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Conan Personally Covers Stagehands’ Severance

Feb 2, 2010  •  Post A Comment

 The negotiations involving Conan O’Brien’s exit from NBC’s "The Tonight Show" were especially contentious when it came to the severance pay due to O’Brien’s staff and now it’s the comic himself who is going to do right by his people, reports TMZ.com.

NBC’s S7.5 million severance payout was not sufficient to cover stagehands, and O’Brien has reached into his own funds to give those concerned a fair settlement. That’s six weeks of pay for nearly 50 employees.

— Allison J. Waldman

5 Comments

  1. Take that LENO. Think back to the Oprah interview… Think back to when Leno and his fake concern for “his staff” losing their “jobs” (which was ironic because he repeatedly said he preferred to be a “well-paid” employee and not the owner…) but I digress. Not once did it occur to Leno that if his show was canceled that he could reach into his GIGANTIC pockets and soften the blow for his staff.
    Conan is a real human. Jay is pathological and living in a parallel world of his own.

  2. Dear Internet,
    I find it a bit odd that Conan would have to be the one paying the stagehands. NBC is well aware of how many people were losing jobs and they didn’t care.
    And Leno, you are terrible. Really, really terrible. Monica Lewinsky was over 15 years ago. Clinton, no longer in office. You should retire those old tired jokes. But perhaps its your clinging onto the old which is what kept you in first place. After all, its easy for the old folks to doze off while your show is on.
    And as far as ratings and getting canceled goes, its all your fault. All of it. It always takes a bit for a new show to find its place and it’s niche. Your show was way out of place and an awful lead in to the Tonight Show. It was the same crap over and over but with different celebrities.
    Your show got canceled because of crap ratings. Instead of wrecking all of the NBC late night you should have gracefully stepped down. Your little speech about Conan’s ratings was abysmal. You talked about it like you were the one getting screwed. But next time someone decides to take the Tonight Show reigns I’ll go ahead and send them a bottle of Astroglide for the imminent raping they will receive.
    And as for Conan he will continue on doing what he does best, and paying his employees along the way.

  3. I think it’s ABSURD for anyone to assume that Leno had ANYTHING to do with ANY of this! The network is responsible for removing Leno and installing Conan. It’s the network that created the 10PM show for Leno. And it’s the network that cancelled that show and wanted to put Jay back at 11:35. The only problem I can see, is Conan didn’t want to move his show. So, he’s out. His choice.
    Don’t be bitter at Leno. Don’t watch if you don’t like him, that’s what will show the network, the ratings are EVERYTHING! I’m not a huge Leno fan, but am sick of everyone BLAMING him! NOT HIS FAULT! BLAME THE NETWORK!!!
    Of course, it would help if Conan was funny… I mean come on, how long can you pretend you have strings attached to yourself… It’s not funny!!! And I haven’t heard of anyone wanting to pick up his show yet, perhaps that should tell his fans something…

  4. Maybe if all of you Coco fans had actually, you know, WATCHED him when he was on TTS, then the show wouldn’t have been canceled.
    Just sayin’.

  5. You’re overlooking one little fact, Jason. No matter what NBC did or didn’t do, it was Jay who chose to return to latenight essentially screwing O’Brien. When offered the return to the Tonight Show, Jay should have taken the high road and refused…Of course, he would have to stop buying collector cars for a while until his millions of dollars of investments paid off. Face it Jay defenders…he’s a greedy pig and a “has-been” to boot!!

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