On Sunday, Conan O’Brien gave the commencement address to 2011′s graduating class of Dartmouth College. It was a rousingly and oddly inspiring speech that touched upon what he’s learned from both the experience and failure associated with his short stint helming NBC’s “The Tonight Show.” As always, the talk show host’s speech featured a great deal of self-depreciating humor from the very beginning as he pointed out that President George H.W. Bush was also onstage:

I must point out that behind me sits a highly admired president of the United States and decorated war hero, while I, a cable television talk show host, has been chosen to stand here and impart wisdom. I pray I never witness a more damning example of what is wrong with America today.

From there, Conan painted his words for the graduates as an encouraging but also realistic picture of the opportunities facing them today. He was also very, very funny in the process. Here are some choice quotes:

Today, you have achieved something special. Something only 92% of Americans your age will ever know — a college diploma. That’s right, with your college diploma, you now have a crushing advantage over 8% of the work force. I’m talking about dropout losers like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg.

My first job as your commencement speaker is to illustrate the life is not fair. For example, you worked tirelessly for four years to earn the diploma you will be receiving this weekend, and Dartmouth is giving me the same degree for interviewing the fourth lead in Twilight. Deal with it.

You know, New Hampshire’s such a special place. When I arrived, I took a deep breath of this crisp New England air and thought, “Wow! I’m in the state that’s next to the state where Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is made.” But don’t get me wrong, I take my task today very seriously. When I got the call two months ago to be your speaker, I decided to prepare with the same intensity many of you have devoted to an important term paper. So late last night, I began. I drank to cans of Red Bull. Snorted some Adderall. Played a few hours of Call of Duty and then opened my browser. I think Wikipedia put it best when they said, “Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy-League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States.”

There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized. Whether you fear it or not, true disappointment will come but with disappointment comes clarity, conviction and true originality.

Naturally, the audience enjoyed Conan’s candid appraisal of what the occasion truly meant. I appreciate the fact that Conan didn’t sugar coat the entire affair, and a self-effacing comedian like himself, who has (to a degree) lived life among us and experienced his own hard times of late, is much more appropriate than someone who will merely write a “cheerleading” sort of address. Out of the entirety of Conan’s speech though, I think my favorite part was watching the reactions of Dartmouth’s President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, who laughed heartily at many of the well-received jabs aimed towards himself. “Stinky Pete,” indeed.

Photo of Conan all wet in the NYC rain on 5/18/11 courtesy of Fame Pictures

After long last and the motherload of neverending drama, Conan O’Brien finally returned to late-night. Last night, his TBS show debuted. Did you watch it? Ratings watchers say that you probably did – apparently 3.25 million homes tuned in to watch. Personally, I watched a few minutes of the opening, and then I switched over to The Daily Show just in time to see Jon Stewart joking about Bill Maher. That probably isn’t a good sign for Coco… his key demographic is probably The Daily Show’s key demo too. Who will the young people choose in the long run? Eh.

Here’s Coco’s open… with a Jon Hamm cameo!!! That was the best part, honestly. I mean, it was all funny, but THE HAMM.

Conan O’Brien is finally talking to the press about the late-night battle with NBC that left him temporarily unemployed. In a 60 Minutes interview yet to be aired, Conan is careful with his words, but he makes one thing clear: if the situation with NBC and Jay Leno had been reversed, he would not have taken over the show again the way Leno did.

In his first televised interview since his late night dethroning, Conan O’Brien says he never would have acted like Jay Leno if their “Tonight Show” roles had been reversed.

“He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know – I know me, I wouldn’t have done that,” O’Brien, says in the interview scheduled to air on ’60 Minutes’ on Sunday.

“If I had surrendered ‘The Tonight Show’ and handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well — and then … six months later,” he added. “But that’s me, you know. Everyone’s got their own, you know, way of doing things.”

Asked by correspondent Steve Kroft what he would have done, O’Brien says, “Done something else, go someplace else. I mean, that’s just me.”

O’Brien eventually left NBC thinking “this relationship is going be toxic and maybe we just need to go our separate ways.” He is set to host a talk show on TBS following his comedy tour.

According to the New York Times, O’Brien held back on criticizing NBC too much because of his buyout and agreement to not disparage Leno or executives. He refuses to bite when Kroft suggests he “got screwed.” O’Brien responds, “No, I didn’t. I’m fine.”

When he’s asked if Leno lobbied to regain the show, O’Brien says simply, “I don’t know.”

