The Curious Legal Case of Conan O’Brien

Conan O’Brien ends his reign as host of “The Tonight Show” this evening, but are his legal battles over as well?

Over the past few weeks, nearly everyone in the US has formed an opinion on NBC’s late-night programming shake-up. “The Jay Leno Show,” a half-hour program featuring the former host of “The Tonight Show,” did abysmally in its 10 p.m. time slot. Similarly, the ratings for O’Brien’s show were not up to the network’s expectations. To grab more viewers, NBC asked Leno to host a half-hour program at 11:35, pushing O’Brien and “The Tonight Show” back to 12:05 a.m.

O’Brien refused, saying in a statement on January 12: “I sincerely believe that delaying ‘The Tonight Show’ into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting.”

After his statement was released, several media outlets reported that NBC decided to reinstate Leno as “The Tonight Show” host and let O’Brien go. O’Brien’s fans hoped and prepared for a lawsuit, but instead of taking the network to court, he negotiated an exit with NBC, accepting a reported severance package of $32.5 million. An additional estimated $12 million went to members of his staff.

The official statement from NBC didn’t come until yesterday. The statement was brief, leading to even more speculation regarding O’Brien’s legal options, entitlements and future plans.

Breach of Contract

When O’Brien said that he refused to host “The Tonight Show” at 12:05, it seemed as though things could take a serious legal turn very quickly.

O’Brien’s passionate wording of his January 12 statement made it sound as though he was considering taking NBC to trial for breach of contract. When he said “‘The Tonight Show’ at 12:05 simply isn’t ‘The Tonight Show,’” it could potentially be read as a threat of legal action.

It was possible that O’Brien could have launched a preemptive attack on NBC and claimed that the network had no right to move his time slot. As “The Tonight Show” has aired at the same time slot since its inception, O’Brien’s legal representation could argue that continuing to air the show at 11:35 p.m. was implied.

However, several news outlets reported that there was no time slot specification in O’Brien’s contract and blamed his legal representation for this serious omission.

Tortious Interference

When rumors of Leno’s return as host of “The Tonight Show” began to spread, some late-night aficionados wondered if O’Brien could take legal steps to prevent Leno from returning to his old post.

There was the possibility that O’Brien could have sued Leno for tortious interference of contract — when an individual wrongly interferes with two parties’ mutual contract.

This, however, would have been a difficult claim to pursue, as the decision to change the lineup and reinstate Leno fell with network executives and not with Leno or his representation.

Defamation

As O’Brien repeatedly slammed NBC during his final two weeks on the job, viewers wondered if the network wasn’t worried about defamation.

O’Brien addressed this in a comical way during his January 19 monologue. “Some papers are reporting that I’m legally prohibited from saying anything bad about NBC,” he said. “But nobody said anything about speaking in Spanish. NBC esta manejado por hijos de cabras imbeciles que comen dinero y evacuan problemas.”

As he spoke this line, subtitles below O’Brien revealed his words meant “NBC is run by brainless sons of goats who eat money and crap trouble.”

Intellectual Property

There were concerns over who owned the legal rights to some of the material that O’Brien and his staff created over the course of his many years at NBC. Reports say that popular characters like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog will remain the intellectual property of the network.

It might be key to remember that when David Letterman moved from NBC to CBS in 1993, he avoided trademark infringement by simply changing the names of some of his characters and skits.

What the Future Holds

O’Brien may no longer have a show, but a shortened non-compete clause means he could sign with another network and be back on the air by September 1.

It seemed that O’Brien wanted to spend the absolute minimum amount of time sorting out his legal complexities so he could just move on. “I spent the afternoon at Universal Studios’ amusement park, enjoying their brand-new ride, the Tunnel of Litigation,” he joked earlier this week. “That’s a crappy ride.”

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