Conan to Fox? Friday quickie

From Bloomberg.com --Fox TV executives considering a late-night talk show with Conan O’Brien are confident 60 percent to 70 percent of their local stations would be free to carry it, a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Other stations may have program commitments that keep them from coming on board by September, when O’Brien, 46, is free to start working again, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to talk publicly.

O’Brien, who will consider all offers, would prefer to stay on broadcast TV and is interested in News Corp.’s Fox network, a person familiar with his thinking said. He was released from his NBC contract yesterday after refusing to host “The Tonight Show” in a later time period, a move designed to accommodate Jay Leno’s return to 11:35 p.m.

“The general terms of the contract are all over the Internet,” O’Brien quipped last night on his show, according to a transcript. Among other provisions of his exit deal: “I am prohibited from coming within 500 yards of 11:30.”

Shannon Ryan, a spokeswoman for Fox, declined to comment. Rick Rosen, O’Brien’s agent at the William Morris Endeavor Entertainment talent agency, didn’t return calls and e-mail messages seeking comment. Leslee Dart, O’Brien’s publicist, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Fox, the most-watched U.S. broadcast network in prime time among younger viewers, currently programs between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. and doesn’t have a late-night talk show.

O’Brien as host of “The Tonight Show” has led much of this season in late night among 18-to-49 year-old viewers, the age group most coveted by advertisers and Fox’s key demographic.

‘They Have Shows’

Kevin Reilly, Fox’s entertainment chief, said Jan. 11 that the network is interested in O’Brien. At the time, he said Fox was waiting for the situation at NBC to be resolved. O’Brien said on Jan. 12 he didn’t have an offer from a rival network.

“Over the years I’ve made a lot of fun of Ryan Seacrest, Larry King, Spencer Pratt, Geraldo, David Hasselhoff, Kirstie Alley and Donald Trump,” O’Brien joked last night. “Here’s the messed up thing, they all still have shows.”

ABC doesn’t plan to pursue O’Brien, a spokesman for Burbank, California-based Walt Disney Co.’s broadcast network said on Jan. 8.

NBC’s loss of O’Brien stemmed from the network’s 2004 decision to anoint the late-night talk-show host as Leno’s successor on “The Tonight Show,” with the change set for June 2009. O’Brien passed on an offer of more money from Fox to stay at NBC and host “The Tonight Show,” one of the people said.

To keep Leno from defecting to a rival network, NBC offered him “The Jay Leno Show” at 10 p.m. weeknights, replacing scripted programs. The four-month experiment to establish the prime-time talk show led to complaints of shrinking audiences for local stations’ news.

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