When asked if Leno acted less than honorably, O’Brien hesitated and then said, “I can’t answer that.”

[From PopEater]

I’d just like to clarify that Leno didn’t technically “surrender” the Tonight Show: NBC, for whatever reason, let him go. While Leno’s conduct hasn’t been the greatest in this whole mess, most of the blame should be laid at the feet of NBC for cooking up this scheme in the first place. They were the ones who pushed Leno out, gave Conan the spot, and then decided to put Leno on at 10 p.m., which caused a ratings catastrophe for Conan’s show. Let’s be real: trained monkeys probably could have done a better job programming the NBC lineup. But it’s all good now, because Conan will have his own show at 11 pm on TNT,and his current tour featuring Triumph the insult comic dog, Andy Richter and an unpredictable set of famous guest stars, including Jim Carrey, is keeping Conan busier than ever. Yeah, I’d say he’s over it.

At long last, Conan O’Brien will be returning to the airwaves! I say that like it makes a difference to me, when lately I’ve been too tired to even watch the first segment of The Daily Show. Anyway, Conan is coming back to late-night, but it’s not going to be network television. He’s found a home at TBS, which is already home to George Lopez’s late-night show. Conan is taking Lopez’s 11 p.m. timeslot (sounds vaguely familiar) and Lopez is getting pushed back to midnight. So Conan will go back to having an our to fill every weeknight, starting in November. Wait… November? That far away? Weird.

He’s baaack!

Conan O’Brien, 46, is returning to nighttime TV on TBS, he confirmed to TVGuide.com Monday afternoon.

He’ll go head-to-head against Jay Leno and David Letterman. O’Brien’s show will air at 11 p.m., and George Lopez’s Lopez Tonight will bump to midnight to accommodate him.

“I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly,” O’Brien said in a statement, which ended speculation he’d go to Fox.

O’Brien stepped down in January after NBC revealed they would push his Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m. so Leno could return to the coveted 11:35 p.m. Slot.

The formal announcement about O’Brien’s show, which will premiere this November, will be made Monday afternoon.

[From Us Weekly]

I wonder if George Lopez minds being moved back? It would be a scandal for sure if Lopez “pulls a Conan” and refuses to be pushed back. I don’t even know if Lopez’s show is a hit – I think it was, although just a modest one. I’d like to say that Conan will probably do very well at TBS, but I’m not sure I’m seeing it. Most people I know that stay up to watch late-night television stay up for The Daily Show and then switch it to Letterman. If you were given the choice (and you will be, in November) of how to spend your precious 11 p.m. to midnight timeslot, wouldn’t you prefer Jon Stewart, then maybe switching back and forth from Conan to Letterman? Eh. Anything but Leno.

Oh, nevermind about the Lopez stuff, he thinks it’s cool.

“I’m with Coco” pin visible at 3:03 at the top of the screen for a brief moment

Former Guns N Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash was the musical guest on last night’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” In a sneaky show of Conan O’Brien solidarity, Slash wore a button on his leather jacket that read “I’m With Coco,” featuring an icon of the redheaded displaced Tonight Show host. Apparently, NBC tried to blur out the pin during the broadcast.

Slash pulled off the ultimate act of defiance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” last night — dude rocked a Team Coco pin on the air during his performance at the end of the show.

Though it appears NBC tried to edit around the Conan O’Brien support symbol, a few shots of the pin still managed to make air.

[From TMZ]

Gawker, who has been loudly siding with Conan throughout this entire late night fiasco, was giddy to see the pin on the show.

Did Slash really wear an I’m with Coco pin on The Tonight Show last night? NBC doesn’t want you to know, but it’s true.

When Slash was booked to perform on last night’s Tonight Show, NBC surely didn’t think he would show up wearing an I’m with Coco pin. But, he did. Slash went on Leno’s show to proudly and somewhat brazenly show where his loyalties lay in the Late Night Wars.

As expected, Leno’s crew worked around the problem and did all they could do make sure that Slash’s pin didn’t get much camera time. In fact, it only made this brief cameo in the performance.

[From Gawker]

I think Jay Leno and NBC should expect more scenarios like this. There are still a lot of people out there who miss Conan and think that the was he was treated was really lame. When this all went down, I was hoping that many A-listers would refuse to go on the show with Jay, but that didn’t happen. Stars need to promote their projects, regardless of who’s sitting in the late night chair and how they got there, and the fact is, Jay’s ratings are now beating Letterman again. But I hope people won’t forget how Jay got “his” show back, and the very funny and hard-working guy who is now unemployed as a result. And shame on NBC for trying to block the pin out.

