MANHATTAN — It appears both sides of the NBC-Conan O’Brien battle are ready for the divorce to be finalized.
NBC now appears willing to let O'Brien leave the network and will be allowed to develop a show for another network before his NBC contract expires, a source told The Washington Post.
But as he prepares for his last episode of "The Tonight Show" at NBC, which is reportedly slated for next Friday, top execs at the network are firing back against his late-night barbs.
“What this is really about is an astounding failure for Conan,” NBC Universal Sports chairman Dick Ebersol told the New York Times told the New York Times.
Deadline Hollywood Daily reported Thursday that NBC exec Jeff Zucker had threatened to pull O’Brien off of the airwaves until his contract expired in three and a half years.
"There's a rumor that NBC is so upset with me, they want to keep me off the air for three years," O'Brien said in his Thursday monologue. "My response to that is if NBC doesn't want people to see me, just leave me on NBC."
The late night talk show host is reportedly entertaining offers from other networks, most prominently Fox. But his only concrete job offer has been from a porn company, according to TMZ.
After saying on Monday’s show he was considering a career in "work in a classier business with better people, like hard-core porn,” O’Brien received an offer from adult film company Pink Visual.
On Thursday’s broadcast, he joked he was considering it.
“In the movie, I’d be having sex with a beautiful woman,” he said. “And then [in the middle] I’d be replaced by Jay Leno."
Meanwhile, the show is apparently up for sale on Craigslist on an ad spoof that has been taken down and reposted over the last day. The buyer is asking for best offer.
