In his 60 Minutes interview on Sunday, Conan O’Brien gave his former masters at NBC some small credit, claiming they’d let him go instead of Jay Leno in part because his $32.5 million payout was smaller than the one they would have been obligated to give Leno. Now, semi-hilariously, NBC sources have accused Conan of lying, telling TMZ that the hosts’ buyouts would have been “roughly the same.†The network claims Conan was also dishonest when he denied that his was the first Tonight Show ever to lose money: “NBC sources say the show would not only have lost more than $5 million this year had they kept Conan on, but the loss was specifically discussed with Conan — ‘They were well-informed of that fact,’ said one source.†Even for NBC, this is pretty cold.
NBC to Conan O’Brien: Pants on Fire! [TMZ]
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