During the whole Conan O’Brien-Jay Leno-NBC-f-cktard scandal over the past month, I always put the majority of the blame with NBC’s knuckleheaded executives. While I didn’t (and still don’t) care for Jay Leno, I thought that most of what was happening wasn’t necessarily his fault. After watching the first half of his interview with Oprah, I really don’t feel that way anymore. Leno is a douche.

What’s worse is that Leno knows he has come out the scandal looking like a douche, and he sat down with Oprah to try to explain his side of the story. Well… Leno needed some media coaching, because, in my opinion, he came across as one of the bigger hypocrites ever to achieve fame and fortune. Very little of Leno’s words were directed to or about Conan – Leno was too busy playing the victim and trying to gloss over some of his bigger d-ck moves. PopEater has some of the text of the interview:

With all eyes on Jay Leno, he sat down with Oprah Winfrey for his first interview since the blow-up over NBC’s late-night lineup. While he admits having some regrets, Leno’s deepest scars seem to stretch back to 2004 when NBC first announced Conan O’Brien would be taking over the show in 2009. “It broke my heart. It really did. I was devastated,” Leno said. “This was the job that I had always wanted and this was the only job that ever mattered in show business, to me…. It was just like, why?”

Later in the interview, Leno refused to take blame for taking away Conan’s dream. “This is an affiliate decision. Affiliates felt that the ratings were low. This was the first time in the 60-year history of ‘The Tonight Show’ that ‘The Tonight Show’ would have lost money. And that’s what it comes down to. It’s really just a matter of dollars and cents.”

Earlier this month, O’Brien walked away from the late-night institution when NBC executives announced that they wanted Leno to once again follow the local news and move O’Brien’s ‘Tonight Show’ to 12:05 a.m. ET. Leno returns to ‘The Tonight Show’ March 1.

According to Leno, NBC came to him and talked about the ratings, saying Conan and Leno were both down. NBC executives then assured him that he was a “valuable asset” and they were “75 percent sure” Conan would go for the revised plan, which would have had Leno doing a 30-minute show at 11:30 p.m. ET.

Oprah grills Leno about why he didn’t consult Conan before agreeing to the new plan. “It wasn’t my place to call Conan,” Leno said. “They made this offer to me. And I said, ‘Do you think Conan will go for this?’ And they said, ‘We’ll ask him tomorrow.’ ‘OK, let me know what happens.’ And the next thingyou know, Conan had his article in the paper and that was that.”

Blaming NBC for the late night debacle, Leno adds, “Anything they did would have been better than this… If they had come in and shot everybody. It would have been ‘Oh, people were murdered,’ but at least it would have been a two-day story. NBC could not have handled it worse.”

[From PopEater]

Here’s my biggest point about Jay Leno and his “Coco failed in the ratings, that’s why I sacked up” argument: Leno failed in the ratings too. As he admitted during the interview, The Jay Leno Show was cancelled because of ratings – and, Leno claims, because of the complaints of affiliates. So if Coco failed in the ratings, and Leno failed in the ratings, why does that mean Leno gets a second chance and Coco doesn’t?

And why doesn’t anyone – from Leno to the NBC executives – acknowledge that Leno’s 10 p.m. show was a horrible lead-in for the Tonight Show? I mean, the whole “the affiliates were unhappy” argument works just as well for Coco! After spending a few minutes with Leno, people turned off their televisions, destroying the ratings of not only local NBC evening news, but also the Tonight Show. If NBC really believed in Coco, they would have given him a chance without Leno as a God-awful lead-in. But instead, NBC executives, and Leno himself, continue to throw Coco under the bus, as if he is the sole reason for the Tonight Show’s losses.

Sorry I went off like that. The older I get, the more I realize that I could do so many of these jobs better than the chuckleheads currently running the networks. In happier news, NBC has picked up a Coco-produced drama for next fall. And Coco’s last week on the Tonight Show was his best week ever, as far as ratings go.

