I guess this explains why sometimes I have read Conan is getting 30M and other times that he is getting 40M - the total is 40M, with Conan getting 32.5 and the staff dividing 7.5M.
If NBC gave Leno that 150M buy-out it only further underlies the depth of their misjudgement - that they would bet so much on the JLP succeeding. Canceling the JLP and keeping Conan at Tonight would cost NBC more than they are going to lose from the Olympics this year - could they really afford to take two baths like that at once? Or, another way of putting this, as I think Kevin did a day or two ago, is that NBC basically decided in December of 2008 that Leno would either succeed at 10:00 or go back to The Tonight Show. I'm sure Conan just wishes somebody had let him in on it. **************** TV BY The Numbers has this: "The Peacock Network has agreed in principle to fork over $32.5 million to Conan O’Brien to leave as “The Tonight Show” host and give Jay Leno the chance to reclaim his mantle as the king of late-night talk shows, sources said yester day. The deal also reportedly provides severance pack ages totaling $7.5 million for the show’s loyal staffers, many of whom packed up with their families and moved across the country to work for O’Brien, whose previous show taped in the Big Apple. [...] The decision to let O’Brien walk apparently came down to who was cheaper to let go. Leno has an ironclad, “brilliantly written” agreement that guarantees his production company a staggering $150 million if NBC Universal axes his flailing primetime show, an insider said." [I guess it is from the NY Post]
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