Goodbye Conan, Hello Fox?

January 22nd will be Conan O’Brien’s last night hosting The Tonight Show. After less than eight months, O’Brien will step away from a job he dreamed about as a boy. More accurately, Conan is being paid around $40 million, plus $12 million for his staff, to hand the reins back over to Jay Leno. In one of the biggest blunders in the entertainment business, the O’Brien/Leno debacle is now over.

O’Brien on his contract

From NBC’s perspective, Leno gets more views than O’Brien. However, these ratings are clearly slanted suffering from a small sample of less than eight months and the fact that Leno doesn’t have to compete with another NBC late night show before his. In fact, O’Brien has seen a major upswing in viewers as of late so who’s to say O’Brien isn’t the better long term option.

In spite of NBC’s terrible management of O’Brien, Conan is still cracking jokes, on NBC’s dime. On a recent episode O’Brien introduced crazy comedy bits that aren’t necessarily funny, but crazy expensive. One sketch involved a $1.5 million Bugatti dressed as a mouse with a Rolling Stone’s theme song while another featured Kentucky Derby winner Mind That Bird watching restricted NFL super bowl footage estimated at $4.5 million.

Jay Leno, who has bashed NBC for their blunders, will be returning to The Tonight Show March 1st. I respect Leno for defending his friend and can only imagine how awkward it will be to continue hosting the show. Leno has been hosting The Jay Leno Show at 10PM for the last few months but the show has failed to live up to the hype.

But what’s next for Conan. Straight from NBC, “Under terms of an agreement that was signed earlier today, NBC and O’Brien will settle their contractual obligations and the network will release O’Brien from his contract, freeing him to pursue other opportunities after September 1, 2010″ meaning we could see O’Brien again in few months. Interesting how his time off is almost the same length as his opportunity to host The Tonight Show.

No one knows what the future holds but I expect to see O’Brien back in late night. Just as David Letterman took his comedy elsewhere after NBC screwed him, I expect O’Brien to venture to Fox to spearhead their lackluster late night offerings. Conan has a great niche with the younger crowd which fits Fox’s mold. It is rumored that USA, TNT, TBS, Comedy Central, HBO and Showtime also have interest in O’Brien’s talent.

It’s a shame NBC had to screw up their line-up. The mix of Leno and O’Brien was great. In fact, I’m a huge Conan fan and don’t currently plan to watch Leno on The Tonight Show. Hopefully, Conan enjoys his time off but gets back in the saddle shortly.