Tuesday, September 28, 2004

This is a little odd

"O'Brien signed a new contract on Monday that guarantees he will assume the job as host of America's top-rated late night talk show, "The Tonight Show," sometime during the 2009 season. Leno took over the show from Johnny Carson in May 1992. "

I love O'Brien,and think he is great. He could very well do a great job on the tonight show. I do not have access to the entire contract, but it seems to me that O'Brien ended up with the good end of the deal. If he gets cancer and dies in the next five years, NBC will be forced to follow though with their end of the deal. That means that they will have to use a clone, make a deal with God, or make a deal with the Devil. I can't see how making a deal four years in advance is really that good for NBC. O'Brien could screw up and say something real dumb, and get fired and he would still have job. What if O'Brien brings out some fake documents which discredited by fox?

cube

Update: Tilted Fish has a better take, though i think mine is funnier.

2 comments:

Andrew said...

I imagine they have a termination clause for most of those things, bud.

But seriously, the reason NBC writes deals like this is for stability and security. Letterman may very well step down from the Tonight Show before 2009, and if they didn't have this contract everyone in the industry knew Conan would be at CBS in a heartbeat. Seeing as Conan plays off much of the same demographic as Letterman, they'd be losing the one thing that keeps those people coming back to NBC by the end of the night.

Man of Issachar said...

I also bet Conan would have a termination clause or maybe a buy out amount, if he wanted to get out of it.

Though did you read tilted fish's post, he basically says that Conan want be fresh and new anymore.

In other words what they loose in newness they will gain in stability from what i am gathering from my streams of information.

Given that fact, i don't see how that is a good idea.