Conan O’Brien is not happy with NBC. Just seven months after the red haired entertainer made what was arguably the move of his career to replace Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show,” word came that Leno would be returning to his old gig after “The Leno Show” flopped in an earlier 10 p.m. time slot. In turn, O’Brien got the boot and appears to be looking for a major network to air his show for the first time since 1993, when “Late Night” premiered. 

Fast forward to Thursday’s “Tonight Show”: 

Conan: “It’s looking like this could be our last week. The good news is that until NBC yanks us off the air, we can pretty much do whatever we want, AND, this is the best part, they have to pay for it.”

“So for the rest of the week, we’re going to introduce new comedy bits that aren’t so much funny as they are crazy expensive. So, with that in mind say hello to our new Tonight Show character, the Bugatti Veyron mouse.”

(Camera pans to reveal a Bugatti Veyron in the studio, dressed as a mouse. In the background the Rolling Stones’ 'Satisfaction' plays) 

Conan: “There it is ladies and gentleman, the most expensie car in the world dressed up like a mouse. And as you can hear the mouse’s theme song is the original master recording of the Rolling Stones classic, ‘Satisfaction.’ Now let me ask you a question: ‘Is this appropriate music for a car that looks like a mouse?' No. ‘Does it add anything at all to this comedy bit?’ No it doesn’t. ‘Is it crazy expensive to play on the air, not to mention the rights to re-air this clip on the Internet?’ Hell yes.”

“That’s right ladies and gentleman, total price tag for this comedy bit: $1.5 million. Sorry NBC.”

(Crowd cheers, show cuts to commercial) (1)

Jalopnik later reported that on NBC.com and Hulu, the Bugatti Veyron bit was removed from the “Full Episode” of the show online. (2)

Could the edit job have anything to do with the Internet royalties O’Brien mentioned? 

Perhaps. 

It should be noted that NBC did manage to pay O’Brien $45 million to make way for Leno’s unexpected return. O’Brien will keep more than $33 million, NBC said. The remaining money will be given to his staff of 200 in severance pay. From MSN:

"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 TheWrap. "Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.”(3)

Watch the full video of the Bugatti bit in New Videos or at Source 1 below. For the full story (as published by MSN) see Source 3. 


Sources:

(1) http://jalopnik.com/5453417/conan-obriens-15-million-bugatti-veyron-mouse?skyline=true&s=i&autoplay=true
(2)http://jalopnik.com/5453761/nbc-pulls-conans-crazy-expensive-bugatti-clip-off-internet?autoplay=true
(3) http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=453175>1=28103

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