Conan O’Brien Tonight Show Exit Agreement Pushed Back : Comedy News

The war rages on to see who will come out as the ultimate winner in the Tonight Show Wars. Clearly, despite the bad press, Jay Leno will continue along with steady ratings once he regains the show he was retired from last year – the question is… will all this ruckus be worth it for Conan?

According to Variety, lawyers “continued to haggle over final deal points – including compensation for… Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien staffers – of an exit agreement”. The report went onto say that “Lawyers worked until 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning, attempting to wrap up the departure deal [which you can read about in full here]“.

An announcement is now expected for Thursday morning” with “the final back-and-forth” believed to be revolving around “unsexy issues like tax implications of the exit deal”.

It is believe that “most of the exit agreement’s larger points have been settled”, with a grey area still hovering over “whether O’Brien’s settlement would be offset by money he might make on that hypothetical new show”.

It seems that Coco’s reps have said “All along that the host’s exit agreement – believed to be as much as $40 million – included a “no offset” clause” with NBC insiders suggesting that “There is an offset built in the deal should [Conan O'Brien] wind up at a new home like Fox”.

There is also the important matter of making gags (after all, this whole debacle is over a COMEDY show) which have been flying thick and fast between networks and late night shows.

Both sides are “Ironing out ground rules on a disparagement clause in the agreement”, which essentially looks at “How much fun can Conan O’Brien poke at NBC and Leno (both on The Tonight Show and as a guest on other shows) until he returns to hosting a new talk show”.

As expected, The Tonight Show team are in the process of putting the “finishing touches” on his Friday night “farewell episode”, with reports that guests will include music legend Neil Young, Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell and Robin Williams (who also appeared on Johnny Carson’s second last Tonight Show before Leno stole that too).

There have been some truly amazing barbs and jabs going back and forth, and as much as we hate to point you in the direction of a website other than our own – for those who want to catch up on some of the best moments, be sure to watch the video highlights at Gawker (who have done an amazing job of summarising the whole ordeal).