Very few things in this country
galvanize public opinion like someone trying to mess around with people's
preferences in the bedroom. I'm talking of course about what they watch on
late-night television, and NBC found that out a few months ago when Conan O'Brien,
the newly installed host of The Tonight Show, quit after the network announced it
was going to push the Tonight Show into tomorrow, and to give its traditional
timeslot back to O'Brien's predecessor Jay Leno. It triggered a lot of bad
publicity for NBC, an outpouring of public support for Conan and some of the
best late-night jokes in a decade. Conan walked away with a 32 million
dollar settlement and a new cable show, and NBC did its best to push him into
oblivion, legally prohibiting him from saying anything false or disparaging
about the network, and from giving interviews or appearing on television
until...now. If you're wondering what happened to Conan O'Brien and what he
thinks about all of this, you're about to find out. So what's with the beard? The first day that I woke up and was no longer the host of The Tonight Show, I
remember the first thought I had is "I am NOT shaving" and that was my small
victory. Oh okay so I lost The Tonight Show but I'll show them...
I'll stop shaving. This has been quite a year Yeah......that's it we're done this was a
lot of fun. This year has been is still incomprehensible to me the
amount of stuff that's happened in my life in the last year is... it's gonna
take me a long time to process it. After leaving the Tonight Show in January and hanging out at his home trying to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life, he decided the best therapy would be to get out of the house and back to work. He assembled a lot of his old staff, opened a Twitter account, "That's the tweet", And began planning nationwide comedy tour
something that he had never done before and one of the few things he was allowed
to do contractually "See how things play out" We met up with him in Seattle.
You must have been miserable the last couple of months. I went through
some stuff and got very depressed at times you know it was like a marriage
breaking up suddenly violently quickly and I was just trying to figure out what
happened. When we started putting this tour together, I started to
feel better almost immediately and then this, there's no better antidote to what
I've just been through then to do this every night. "Ladies and Gentlemen..." "I'll see you in a little bit." "Ok" Why don't you go? No stop! You go! I can't do it! "CONAN O'BRIEN!" You know doing this tour though this is
a huge milestone for me This is the first time anybody has ever paid to see me can you believe that yeah oh they they paid to make me go
away (laughs) "On the Road Again" The legally prohibited from being funny on television tour has boosted his confidence, kept him relevant, and
provided an outlet for him to explore his anger, disappointment, and anxiety
with mostly self-deprecating humor my "My Own Show Again...I just can't wait to have my own show again..." "I'd even take a primetime show that's on at ten anything to have my own show again" After forty performances in thirty two cities in the US and Canada, the tour will wind up next month at Radio City Music Hall in New York,
right next door to NBC's corporate headquarters where this whole late-night
Fiasco was cooked up. I just want to say I couldn't be happier, you were the only
choice, you were the perfect choice you have been an absolute gentleman in
private "Conan Rocks" in the press I agree Conan rocks. Good luck next week my friend. Jay thank you for everything Less than one year after Jay Leno handed The Tonight Show off to Conan O'Brien, NBC decided to cancel Leno's disastrous primetime show and move him back into his old time period at 11:35 Eastern. Conan's "Tonight Show", which was losing badly in the ratings to David Letterman, was to be bumped back to 12:05 the next morning. Was it in the back of your mind that,
"look, if I don't do that well they could just... just pop Leno back in?" I'm a paranoid person and I think I'm the kind of person that can come up with lots of
negative scenarios but I remember thinking that seemed like a...that
was a stretch even for me. What followed were some unpleasant discussions with NBC's West Coast brass. It just felt like tthe tone went very quickly from "take your time we understand this is a tough decision" To (hits his chair and snaps fingers) you know "Let's go". You know and that
probably helped me a little bit feel like "you know what, this environment
doesn't feel right, and I've been with these people a long time and I don't like... I
really don't like the way this is going." And when it started to get toxic, and I
started to feel that I'm not sure these people even really want me here let's
just...let's just...I can't do it. Do you think they wanted you to leave? Uhhh yeah that's crossed my mind I don't know how thought-out this whole
thing was, but if they wanted me to leave it worked. This is just really really hard for him it was watching someone's heart broken. Liza O'Brien, Conan's wife, was one of his main confidants and closest advisors during
the debacle Did you approve of everything that he
did? 100% yeah. You thought he should have left? Absolutely. What do you think of the way he was treated by NBC? From my perspective it
felt like they never really gave him the job, that they said "we're going to give
you this job in five years", and they kept him with the company and they they you
know he said "I won't go anywhere else and I'll keep working for you and I'm in
it for the long haul" and it felt like they they lost their nerve to really
make a change and that was too bad It was a shame because it would have been great to see what he could have done if he had had their full support and had
some more time. You've got this non-disparagement agreement... Do you have a copy because I haven't read it in a while I keep one in my wallet (laughs) It'd be funny anytime people come up to me "hey so what's the deal with uh
with Jay Leno" hold on a second He's a fine and good man...There we go put that away. Can I assume that this interview would take a different tenor if that
