On Jan 14, 3:50 pm, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > Nikke Finke is now reporting (I forgot how breathless and self-serious she > gets)http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/*: > > "BREAKING NEWS!* *EXCLUSIVE! 6TH UPDATE, THURSDAY 3 PM: *I've just learned > that, for the past 48 hours, Universal Studios President/COO Ron Meyer was > secretly drafted during this NBC late night crisis to negotiate a settlement > between the network and Team Conan after O'Brien and his reps were > threatened by NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker (*see below*). "Ron is a > former agent, one of the biggest in Hollywood. He could get this done, so > NBC used him," a source just told me. "No one would talk to each other, and > they talked to Ron. He got everybody to talk to everybody." The deal as > sketched puts Jay Leno back hosting *The Tonight Show*, and Conan O'Brien > exiting with a *lot* of money. But there are still some terms to be worked > out -- which is why there hasn't been any announcement yet. But I'm warned > that "anything can happen" now that Meyer did his duty, and NBC is back in > charge. I can tell you there are definitely people around NBC Universal boss > Jeff Zucker who want to keep Conan in place at *The Tonight Show*. "But > Zucker is digging in his heels because of the bad press. He's being > stubborn," a Team Conan insider just told me. Stay tuned."
Showing Conan the door (albeit with a hefty settlement) and putting Jay back in place -isn't- bad press? Granted, there are few outcomes to this (short of Leno bowing out) that wouldn't lead to bad press, but this isn't one of them. If true, what this gives NBC is a Leno who looks like an egomaniac and a Conan who's the second known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings. I've watched Conan's show maybe five times since he took over and have no interest in watching Leno in any venue, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but I can't imagine anyone handling this situation worse than Zucker and NBC. --Dave Sikula
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