It looks like the NBC war with Conan O’Brien war is coming to close with a compromise.

Under the original terms of the agreement, Mr. O’Brien should have received $60 million in penalties for losing The Tonight Show, but due to a failure to have a clause in there for a guarantee of the time slot, both parties had each other over a barrel.  NBC wants Conan out so it can restore Jay Leno to The Tonight Show; Conan wants out, but with the ability to work else where without NBC executing its “no compete” clause which would have kept him off TV for the next three and a half years.

According to Nikki Finke, NBC and O’Brien’s team negotiated all day Friday, and should finalize a deal on Saturday.  The current version calls for O’Brien to receive the following:

• Between $25 – $40 million settlement
• They will not execute the no compete clause
• NBC will help the staff that moved from the New York show to the LA show
• Conan’s last show would be Jan. 22nd
• Jay would return to The Tonight Show on March 1st

None of this is official yet, but it is sure looking like it.  The deal is expected to be announced some time on Saturday, with the hopes of NBC being that this will finally end the bad PR the network has been receiving over this.

… seriously, they think this?

What I hate to inform NBC is that if Jan. 22nd really is Conan’s last episode, he will control the media for this week.  He will then control it the following week as he makes talk show visits and everyone speculates over what he will do for work next.

Then, when Jay takes the show back over, Conan’s name will be all over the press again as people put Jay’s return to the show into context of the events that led to this.

NBC has no one but themselves to blame in all of this, and they just need to get used to that idea real quick.  This is not going away any time soon no matter how much them may wish it would.  And some of us won’t ever forget it … believe me.