agreement did not exist? No it I don't think it would. The biggest thing people come up and say to me in gas stations and restaurants I have so many people say
this to me "Hey partner you got screwed" I don't and I
always tell them no I didn't, I didn't get screwed. I'm fine, it just it didn't
work out. Oh you did get screwed You think I got screwed? Well I think most people think you got screwed, I mean Jay Leno thinks you got screwed, Jay Leno thinks he got screwed How did he get screwed? (laughs) Explain that part to me...I'm sorry Jay's got The Tonight Show, I have a beard, and an inflatable bat and I'm touring city to
city. Who can say who can say who won and who lost? I'm laughing because crying would be sad. Has Jay
reached out to you? No No calls? No I do not I do not think I will be hearing
from him. We should get him in here Is he gonna be a surprise walk-on? No no no
Okay But we can call if you know his number or we and I'm sure he'd come over. He may have caller ID he won't pick up I think Leno would say "look I was riding high I was number one and I was still
number one when I left and Conan made this deal with NBC and NBC said okay Jay
we're gonna take you off the air in five years regardless of whether you're
number one or number two or what" I think he felt like he was forced out by
NBC at a time when he was a strong number one and was pushed out the door mm-hmm mm-hmm That's his argument. It's hard for me to
get inside his head and argue his side of this whole thing. I was...here's what
I can say; I'm happy with my decision I sleep well at night and I you know... hope he's happy with his decision. Do you think that Jay lobbied for this? I don't know but... what I know is what happened which is that he went and
took that show back Do you believe he acted honorably during all of this? (groans) I don't...I don't think I can answer that I don't think... I can just tell you maybe how I would have handled it, and I would
do it differently. You wouldn't have come back on the "Tonight Show"? If I had surrendered The Tonight Show and handed it over to somebody publicly and wish
them well and then I don't would not have come back six months
later...but that's me you know. Everyone's got their own you know way of doing
things. What would you have done? Done something else go someplace else I mean
that's just me... He is equally disappointed with NBC the company where he worked most of his adult life and with NBC Universal Chief Jeff Zucker who he has known since they were classmates at Harvard. Has Zucker called you? No. You haven't talked to Zucker since this offer was made to you? That's right. You know at some point I'm sure I'm gonna bump into these people... and you know I'm
not sure we're going to be have our arms around each other and drinking beer and
singing old Irish fight songs because I don't think they know any You know I...I wish, this is gonna sound crazy, I do wish these people well. Jeff Zucker
was quoted as saying "At the end of the day, the viewers voted, and they didn't like Conan as the host of "The Tonight Show". ...Can I take back what I just said? You take issue with that? In my opinion, I don't think that's fair nor
accurate, but he's entitled to his opinion I think for anyone to say that
the results were in after six months that doesn't ring true to me. Oh they
said that the for the first time in history that "The Tonight Show" was losing
money I don't see how that's...I honestly don't see how that's possible.
it's really not possible. It isn't possible. Did you expect NBC to give you
more of a chance? Absolutely...I...yes Do you feel like it was a failure? My Tonight Show?
No. Absolutely not. Conan does agree with NBC's comments that it was a business decision motivated by money, and he acknowledges that Leno had the more expensive contract and would have been even harder to let go. Some people have
reported that that NBC would have had to pay him 150 million dollars? mm-hmm yeah
So if you look at it that way and you're working at...let's say...I don't know you're
working for General Electric and you tell them you know "there's 'this' to make
that guy go away or there's 'this'.... That decision is probably pretty clear
and I think in my gut I honestly believe ...everybody knows, that's what
happened, they did what they had to do, and ok I get it
and the only thing I take exception to is subsequently people saying "Well you
know Conan was losing money and you know actually he was murdering cats" What? Whatever. Last month Conan finally pulled the
trigger on his future raising some eyebrows by signing on to do an 11
o'clock show for the cable channel TBS and not with a broadcast network Oh I do
not look down my nose at cable and I think anyone who does isn't paying
attention to television these days. Because it is...this world is changing
very quickly. You got 30 million dollars that you
didn't have before you've got a very lucrative
new gig on TBS which has a...an audience that... Very young audience. ...custom-made for
you...it wasn't all bad? That's the point I keep making. It's crucial to me that
anyone seeing this take they take anything away from this it's I'm fine, I'm doing great, I hope people still find me comedically absurd and ridiculous and
I and I don't regret anything. I and I don't regret anything. I do believe... ...and this might be my Catholic
upbringing or Irish magical thinking but I think things happen for a reason. I
really do I thought the Lutherans believed that? Oh my god...it is Lutherans. Okay I believe that if I experience any joy in
life, I'll go to hell That's what I believe. But you get my point "They threw me out" "It happened fast" "They said please don't let the door "...hit your freckled Irish ASS." "I hung around the house eating frosting from a jar" "I got really into "Gossip Girl" and sleeping in my car!" "Yes I'll survive!" "Yes I'll survive!" They kinda tried to kill me, but I made it out alive!" "I've got all my life to live, I'VE GOT SO MANY SHOWS TO GIVE" I'll survive! I will survive! I WILL SUUURRRRVVVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVEEEEEE! :)
