NBC's Poor PR : Conan O'Brien reaches deal to exit `Tonight'; deal includes severance for staff

It's officially official now. In a $45 million deal, NBC and Conan O'Brien finally reached a resolution to the issues surrounding O'Brien's contract to host The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

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. O'Brien will get more than 33 million and the rest will go to his 200 staff in severance. O'Brien's last show on The Tonight Show will be this Friday, January 22.

NBC stated that Jay Leno will return as host of The Tonight Show at its regular time starting March 1st. NBC Universal Entertainment's chairman released this statement:

"We're pleased that Jay Leno is returning to host the franchise that he helmed brilliantly and successfully for many years. He is an enormous talent, a consummate professional and one of the hardest-working performers on television."

NBC should be embarrassed about the nightmare they've created. This controversy has started a ton of bad press and public relations for the entire network. First, they should have given O'Brien more time. Especially after most of the people involved uprooted their lives and moved across the country for this opportunity. Most businesses take over a year to really get going; O'Brien only had seven months! Second, the network is spending millions to break O'Brien's contract. This is such a waste for the company and shows very poor leadership. I think that NBC's chairman should resign should resign when this mess is over. Also, NBC doesn't have any 'big' shows on right now; they need some better programming. NBC could be blowing this whole situation out of proportion because of their bigger problem - poor ratings across the board. Third, Leno's current show is just bad and needs a lot of work to get back to up to the quality it was at before and ratings for that matter. Also, Leno hasn't been saying much about the matter; I think that's pretty smart. He's in a tough spot because he should support NBC for giving him a job, but at the same time, shouldn't show too much support in fear of showing agreement with their terrible process. I'm curious to see how Leno does when he returns in March, I will be stunned if he is successful.

I think that Conan's doing an awesome job handling the whole situation. His jokes about NBC are very funny and creative, yet tactful. NBC claims that O'Brien's argument to demand severance for his staff is a 'PR-ploy,' but regardless is smart. I think he's doing a great job building an audience to move to another network and start a new show and want to wish him the best.