Aug26

What Can Conan O’Brien Say About NBC and Jay Leno During the Emmy Awards?

If O'Brien wins Sunday in the outstanding variety, music or comedy series category for his aborted "Tonight Show" -- a distinct possibility, given the strong Hollywood and populist sentiment behind him in his public separation from NBC -- the host is legally prohibited from saying whatever he wants about his former bosses during an acceptance speech.

That's because O'Brien's settlement deal with the network contains strict rules against making "disparaging" comments about NBC or NBC Studios, Jay Leno and NBC executives Jeff Zucker, Dick Ebersol, Jeff Gaspin and Marc Graboff.

Those limitations end Sept 1, but the Emmys, which air on NBC, take place three days before the deadline. The event marks one of the first times that O'Brien and his former bosses will be together in the same room. A win for "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" and an O'Brien acceptance speech would present a rare moment of drama at the Emmys.

So what can Conan say? More than you might think.

We've learned that Conan's settlement deal defines disparaging comments as those that are "false" and would be viewed by a reasonable person to be "insulting or defamatory."

The key word is "false." O'Brien can poke fun at his former bosses or even take a shot at Leno as long as his remarks are not both inaccurate and scornful.

"He can still have a field day," says attorney Pierce O'Donnell, who has handled employment settlements in Hollywood cases but was not involved in the O'Brien deal. "He can make fun of NBC's ratings, its shows, as long as he's not saying anything false."

O'Brien left NBC in January after a wild turn of events that saw the network announcing that his "Tonight Show" would be bumped from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. to make room for Jay Leno, O'Brien publicly refusing to comply, and NBC and O'Brien's reps working out a $45 million deal for O'Brien and staff to leave -- all while the host continued to slam NBC on his show each night.

Since the separation, O'Brien and NBC have been careful to honor the terms of the settlement. Conan was prevented from making any media appearances until May 1, so he sat down with CBS' "60 Minutes" for an interview that aired May 2. He is not allowed to host another TV program until Sept. 1, so he took his act on the road for a 30-city live tour.

The "non-disparagement" clause in the deal was heavily negotiated and also prohibits top NBC executives from making false and insulting remarks about O'Brien until Sept. 1.

O'Donnell said that the specific end date and the "false" requirement are somewhat unusual for high-profile settlements and probably reflect leverage O'Brien had in negotiations. Because O'Brien's settlement allows him to host another show after Sept. 1, his reps -- led by agent Rick Rosen, manager Gavin Polone and lawyers Leigh Brecheen and Patty Glaser -- likely wanted to make sure he could say what he wanted on a new show without fear of interference from NBC. O'Brien's still-untitled TBS show is set to bow in November.

Regardless, sources in the Conan camp said he has no plans to say anything negative about NBC or anyone else at the Emmys on Sunday. If he did, of course, NBC could always hit the censor button on the live telecast. NBC and O'Brien reps declined to comment.

Apr14

Conan Comedy Tour Clips: [VIDEOS]

He may be “legally prohibited from being funny on television,” but Conan O’Brien has still managed to capture the attention of a video-viewing audience. More and more fan-made videos from O’Brien’s live comedy show have made their way onto YouTube since the tour kicked off on Monday.

The stirrings of virality started yesterday, when one YouTube user uploaded a vid of Conan performing “I Will Survive,” which has since garnered more than 100,000 hits. Another video — this one depicting the comedian covering Radiohead’s “Creep” — hit the web recently as well, popping up on myriad web video sites. (The song is a rather funny choice on O’Brien’s part, as a popular parody of Jay Leno’s return to The Tonight Show featured the same jam.)

Although Conan will be returning to TV in November, his online fame only continues to grow. He’s a heavy hitter on Facebook, Biz Stone cited his Twitter fame at today’s Chirp developer conference and now videos of his live show are going viral on YouTube. Forget television at this point, Coco — the Internet is your oyster.

