The scorched-earth battle over late night television looks as if it might be coming to a peaceful end. According to The Daily Beast, Conan O'Brien's representatives are close to negotiating a settlement with NBC, which will allow the host to leave and start a new show on another network before his contract is up. He will also reportedly receive an undisclosed payout.
That's a stark reversal from reports yesterday that had NBC management talking tough about keeping O'Brien off the air by forcing him to stick to the terms of his contract.
In light of the universal lambasting that Jay Leno has received online and from the other late night hosts, one NBC executive leapt to his defense. In an interview with the New York Times, Dick Ebersol, Chairman of NBC Universal Sports, who was also one of the creators of Saturday Night Live and is often consulted on NBC's late-night plans, chastised O'Brien for his poor performance and failure to heed network advice on how to improve his show.
"What this is really all about is an astounding failure by Conan," he said, adding that the jokes made by O'Brien and CBS rival David Letterman were "chicken-hearted and gutless to blame a guy you couldn't beat in the ratings ... I like Conan enormously personally. He was just stubborn about not being willing to broaden the appeal of his show."
Despite this sign of network support, Leno remained the butt of several jokes last night, and the worst came from one of his on his own guests, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel.
In his monologue, Leno opened with, "Welcome to the new show, 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Off NBC!" and then made a joke about how O'Brien's ratings had improved thanks to the controversy, adding "You're welcome." But the real roasting came when Kimmel appeared via satellite as part of Leno's Ten @10 segment, where he asks a guest 10 questions. It started with a question about how best to imitate Leno, which he did on Tuesday night, when he did his entire show parodying the embattled host, but Kimmel used the opportunity to pile on whenever he could.
Asked for the best prank he ever pulled, Kimmel replied: "I think the best prank I ever pulled was, I told a guy that five years from now, I'm going to give you my show, and then when the five years game, I gave it to him but then I took it back almost instantly. It was hilarious." He likened O'Brien's and Leno's relationship to a "phony one" like the one between a stripper and a client. And when Leno asked if he had ever ordered anything off TV, he quipped, "Like NBC ordered your show off TV?"
Kimmel admitted one of his greatest fears was moving his show to 10 p.m., and ended with a plea: "Listen, Conan and I have children, all you have is cars. We have lives to lead ... Leave our shows alone."
O'Brien continued to have a field day with the feud, saying that a pornographic film-making company had contacted him to take part in a movie based on the situation (which is true), and came up with several possible titles for the film, including Conan Gets the Late Shaft. He also allowed sidekick Andy Richter to make his own statement to the television industry, in which he joked that after returning to the supposed stability of The Tonight Show, he had a spent a lot of money and now was willing to do just about anything: "TV, whatever you got, I will take it. You got one of those celebrity rehab shows you want me to be on, you name the drug and I will get hooked on it."
As for David Letterman, he opened by asking: "Are you aware of this situation between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien? Are you getting tired of hearing about it? [The audience answered yes]. Me neither."
He make a joke with a camera on the NBC's Burbank headquarters watching for smoke out of the chimney, which would signal when they found a new host for The Tonight Show, and also made an election spoof commercial that stated: "Jay Leno represents traditional American Values like killing Indians because you want their land. Jay Leno, America's standing up for Jay!"
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