For the past week, it hasn’t been so much about when Conan O’Brien was leaving, but how much money we and his staff would get, and whether Coco would burn the motherf-cker down as he left the building. Well, the severance packages have been negotiated, and it looks like yesterday’s report was right. Coco did stand up for his staff, hiking a potential staff severance package (in total) from somewhere in the vicinity of $7 million to the now-kickass figure of $12 million. By my estimations, if the money is spread out equally (doubtful), Coco’s 200 staffers will probably be leaving NBC with $60,000 packages each. Here’s a question, though – why couldn’t some of those staffers continue to work for NBC in some capacity? Is Leno going to fire everyone who ever worked for Coco?

Anyway, Coco is walking away with $33 million, although some sources are saying that Coco is going to supplement his staffers’ packages out of his own pocket – which, again, is really, really cool.

Following several days of often tense negotiations, NBC and Conan O’Brien inked a deal early Thursday to end the host’s short tenure on ‘The Tonight Show,’ NBC has confirmed. This paves the way for allowing Jay Leno to return to late night from his unsuccessful run at 10 p.m.

According to the network, O’Brien will receive $33 million and his staff another $12 million. The sticking point in O’Brien’s complex exit negotiations with NBC had involved his employees. It’s also believed the agreement includes a provision that would bar O’Brien from appearing on other shows or hosting for an undetermined amount of time.

His final show will be Friday, and Leno will return to ‘Tonight’ on March 1.

“In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket,” his manager, Gavin Polone, told The Wall Street Journal. “Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.”

The proposal allows O’Brien, who would exit ‘Tonight’ less than a year after taking over from Leno, to start work on a competing network as early as September. But he would be barred from making NBC the butt of jokes. Speculation that the Fox network might court O’Brien for a late-night show when he leaves NBC prompted a monologue joke Tuesday.

Listing things he might do with “all my new free time,” O’Brien concluded with “Make a big move to Fox. Megan Fox.”

The fate of characters developed by O’Brien and his staff was also part of the negotiations. Since they are technically the intellectual property of NBC, O’Brien deemed it the right time on Wednesday’s show to bring out an old friend, one last time, [by bringing out Insult].

The negotiations became heated on Wednesday, with NBC brushing back criticism from O’Brien’s camp.

O’Brien was “dug in” on getting his staffers a good severance package, but NBC fired back in a statement, saying “it was Conan’s decision to leave NBC that resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work.”

Adding: “We have already agreed to pay millions of dollars to compensate every one of them. This latest posturing is nothing more than a PR ploy,” the network said.

O’Brien asked to be released from his contract, which has about two-and-a-half years left, after rejecting NBC’s plan to push him and ‘Tonight’ to 12:05 a.m. EST to make way for a half-hour show with Leno at 11:35 p.m.

The network, hit by poor ratings for its prime-time experiment, ‘The Jay Leno Show,’ and for O’Brien’s ‘Tonight,’ was trying to keep both comedians on board.

O’Brien has seen his viewership jump in recent days. Ratings for Leno in the same window, however, remained flat.

The dispute has repeatedly spilled on-air, with jokes aplenty made about it by Leno, O’Brien and hosts at other networks. CBS’ David Letterman has been especially brutal on NBC and Leno, whom he has dubbed “Big Jaw” during several scathing monologues.

A pro-O’Brien fan protest held Monday outside Universal Studios, one of several such big-city rallies, included a mock martial arts fight between a man wearing a white Leno wig and one in a red O’Brien wig. The fake O’Brien won.

The crowd was rewarded with a studio rooftop wave from O’Brien and a few words from his ‘Tonight’ sidekick, Andy Richter, who thanked them and said it’s been a tough time but also a “really fun” one.

“The lawyers won’t let me say anything else,” Richter added.

[From PopEater]

So, it’s done. Maybe Coco will end up on Fox, maybe he’ll just bum around LA or New York, licking his wounds. I don’t know. But I’ve grown to like Coco a lot throughout this whole ordeal, and he’s shown himself to be a man who stands up for his principles even under pressure. I hope Coco does end up on another network, and I hope he does really, really well in the years to come.

Conan O’Brien greeting fans in LA on January 18, 2010. Credit: Pacific Coast News.

Conan “Coco” O’Brien is still in rare form as he enjoys his last days breathing the douchey stench of NBC’s air. Most people thought an official announcement would be coming from Coco or from NBC yesterday – and now they’re saying an official announcement will come today, so whatever. I’m pretty sure Friday will be Coco’s last day, and I’m pretty sure Coco’s severance package is somewhere in the $30-40 million range. It seems in the negotiations over Coco’s contract, Coco did something really wonderful – he stayed strong for his staff and refused to back down on getting his staffers generous severance packages too:

The sticking point in Conan O’Brien’s complex exit negotiations with NBC involves his TV staff, not Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, a person familiar with the talks said Tuesday.

