courts.
No matter who would prevail in court, in the mean time it is NBC being dragged through the mud during a time when they already look incompetent and are pissing off viewers left and right. Best to take the financial hit, and get this over quickly. Paying out may also smooth over Conan’s ruffled feather so they can have any chance of bringing him back at some point.
Because he’s not going to walk unless they pay him! He has a five-year contract that apparently pays him a little more than $10 million a year. Since he can’t host the Tonight Show at 11:35, he doesn’t want to work for NBC and NBC doesn’t want him to stay on their payroll for five years, making a bunch of money and not being on a show.
You mean “The Tonight Show”, which airs at 11:35 and has been hosted by Paar, Carson, Leno, and now Conan. “Late Night” is the show after “The Tonight Show.”
Maybe. Or maybe I’m from a parallel dimension where those names are correct, and now I keep forgetting which is supposed to be used in this dimension.
Whatever he gets from Fox (or another place) is deducted from what NBC will pay him to leave. So his big payout may end up being a lot smaller than it starts out.
This is common for fired college coaches - their payout is reduced when they take a new job.
Even without a time slot specified in the agreement, I think Conan’s lawyers could make an argument that “The Tonight Show” (as used in the contract) is the show that airs at 11:35 after local news. It was ever thus, and it was mutually understood and implicit in the contract.
That would probably be enough of an argument to get a lawsuit to a jury, and NBC does not want to be in front of a jury on this case after the way they have jerked Conan around. Better to settle.
I wonder how long these contracts are, I assume they are more than a few pages. I guess a lawyer could speak to things being “implicit” in a contract. Leno’s contract said 10 PM , I guess his lawyer was smart enough to get the time in writing.
Is that the same dimension where NBC executives come from? 
Man, they seem to be really picky about working hours.
Doesn’t that mean that if he really wanted to screw NBC, he could take a job with Fox and have them pay him only $1 a year? Then he would be competing and having NBC pay him at the same time. And anybody would probably hire him if he’d work for a dollar.
I don’t think working for $1 would be allowed in his exit deal - NBC is not that dumb. It probably says something about working for “standard wages” for his type of job.
Remember that the contracts cut several different ways. It binds Conan to NBC for 4 years, but it also means NBC has to pay Conan for 4 years. IF NBC fires Conan, he gets out of the contract and can go to work for Fox tomorrow. If NBC wants to keep Conan from going to work someplace else, they’ll have to keep paying him.
And neither side wants the case to go to trial. It could drag out for years and no one can predict what a jury would decide.
There’s a lot of evidence that suggests they are, in fact, that dumb.
Conan’s lawyers could also argue that a show airing at 12:05 is no longer The Tonight Show, but rather The Tomorrow Morning Show. 
For God’s sake how can you forget Steve Allen!?!
Because youth is wasted on the young?