Late Night Wars: Did Conan Mess Up?

It seems that way — at least a little bit when it comes to the contract.

Conan O’Brien‘s reps apparently never asked for a guaranteed time period for The Tonight Show giving NBC the freedom to run the show whenever they choose.

As for Jay Leno, his deal notes the 10:00 PM time period specifically, which means a new deal must be negotiated before he moves back to the 11:35 PM time slot.

What NBC did guarantee for Conan is that he would be the host of The Tonight Show, but as we know Conan is not to keen on being pushed back. Now he is arguing that the time slot for The Tonight Show is implied based on its long-running history.

Supposedly Conan and his team met with NBC yesterday to negotiate a settlement and an out for Conan. Some NBC execs are even blaming the red-haired host saying that he didn’t take notes from the big bosses, simply replying with, “I do what I do.”

Sounds like it wasn’t the best of working relationships, so maybe Conan will be better off without NBC?

[Image via WENN.]