Although discussions also focused on whether NBC would keep the rights to familiar O’Brien comedy bits including Triumph, O’Brien’s focus was ensuring severance deals for his “Tonight” staff and crew, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were intended to be private.

O’Brien is “dug in on that,” the person said.

NBC fired back in a statement, saying “it was Conan’s decision to leave NBC that resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work.”

“We have already agreed to pay millions of dollars to compensate every one of them. This latest posturing is nothing more than a PR ploy,” the network said.

A spokesman for O’Brien declined to comment.

[From The Huffington Post]

Coco sounds like a stand up guy. But even good guys have their breaking points, and it sounds more and more like Coco has reached his. At this point, it might be less of a catastrophe if Coco simply burned his studio down. But no, Coco continues to blast NBC, and last night was particularly bad:

As Conan O’Brien tapes his final episode of The Tonight Show on Friday, and some predict an official announcement on Wednesday regarding his future, the embattled late-night host is biding his time with jokes and jabs at NBC.

“Hi, I’m Conan O’Brien, and I’m just three days away from the biggest drinking binge in history,” he said during Tuesday’s monologue. “I spent the afternoon at Universal Studios’ amusement park, enjoying their brand-new ride, the ‘Tunnel of Litigation.’”

Noting reports that he is legally prohibited from bad-mouthing the network behind the mess (Jay Leno is taking over O’Brien’s time slot after his prime time show was axed), O’Brien joked in his monologue Tuesday “Nobody said anything about speaking in Spanish.”

He then rails off an insult in Spanish which translates to: “NBC is run by brainless sons of goats who eat money and crap trouble.”

The redheaded comic then shares what he’ll do with his free time — and his plans include a Jersey Shore cast member! “Introduce myself to my children…Finally make good on my plan to backpack through India with ‘The Situation.’…Make a big move to Fox. Megan Fox.”

[From Us Weekly]

Ugh, I was with him until the Megan Fox joke. Bad Coco. Bad! He also came out with these gems: “You know things are bad when Cubs fans are feeling for you” and “I am not allowed to say things like, ‘NBC’s headed downhill faster than a fat guy chasing a runaway cheese wheel.’” Now… here’s the thing… I’m Team Coco and everything, but at some point this stuff becomes less funny and “stick it to the man” and just becomes unprofessional and stupid. Because this is what you’re showing your prospective employers – that if they ever make a mistake, you’ll burn the f-cking house down. I don’t know if Coco is really considering a move to Fox, but I know Fox executives will be thinking twice.

Coco in LA, greeting his fans on January 18, 2010. Credit: Nathanel Jones, Pacific Coast News.

Many people feel pretty sure that Friday will be Conan O’Brien’s last night on the Tonight Show – or his last night on NBC, if you will – will be this Friday. Conan and NBC executives are said to be trying to out-hardball each other with how bitchy and hardcore they can be, and it’s looking more and more like Conan is going to walk away with a $40 million severance package and be made to sign some kind of confidentiality clause that will mean he can never badmouth NBC again. Of course, this current theory is coming from The Wall Street Journal (who does have good sources… corporate sources). NBC executive Jeff Zukcer whined to the Journal: “We were not surprised that Conan was disappointed in having his show back up a half hour. But we were very surprised and disappointed at how nasty it turned.” Meanwhile, Conan hasn’t signed anything so far, so he lashed out last night, calling NBC execs “incompetent morons”. Well played.

But before Conan’s tirade, we had to hear from Leno at 10 p.m. I think Jay is trying to act like the good guy, or the aw-shucks-it-wasn’t-my-fault guy, but… I don’t know, I just don’t buy Jay’s version of events or motives. Oh, and if you read between the lines, Jay is basically saying that none of this was his fault, he’s just some poor guy who chanced upon an $80 million contract or something:

There were no jokes this time – just the facts, as Jay Leno sees them.

In a detailed account of his side of the talk-show mess at NBC, Leno opened his lame-duck program Monday night seeking to set the record straight and try to repair relations with his – apparently temporary – Tonight Show successor.

“Through all of this, Conan O’Brien has been a gentleman,” Leno said during the taping. “He’s a good guy. I have no animosity towards him.”

