Conan Fights for Crew Severance Payments
The sticking point in Conan O'Brien's complex exit negotiations with NBC involves
his TV staff, not Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, a person familiar with the talks said
Tuesday.
Although discussions also focused on whether NBC would keep the rights to familiar
O'Brien comedy bits including Triumph, O'Brien's focus was ensuring severance
deals for his "Tonight" staff and crew, the person said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because the talks were intended to be private.
O'Brien is "dug in on that," the person said.
NBC fired back in a statement, saying "it was Conan's decision to leave NBC that
resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work."
"We have already agreed to pay millions of dollars to compensate every one of
them. This latest posturing is nothing more than a PR ploy," the network said.
A spokesman for O'Brien declined to comment.
So far, negotiations have yielded a proposed deal that could pay O'Brien more
than $30 million for leaving NBC and "The Tonight Show," allowing Jay Leno to
return to late night from his soon-to-be canceled 10 p.m. EST show.
(Source: HuffingtonPost.com)
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