Fox Broadcasting is inching closer to bringing Conan O’Brien back to late night.
Key Fox executives, including Rupert Murdoch, are onboard with the plan and would like to finalize a deal in coming weeks so they can make a splash on May 17 when the network unveils its new fall line-up.
Several significant issues remain, and the Fox talks could fall apart, according to people close to the negotiations. But people close to O’Brien are cautiously optimistic.
“We’ll get there,” one of them said.
Fox executives have been huddling to figure out how much it will cost to mount a late-night talk show that would be profitable for Fox stations and affiliates. Stations, hammered by the recession, rely on the profits generated by syndicated reruns such as “The Simpsons” and “The Office,” and it’s unclear how many stations would be willing to substitute those shows for a risky venture — even one starring a big-name host.
Fox realizes that if it ever wants to get into the late-night game, this is the time.
The network, owned by Murdoch’s News Corp., has had its eye on entering the late-night talk-show wars for years. Indeed, it was Fox’s overtures to O’Brien nine years ago that prompted NBC’s Jeff Zucker to promise O’Brien the “Tonight Show” to keep him at the peacock network. Zucker’s plan famously unraveled when Jay Leno decided that he wasn’t ready to retire.
Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly and entertainment chairman Peter Rice have been leading the campaign to bring O’Brien to Fox. But their bosses have told them to demonstrate that a late show would be financially viable.
A breakthrough came last week when they outlined a late-night scenario that one executive described as “a deal that we could live with.” It hasn’t been decided whether the show would launch in fall or January.
Fox, however, is unwilling to spend the money that NBC had been paying to support “The Tonight Show” with O’Brien. NBC spent close to $90 million a year to produce the show, which included O’Brien’s salary of more than $12 million a year. Fox wants to spend less than $60 million a year for the show, said people close to the discussions.
The major hurdle comes from Fox stations, which are obligated to air reruns, including “30 Rock,” at specific time periods, in some cases after the late news. That would mean forcing a proposed O’Brien show, at least initially, to air at different time periods.
“Without a uniform start time, it would be hard to get traction for a show and hard to promote it,” said Jason Maltby, a top ad buyer for the firm Mindshare. “Saying, ‘Check your local listings’ doesn’t have the same ring to it as saying, ‘The Tonight Show at 11:35 p.m.’ ”