For now, Leno said, it appeared that he would be returning as host of The Tonight Show at 11:35 p.m. after O’Brien apparently rejected moving to midnight.

“So that’s pretty much where we are. It looks like we might be back at 11:30,” he said. “I’m not sure. I don’t know.”

Leno attributed the fiasco that sparked a war-of-monologues – with David Letterman talking potshots from the sidelines at CBS – to the ill-conceived idea of replacing him on The Tonight Show consistently finished at No. 1.

He said the executives at NBC didn’t think he could sustain those ratings and wanted him replaced with O’Brien, who had gotten offers from other networks.

The problem was compounded, Leno said, when he wanted then to be released from his contract to go elsewhere. NBC countered with the 10 p.m. show, which he accepted against his better judgment.

“Didn’t seem like a good idea at the time,” Leno said, but added he was convinced because focus groups had liked the idea and because he wanted to keep his staff employed. He also claimed he was guaranteed two years on the air.

“Four months go by, we don’t make it,” he said. “Meanwhile, Conan’s show during the summer – we’re not on – was not doing well. The great hope was that we would help him. Well, we didn’t help him any, okay.”

That’s when O’Brien was offered the midnight version of The Tonight Show, Leno said.

“Next thing I see Conan has a story in the paper saying he doesn’t want to do that,” said Leno. “They come back to me and they say if he decides to walk and doesn’t want to do it, do you want the show back? I go, ‘Yeah, I’ll take the show back. If that’s what he wants to do. This way, we keep our people working, fine.’ So that’s pretty much where we are.”

[From People]

One of the most shocking things about all of this is the oft-forgotten realization that just because someone works in the media, doesn’t mean they know how to work the media. It’s been startling to see how dumb, slow, and nasty NBC executives have been in handling this Leno-O’Brien drama. Speaking of, Jeff Zucker continued to do the media rounds by appearing on Charlie Rose last night. While Zucker admitted that this current situation is a disaster, he also complained that he’s now receiving death threats! Good Lord, Conan’s “I’m With Coco” peeps are rabid! Take it down a notch, people.

The rumor mill is still churning in overtime at the end of an already horrible week for NBC. First up, the rumor for the past day or so is that Conan O’Brien’s last day on the Tonight Show (and on NBC in general) would be January 22. Many sources reported that after not being able to come to any kind of deal, that Conan was pretty much going to leave without a “see you later.” Fox News Pop Tarts reported that was “absolutely devastated” when telling his staff that he was leaving, probably because many of his staffers were from New York, and had uprooted themselves, their families and their lives to move to LA to work on the Tonight Show. A source said: “Conan gave a speech to all of his staff and he broke down crying.” Yet another source said that “Conan and Jay are both embarrassed and hurt…. Conan is making a smart stand. NBC is dealing with a very messy mistake. Somebody is going to go; somebody’s feelings will get hurt.”

However, the official word from NBC and Conan is that he will not be stepping down, at least not on January 22. Conan’s rep tells Us Weekly: “Not true… He has a scheduled hiatus the week of January 25.” And yet! In yet another breaking news report, TMZ claims that NBC has signed Leno to come back to the Tonight Show, for it’s original hour-long program. This, of course, has been denied by NBC. My guess: Conan’s contract it still valid, and if NBC tries to sign Leno to the Tonight Show with formally dealing with Conan’s contract, Conan could sue NBC for lots and lots of money.

Meanwhile, remember the ballsy open letter Conan sent out, refusing to take the 12:05 slot? Well, insider Hollywood sources are now claiming NBC chief Jeff Zucker threatened Conan, saying something along the lines of: “’I'll keep you off the air for 3 1/2 years if you don’t take this deal.” Which is kind of funny when you think about it, because Zucker is A) a moron and B) not really as powerful as he would like to think.

As the media war rages on and on, it’s Conan (and to a lesser extent, Jimmy Fallon) who come out ahead in the PR war. Leno has never been beloved, but I’m kind of surprised that so many people are so flatly pro-Conan. The “I’m With Coco” movement has begun in earnest, and the general consensus is that Leno should sack up (for lack of a better phrase) and just bow out with grace, leaving the late-night programming to Conan and Fallon. Even Rosie O’Donnell thinks so - she says that Leno has “bullied” his way back into “college” so he can relive his glory days. Or something.

The “I’m With Coco” image courtesy of Collider, image created by Mike Mitchell.