Reports say 'Conan O’Brien finished after next week'

It looks like Conan O’Brien’s run of hosting The Tonight Show is coming to an end even sooner than believed. Many online sources, including People.com, are reporting that his final episode will air on Jan. 22, with a source telling the magazine: “Conan does not currently plan on doing any more new shows after next week.”

It was initially reported on the Twitter feed of ESPN personality Bill Simmons who added: “His staff is trying to book big guests so he goes out with a bang.”

Despite these unconfirmed reports, there’s still much that needs to be worked out, as many legal experts have also been discussing several things online, everything from whether or not NBC can move The Tonight Show back until after midnight, to any cash penalties that O’Brien may be able to wring from NBC in regards to his contract to host The Tonight Show.

O’Brien’s public statement on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of a later Tonight Show with him at the helm. And since his letter became public he has been embarrasing the network on a nightly basis with plenty of jokes.

As well, Nikki Finke of the Deadline Hollywood Daily blog has reported that Jeff Zucker, the head of NBC Universal, has threatened to keep O’Brien off the air for the length of this contract, and that O’Brien’s reps might head to court if such drastic measures are taken.

Finke speculates that the goal might be to keep O’Brien off the air for at least six months until Leno is back in place in his old slot, where, it should be remembered, he was the ratings leader.

To that possible end, TMZ.com reported that Jay Leno has signed a new contract with NBC to have a one-hour show from 11:35 a.m. to 12:35 a.m. Leno required a new contract because his current one stated that his show would run at 10 p.m.

NBC also announced its post-Olympics schedule with the shows that will fill the 10 p.m. slot vacated by Leno. It will include Law & Order (Monday) and L&O: SVU (on Wednesday), Parenthood (Tuesday), the Jerry Seinfeld-produced Marriage Ref (Thursday) and Dateline (Friday).

Despite all the bitterness, the feud has been good for late-night ratings as people stay up to watch the fireworks. At this point, O’Brien seems to be benefiting the most from the bump, with initial numbers for Tuesday night’s episode jumping a dramatic 40 per cent from Monday night’s broadcast and staying strong on Wednesday night.

As well, while it is up to NBC to decide what it’s going to do, public sentiment - at least on the Internet - is with O’Brien.

The “I’m with Coco” campaign was started by L.A.-based designer Mike Mitchell and features a poster that Entertainment Weekly has likened in its online ubiquity to Shepard Fairey’s famous Barak Obama “Hope” portrait.

A corresponding O’Brien Facebook support group was at just over 100,000 fans as of Thursday afternoon. As well, there are plans for a protest rally in front of NBC studios in Burbank on Friday.

The dispute has been fuel for the the other late night hosts, who have come out squarely in support of O’Brien, except for Jimmy Fallon, who has declared his neutrality.

On Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel did his entire show dressed as Leno and plenty of pot shots are coming from other hosts, including CBS rival David Letterman, who has repeatedly made reference to “Jay ‘Big Jaw’ Leno.” Leno has been painted as an entitled establishment performer who has failed at his latest gig and now wants to take back his old gig, no matter what the cost.

Last night, the on-air battle between Leno and O’Brien got more personal. In his opening monologue, Leno said, “Welcome to NBC, America’s most dysfunctional family,” and joked about O’Brien’s statement, saying “Conan said NBC had only given him seven months to make his show work. When I heard that - seven months, how did he get that deal? We only got four!”

He also addressed Kimmel’s imitation and has now scheduled Kimmel to appear via satellite on Friday’s episode as part of his Ten@10 interview segment.

As for O’Brien, he addressed his supporters, collectively known as Team Conan, and had a message for the youth watching saying: “Hosting The Tonight Show has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me and I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it too.”

The network executives at NBC have been the ones truly taking it on the chin, though, with all of the late night hosts taking pot shots at the management that created this programming disaster. It’s a mess in which everybody is unhappy with their show’s ratings and where hosts are having a field day skewering their bosses, which until now has always been one of Letterman’s favourite shticks.