But in the battle Conan O'Brien wages to not let middle of the road milquetoast comedy return to our post 11 o'clock news lives, one interesting fact has arisen. It seems that in his fight to actually get the Tonight Show in the first place, Conan and his lawyers forgot to specify one tiny little detail of minor importance.
When Conan O'Brien took on hosting duties of The Tonight Show, he had a team of lawyers negotiating his terms. Unfortunately, they neglected to specify a time slot, meaning NBC could put Conan on at whatever time they wanted, as long as he was still hosting The Tonight Show.Whoops. That sound you just heard was Conan pausing from his mid-morning cardio of smashing Jay Leno bobbleheads and that muffin basket NBC sent over with a cricket bat to contemplate how deep and how alive his lawyers should be buried after he finds them. I hope he hasn't already paid out the billable hours they charged to negotiate his contract.
According to Business Insider this means Conan can't switch to another network without "voiding his contract and passing on the tens of millions of dollars he would otherwise be owed."
I don't know, but that sounds like some Lawyer 101 type shit. "Rule 2C, Subsection G: Make sure the contract actually says what you think it says and that you get what you actually think you're getting." It seems to me that a large part of getting the Tonight Show at 11:35 is the whole 11:35 part. It's almost Yoo-esque in it's incompetence.
But as a haggard Andy Richter desperately knocks the shotgun out of Conan's mouth just before he can pull the trigger, we all realize what the one good thing about Leno being on at 11:35 is: that's the exact same time the Colbert Report is on. It'll be like nothing's on NBC from 11:35-12:05 and it's one less complicated DVR scheduling issue you'll have to work out. Thanks for making our lives easier, NBC.
As an addendum, here's Patton Oswalt commenting on the situation and why Jay Leno is like Nixon.
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