Have you ever been dicked over at work? And your boss is telling you,"No, there's nothing wrong here. It's all in your head"? If you have, say hello to your brother, Conan O'Brien.
Did he have a funny feeling he might be New Coke to Jay Leno's Classic? When he took over The Tonight Show and NBC installed Leno in the one hour 10 to 11 spot, was his Spidey sense tingling?
Even the network admitted it was going to do badly with Jay's ratings but said it was still cheaper than producing original programming. (They were right about that. I think Leno's last original joke was about Arsenio Hall. Hey, I admire the guy's work ethic, just not his output.)
So Jay's show tanked and NBC hatched a plan to put him back in his old time slot: 11:35pm. What about Conan? Oh, no problem, his show will still be called The Tonight Show. But it will air at 12:05pm.
I believe that NBC had this plan or one like it in mind all along. Here's the thing that makes this such a con job on Conan: his contract does not specify a time slot. Maybe when Conan signed the contract, he overlooked this because The Tonight Show has been on at the same time for sixty years!
So shoving Conan back in favor of the old guy isn't a breach of contract or trust. It's really nothing at all, legally speaking. But if Conan refuses to play along, he can't leave and do a similar show for another network because he'll be the one acting in bad faith.
Who knows what will happen if he takes another job. Hopefully, NBC will forget that legal loophole and let him go. As for now, Conan won't pretend he's not getting the shaft: he refuses to continue on The Tonight Show if its time slot is moved. Read his letter to People of Earth.
I know Conan says he's lucky...and he is. I'm not asking for alms for a rich man. I just hate to see an honest guy get screwed.
*****
1/15/10--Update: Apparently, NBC and Leno were unhappy enough with the drubbing they got from everyone to come to the negotiating table with a sweet deal for Conan the Contrarian. The size of the check he'll get for walking away hasn't been settled yet but Conan will be free to go to a competing network--probably FOX--and ply his comedic trade. NBC came to its senses about holding him to his bogus contract.
It will be a while before he'll be able to pull a show together. But when he does, I hope he kicks Leno's ass!
Labels: Arsenio Hall, bad boss, Breach of contract, Conan O'Brien, humor, Jay Leno, kathcom, magick sandwich, NBC, New Coke, sarcasm, stupid shit, Tonight Show
