Leno, Conan, and the Peacock

Sharon McKnight SPHR

Hey, all,

Anybody been watching the Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien fiasco? What an employee relations mess.

What would you do if you had an employee who moved to a different department for what he perceived as a better opportunity, then fell flat on his face and wanted his old job back?

Would you bump the new employee out of that job and give it back to him? How could you justify that?

Would the new kid have to be performing poorly to get bumped? What if his performance was stellar? Would you still bump him?

Sharon

NaeNae55

It would depend upon our arrangement beforehand. If I agreed the old employee could come back and made sure the new employee understood the situation, then I would follow through. (It would probably make me feel bad and I would try to find some way to make it up to the new.)

If we didn't have such an agreement, then I would look for something new for my good but old employee.

On the surface NBC looks bad about this, but they are getting a lot of press. Don't they say there is no such thing as bad press? Are more people tuning in just to see what will be said next?

Whatever, I'm glad it's not my problem.

cnghr

I just read an article that said that both Leno's and O'Brien's shows' ratings had gone up since this started, so I guess there is no such thing as bad press!

Now at least one NBC exec is blaming Conan O'Brien and saying that this happened because his version of The Tonight Show was failing, although originally I'd heard that it was because Leno's show was losing in the ratings. So I'm not sure what to believe now, but I gotta agree with Nae...I'm just glad it's not my problem!

Tony Kessler

Wow. If you were faced with a similar situation, I wonder if many of you would take the same approach today's [I]Wall Street Journal[/I] is reporting that NBC will take. That is, pay Conan a whopping $40 million to go quietly into the night, so to speak. If the report is true, Conan would get the money to leave NBC but be prohibited from bad-mouthing his current Peacock network bosses. So, none of this: ::angryface::

Conan could land another TV gig within a year. Not a bad deal for him!

Late addition: Here is a clip from Conan's second-to-last show in which he (tongue firmly planted in cheek) shared some of the previously hidden terms of his buyout agreement:

[[URL]http://www.hulu.com/embed/0G2oRGrPt5dLl0beb5guDQ][/URL]

joannie

I'd take $40 mil to walk away from my job.

Sharon McKnight SPHR

Not a bad deal at all and that gag clause is pretty standard in severance agreements. But, in this case, the $$ amount is huge.

How long was he in that job? How much per hour does that equate to? Let's see. I think Conan has been on the Tonight Show less than a year, but let's just give him a year. At $40,000,000, his hourly rate, if we assume he worked 40 hours a week, would be over $19,000 an hour. That doesn't count what they actually paid him during that time.

Nice work if you can get it.

Sharon

Tony Kessler

In "The Word on Employment Law" today, John Phillips has come up with an interesting solution for all the late-night drama: "Fire them all!" He would fire Leno, Conan, even Letterman, and then hold an American Idol-like contest to determine, once and for all, who is the king of Late-Night comedy. To find out who John believes the darkhorse winner would be, check out [URL]http://bit.ly/8b5awd[/URL]. tk

NaeNae55

[QUOTE=Sharon McKnight SPHR;718755]
How long was he in that job? How much per hour does that equate to? Let's see. I think Conan has been on the Tonight Show less than a year, but let's just give him a year. At $40,000,000, his hourly rate, if we assume he worked 40 hours a week, would be over $19,000 an hour. That doesn't count what they actually paid him during that time.

Nice work if you can get it.

Sharon[/QUOTE]

Keep in mind that people in that spot are generally allowed to keep it for decades, and usually have significant power in the entertainment industry. He was probably earning lots of cash to start with, and if he doesn't land on his feet (which he probably will) one could argue that this isn't really that good of a deal for him. It's a dream for the rest of us, but maybe not that good for him.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Tonight is Coco's last show. My understanding is that NBC is paying him $40 million to leave BUT they will deduct any future salary he earns from his next show from this amount. So if Fox hires him for $25 million, NBC is off the hook for that amount.

So... what would stop him from working for Fox for $1 and have a new show on Fox while still being paid by NBC?

Sharon McKnight SPHR

[quote=Paul in Cannon Beach;718815]Tonight is Coco's last show. My understanding is that NBC is paying him $40 million to leave BUT they will deduct any future salary he earns from his next show from this amount. So if Fox hires him for $25 million, NBC is off the hook for that amount.

So... what would stop him from working for Fox for $1 and have a new show on Fox while still being paid by NBC?[/quote]


A team of really good NBC lawyers.

Dutch2

It has been years since I watched any of the "late" night talk shows. These guys (programs) come on to late in the evening for me. Ya know us old guys - early to bed, early to rise, makes a man.... how does that go again???? Darn ol' senior moments.