Conan Woos Far Younger Tonight Show Crowd

Face it, O'Brien's ratings weren't great

(NEWSER) - Conan O’Brien joins the ranks of the unemployed today, so the ousted Tonight Show host now has plenty of time to track the backlash and second-guessing about the TV shell game. Jay Leno remains the villain of the piece, but the hard truth is that O’Brien never drew the numbers of young viewers to his time slot that NBC had hoped for. “The 18-to-34 group is so difficult to attract and the lower half, 18 to 25, is the hardest of all,” a strategist told the New York Times. More»

Agreement includes $32M for him, rest for staff

(NEWSER) - Conan O'Brien and NBC have finally made it official. The late-night host signed an exit agreement that includes $32 million for O'Brien and $12 million for his staff. The deal is also believed to bar both sides from publicly disparaging each other, and to temporarily ban O'Brien from appearing on other shows or hosting his own show on a different network, the Wall Street Journal reports. Jay Leno is now free to reclaim O'Brien's time slot. More»

When you can Google what's going on, why watch Tonight Show ?

(NEWSER) - It’s fun to point fingers, but the “late-night fratricide” at NBC isn't Jeff Zucker's fault, Leno's, or Conan's: It's ours. The real culprit is our own disaffection with traditional TV, writes David Carr, who's been following the fracas closely—on his computer. We're so bombarded by news that The Tonight Show and its ilk increasingly seem beside the point, no matter who is delivering the monologue. "Why wait for Jay or Conan to show you Mel Gibson's mug shot when it’s there for the clicking on TMZ?" More»

Launch a Fox rival? Return to SNL ? Reality TV?

(NEWSER) - NBC's shabby treatment of Conan O'Brien has been a recurring theme of the Jay Leno-centric late-night shuffle, but "he-who-rocks-the-dopest-pompadour-on-TV" has more options than you might think. MTV ponders his options.

• Defect to Fox: The network is apparently interested, and it would be a great way to tick off NBC. But Fox has a terrible track record with late-night talk shows.
• Saturday Night Live: O'Brien's writing tenure at SNL coincided with a memorably strong run for the show, but Tonight Show host to "Cheeto-dusted anonymity" is a major step down.

(AP) - He's taken his lumps in the ratings, but yesterday Conan O'Brien hit his head during a stunt for the Tonight Show, and ended up at the hospital. The accident halted production, and a Tonight rerun with guest Jeremy Piven was aired. The scheduled show was to include Teri Hatcher and Seth "Family Guy," McFarlane. More»