They say you should dream big, but Lindsay Lohan may be on another planet as far as her dreams are concerned. Â This week on Jay Leno, Lindsay come off as sincere and repentant when talking about her legal woes, and that definitely won the audience over, but she seemed to be a little bit in la-la land when Jay asked her what sort of vision she has for herself at age 30.
Lindsay told Jay that she’d like to be on The Tonight Show again, but this time after having won an Academy Award. This got a strong positive reaction for the audience, but in order for it to come true, she actually has to be in some movies first, and in order for that to happen, she has to try to stay out of jail for more than a couple of months at a time. Â Good luck with all that.
Viewers certainly tuned in to watch Jay Leno‘s return to late night on Monday, but will it last? The Tonight Show with Jay Leno swamped longtime rival David Letterman in the ratings on Monday, pulling in nearly twice as many viewers as The Late Show.
Jay Leno (Photo: NBC)
Almost 6 million people watched Jay Leno’s return to The Tonight Show on Monday for the first time since last May. The question remains, however, whether Jay Leno can continue to pull high enough ratings to justify the late night NBC shake-up that resulted in Conan O’Brien ditching The Tonight Show and leaving the network.
Conan O’Brien failed to bring in enough viewers to be consistently competitive against The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS after he took the reins of The Tonight Show. Meanwhile, Jay Leno floundered in his new 10:00 PM slot badly, pulling in disappointing ratings and making NBC sponsors quite unhappy. NBC decided to push Conan O’Brien to a later time and put Jay Leno back in late night, but O’Brien decided he’d rather leave than get the short end of that deal.
NBC has risked a lot on Jay Leno being able to reclaim his late night glory on The Tonight Show. Right now fans are tuning in for the curiosity factor, but if Leno can’t keep them interested, the whole shake-up could backfire on NBC big time.
Personally, we thought Jay Leno’s return to The Tonight Show was rather yawn-worthy. It’s really like he never even left and that’s a bad thing. Leno needs to change things up and take some real chances. The same old, same old isn’t going to give him the ratings he needs to prove he deserved to win the Leno – O’Brien late night war.
NBC announced Thursday they had reached a final deal with Conan O’Brien for $45 million. O’Brien will receive $33 million for his exit as host of The Tonight Show. The rest of the settlement will go to his staff for severance pay and contract buy-outs.
Conan O'Brien (Photo: U.S. Embassy at Helsinki)
The deal will allow Jay Leno to resume his former post of 17 years as host of The Tonight Show on March 1st. As part of the deal, Conan O’Brien has been asked not to return to television for eight months. “NBC and Conan O’Brien have reached a resolution of the issues surrounding O’Brien’s contract to host The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” the network said in a press statement Thursday.
“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.”
“We’re pleased that Jay is returning to host the franchise that he helmed brilliantly and successfully for many years,” said Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment. “He is an enormous talent, a consummate professional and one of the hardest-working performers on television.”
Conan O’Brien will make his last appearance as host of The Tonight Show on Friday.
Frankly, we could do without seeing either one of them on the air for a while. All this media frenzy about the Jay Leno versus Conan O’Brien feud has just left us bored with both of them – and once again astounding by the stupidity of television network executives in general.
Conan O’Brien is reportedly close to signing a $40 million exit deal with NBC. O’Brien is expected to receive the bulk of the payout, with the rest going to staffers for severance pay and contract buyouts.
Conan O'Brien (Photo: John J. Kruzel/American Forces Press Service)
Under the $40 million deal for Conan O’Brien from NBC, The Tonight Show host would not be able to launch a new television show until fall, according to the Wall Street Journal. O’Brien would take home just over $30 million from the deal.
The remainder of the payout would be given to O’Brien’s Tonight Show staffers and crew. Many of them moved from Los Angeles to New York with O’Brien to work on The Tonight Show and were reportedly upset and angry that they might not be compensated properly for losing their jobs.
The terms of the deal also ban Conan O’Brien from bad-mouthing his former employers once he leaves the network. Not that he hasn’t already had his fill of trashing NBC since this whole drama started.
They say you should dream big, but Lindsay Lohan may be on another planet as far as her dreams are concerned. Â This week on Jay Leno, Lindsay come off as sincere and repentant when talking about her legal woes, and that definitely won the audience over, but she seemed to be a little bit in la-la land when Jay asked her what sort of vision she has for herself at age 30.