Check out a collection of fan-made vids below:

Apr08

NBC Tries to Edit Around Slash's Team Coco Pin

Did Slash really wear an I'm with Coco pin on The Tonight Show last night? NBC doesn't want you to know, but it's true.

NBC Attempts to Edit Around Slash's Team Coco Pin

[via I'm With Coco]

When Slash was booked to perform on last night's Tonight Show, NBC surely didn't think he would show up wearing an I'm with Coco pin. But, he did. Slash went on Leno's show to proudly and somewhat brazenly show where his loyalties lay in the Late Night Wars.

NBC Attempts to Edit Around Slash's Team Coco Pin

As expected, Leno's crew worked around the problem and did all they could do make sure that Slash's pin didn't get much camera time. In fact, it only made this brief cameo in the performance.

Apr02

Conan Obrien currently leads time poll for most influential people in the world

Currently Conan is in first place with a ranking of 94! (Leno & Zucker are the lowest rated people with a score of "9", the second lowest person has a score of 17!) If you haven't voted or couldn't vote earlier, head over and give Coco some love.

The 2010 TIME 100 Poll - TIME

The Internet is a-buzz with support for Conan O’Brien, but there seems to be one image that’s the beating heart of the entire campaign. LA-based designer Mike Mitchell’s “I’m with Coco” poster has reached levels of ubiquity we haven’t seen since Shepard Fairey took on Obama.

“I’m a huge Conan fan,” Mitchell says. “I went to one of the first test shows [for The Tonight Show] here in LA, and I’ve been a big fan for a long time.” Of the late-night debacle at NBC, he adds: “The whole thing’s just a crappy situation.”

Mitchell set out to design a campaign-style poster, which initially read “I’m with Conan in 2010,” in the hopes that it would “maybe start a movement thing?” A friend suggested just “I’m with Conan,” and Mitchell landed on the far-catchier “I’m with Coco.” It’s a slogan even Swiss Miss could be jealous of.

Mitchell says he’s heard from an O’Brien staffer who told him O’Brien had seen the image, and Mitchell’s hopeful that maybe the host will reach out himself. Ultimately, though, the fan-turned-iconographer just wants the comedian to land somewhere, “and hopefully he can bring his whole staff with him. It’s embarrassing as an Angeleno: We bring Conan all the way here [from New York] and after seven months say ‘never mind’?”

Mar11

Conan O’Brien Launches TeamCoco.com and is coming to a town near you

Conan O’Brien’s tour poster uses an image created earlier this year by Mike Mitchell, a Los Angeles artist, in support of O’Brien.

With this morning’s announcement of Conan O’Brien’s 30-city tour, the former late-night comedian is fully embracing his online fan base, “Team Coco.”

The official poster for the tour re-uses the image made famous on the Internet of a heroic Mr. O’Brien, orange hair aflame, in front of an American flag. The image was produced by Mike Mitchell, an artist in Los Angeles, as a show of support for Mr. O’Brien when NBC tried in January to move “The Tonight Show” to 12:05 a.m. Within days the image and its message, “I’m With Coco,” was a viral sensation, inspiring dozens of pro-Conan groups on Facebook. Several of Mr. O’Brien’s employees even made the image their Facebook profile photo.

Now they have formally adopted the image as their own. Days after Mr. O’Brien signed off of “The Tonight Show” on Jan. 22, one of the comedian’s producers contacted Mr. Mitchell and said that they wanted the “Coco” illustration to be the emblem of a nationwide tour they were planning.

“They wanted it to be the main image,” Mr. Mitchell recalled in an e-mail message Thursday. “They are all such fans of the ‘I’m with Coco’ poster and what it means to everyone.”

Mr. Mitchell met with Mr. O’Brien’s executive producer, Jeff Ross, about a month ago, to talk through a licensing deal.

“Apparently Conan wanted to get me on board for it – obviously I was honored,” Mr. Mitchell said. He said he retains the rights to the widely distributed image; Mr. O’Brien’s team will use it for the tour and for some merchandise sales.

Mr. O’Brien has set up an online presence on Twitter and at TeamCoco.com. His representatives do not own ConanOBrien.com, so TeamCoco could become his primary Web site. The site currently promotes the tour, and says it is “Copyright © 2010 Team Coco Inc.”

Asked about compensation for the image, Mr. Mitchell said “a fair deal was made for both parties.”

Mr. Mitchell said Mr. O’Brien called to thank him for creating the image. He recalled Mr. O’Brien joking that “I love anything with my face on it, and CONAN in huge bold letters.”

Jan18

Leno anticipates return to 11:30, lauds O'Brien

Jay Leno turned serious on his show Monday to discuss the late-night chaos at NBC, explaining events from his standpoint and telling viewers he considered Conan O'Brien a "great guy."

In remarks after his monologue Monday, Leno said he'd tried to avoid doing a show in prime time but was convinced by NBC that it could work.

It didn't, with NBC pulling the plug on "The Jay Leno Show" after four months and devising a plan to put Leno back on at 11:30 p.m. and push O'Brien and "Tonight" to midnight. With O'Brien's rejection of the plan, NBC is now trying to negotiate his exit and return Leno to the late-night spot.

Leno said it looks like he might be back at 11:30 and that the situation could be resolved by Tuesday.

Here is a transcript of what Leno said:

I thought maybe I should address this. At least give you my view of what has been going on here at NBC. Oh, let's start in 2004. 2004 I'm sitting in my office, an NBC executive comes in and says to me, listen, Conan O'Brien has gotten offers from other networks. We don't want him to go, so we're going to give him 'The Tonight Show.' I said, 'well, I've been number one for 12 years.' They said, 'we know that, but we don't think you can sustain that.' I said, 'okay. How about until I fall to number two, then you fire me?' 'No, we made this decision.' I said, 'that's fine.' Don't blame Conan O'Brien. Nice guy, good family guy, great guy. He and I have talked and not a problem since then. That's what managers and people do, they try to get something for their clients. I said, 'I'll retire just to avoid what happened the last time.' Okay.

So time goes by and we stay number one up until the day we leave. We hand - (applause)-No, no. Okay, but I'm leaving before my contract is out. About six to eight months early. So before I could go anywhere else, I would be at least a year or 18 months before I could go and do a show somewhere else. I said to NBC, 'would you release me from my contract.' They said, 'we want to keep you here.' Okay. What are your ideas? They said, 'how about primetime?' I said, 'that will never work.' No, no, we want to put you on at 10:00. We have done focus groups. People will love you at 10:00. Look at these studies showing Jay's chin at 10:00. People will go crazy. Didn't seem like a good idea at the time. I said, 'alright, can I keep my staff?' There are 175 people that work here. I said, 'can I keep my staff?' Yes, you can. Let's try it. We guarantee you two years on the air, guaranteed. Now for the first four or five months against original shows like "CSI" you'll get killed, but in the spring and summer when the reruns come, that's when you'll pick up. Okay, great. I agree to that.

Four months go by, we don't make it. Meanwhile, Conan's show during the summer, we're not on, was not doing well. The great hope was that we would help him. Well, we didn't help him any, okay. They come and go, 'this show isn't working. We want to let you go.' Can you let me out of my contract? No, you're still a valuable asset to this company. How valuable can I be? You fired me twice. How valuable can I be? Okay. So then, the affiliates are not happy. The affiliates are the ones that own the TV stations. They're the ones that sort of makes the decisions, they're not happy with your performance and Conan is not doing well at 11:30. I said, 'what's your idea?' They said, 'well, look, how about you do a half hour show at 11:30?' Now, where I come from, when your boss gives you a job and you don't do it well, I think we did a good job here, but we didn't' get the ratings, so you get humbled. I said, 'okay, I'm not crazy about doing a half hour, but okay. What do you want to do with Conan?' We'll put him on at midnight, or 12:05, keeps "The Tonight Show" does all that, he gets the whole hour. I said, okay. You think Conan will go for that? Yes, yes. (laughter) Almost guarantee you. I said okay. Shake hands, that's it. I don't have a manager, I don't have an agent, that's my handshake deal.

Next thing I see Conan has a story in the paper saying he doesn't want to do that. They come back to me and they say if he decides to walk and doesn't want to do it, do you want the show back? I go, 'yeah, I'll take the show back. If that's what he wants to do. This way, we keep our people working, fine.' So that's pretty much where we are. It looks like we might be back at 11:30, I'm not sure. I don't know. (applause) I don't know. But through all of this - through all of this, Conan O'Brien has been a gentleman. He's a good guy. I have no animosity towards him. This is all business. If you don't get the ratings, they take you off the air. I think you know this town, you can do almost anything. You get ratings they keep you. I don't get ratings, he wants. That was NBC's solution. It didn't work so we might have an answer for you tomorrow. So, we'll see. That's basically where it is.

Jan17

Conan O'Brien's Ratings Soar Amid Leno Flap

Conan O'Brien's battle with his network certainly hasn't hurt his ratings.

With his jabs at NBC network executives apparently resonating in a country filled with the unemployed, viewership has soared.

O'Brien's ratings have been rising through the week, which was an extraordinary one in late-night television and saw O'Brien and David Letterman hurling barbed remarks at Jay Leno, and Leno firing back.

"Tonight" ratings Friday were 50 percent higher than they've been this season, and O'Brien beat CBS' Letterman, according to a preliminary Nielsen Co. estimate based on large markets. In the 18-to-49-year-old demographic that NBC relies on to set advertising prices, O'Brien even beat Leno's prime-time show.

Settlement talks continued Saturday on a deal that would let O'Brien leave NBC and restore Leno to the 11:35 p.m. time slot he occupied for 17 years through last spring.

O'Brien's team sees the ratings as vindication. His manager, Gavin Polone, on Saturday compared it to when Leno, trailing Letterman in the ratings in the mid-1990s, drew attention for the memorable appearance of Hugh Grant after his arrest. Leno passed Letterman in popularity and never looked back.

"People who never watched Conan before are saying, `I'll try it,'" Polone said. "Now they're saying, `this is good, I'll stick with it.'"

It's doubtful they'll get the chance. O'Brien sounded halfway out the door on Friday's show, an exit prompted by his refusal to move his show to 12:05 a.m. at NBC's request. "By the time you see this, I'll be halfway to Rio in an NBC traffic helicopter," he said in his monologue.

He aired a skit where he was assaulted by gunfire after pulling his car into the studio parking lot. He also is showing "greatest hits" of his seven-month tenure.

But he pulled back from jokes about Leno. On Friday, Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, had said the crossfire between hosts "has definitely crossed the line.

"Jay is the consummate professional and one of the hardest-working people in television," Gaspin said. "It's a shame that he's being pulled into this."

Meanwhile, Polone denied a New York Post item Saturday, quoting an anonymous source, that said O'Brien's staff members are "furious" with O'Brien for negotiating an exit payment reportedly approaching $30 million while they are losing their jobs. Polone noted that O'Brien paid staff members himself during the Hollywood writers' strike, and was negotiating severance packages for his employees, many of whom moved from the New York area last year when O'Brien started on "Tonight."

Polone is also angry at NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol, who told The New York Times this week that O'Brien was "an astounding failure" who had stubbornly resisted advice to broaden his show's appeal. O'Brien's people blame the show's ratings problems on the poor ratings of NBC's late local news and Leno's show before that.

Leno averaged 5.2 million viewers per night on his last season at the "Tonight" show, Nielsen said. O'Brien is averaging 2.5 million this season.