CBS News released a slew of excerpts from Conan O’Brien’s 60 Minutes interview. Let’s get right to it.

On NBC’s claims that The Tonight Show is losing money…

O’Brien: “I honestly don’t see how that’s possible. It’s really not possible. It isn’t possible.”

Where does he go from here?

“No, I have not resolved all my issues. I am mostly very happy. I love this tour it’s the most thrilling thing I’ve done in my career. And so I’m in a really great place in a lot of ways. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t have my moments of everything, you know, anger, disappointment, frustration and just confusion.”

Does he have any regrets about the past year?

“I don’t regret anything. I don’t regret one decision I made in that week and a half period. I wish it had ended differently. But, I’m fine. I do believe, and this might be my Catholic upbringing or Irish magical thinking, but I think things happen for a reason. I really do.”

Does he feel he was screwed, as many people have claimed?

“The biggest thing people come up and say to me in gas stations and restaurants, I have so many people say this to me. ‘Hey partner, you got screwed.’ I don’t, and I always tell them, ‘No, I didn’t. I didn’t get screwed. I’m fine. It just didn’t work out.’

In his 17 years of doing a late-night talk show, Conan O’Brien has always had Max Weinberg as his band leader except for the times when Weinberg went on tour with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

But according to well-respected music Al Kooper, who has spent a lifetime in the business, O’Brien has let Weinberg and many of the members of The Max Weinberg Seven go.

This could be for myriad reasons, but the simplest seems to be that after Conan left NBC, he could no longer afford Weinberg and many of the well-established members of the band.  Then again, Kooper said there was conflict between O’Brien and the producers with Weinberg because of Springsteen.  So who really knows?

CP: So those guys went off with Conan and Max Weinberg?

Kooper: There’s a name you can’t say anymore. He’s not in that band anymore.

CP: Max? What happened there?

Kooper: They let him go. This is a big transition, and they’re all signing new contracts and everything so they replaced him, as far as I know.

CP: Is the band gone as a whole?

Kooper: No, not at all. That’s the only change. But I mean, there was a lotta conflict because of Springsteen. So now he can play with Springsteen whenever he wants. [Although there's no official confirmation of Weinberg's status, he has not been with the band during O'Brien's recent standup appearances, and has, in fact, started a new big band. There are also rumors that Weinberg has approached Jay Leno about taking over the current Tonight Show band when Kevin Eubanks leaves.]

via

Steve Kroft, as I just wrote, was the first person to conduct an interview with Conan O’Brien after the buyout-imposed period where O’Brien couldn’t do interviews elapsed. Kroft’s interview will appear on 60 Minutes Sunday night on CBS.

Kroft traveled to Seattle for the interview with O’Brien as he was preparing a show on his “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On TV” tour.  According to Kroft, there wasn’t anything O’Brien wouldn’t discuss, even though he agreed to a non-disparagement clause with the network as part of his buyout.

In the interview, the duo discusses many things, including Conan’s time at NBC and his move to TBS in the fall.  The Wall Street Journal caught up with Kroft recently and asked for his opinions on Conan’s mindset.

“I think that he’s passed out of the tunnel of darkness,” Kroft said. “I found him in generally a good mood and still trying to work his way through some of the issues that were raised by the NBC deal.”

Conan O’Brien will wait exactly one day after his NBC-imposed interview ban ends to talk about how things ended with NBC and, I would imagine, his feelings for Jay Leno.

O’Brien has already given his first interview to Steve Kroft from NBC’s 60 Minutes and it will air on May 2.  He was banned from giving interviews up until May 1 as part of his buyout from NBC, the network he has worked for since 1992.

In the buildup to this Sunday’s interview, fans of Conan need to know two things about the rules associated with the interview…

1. O’Brien cannot say anything disparaging about NBC, per his contract. If he does, then the network legally has the right to sue O’Brien and ask for millions of dollars from their settlement back.
2. CBS cannot promote the interview in advance with clips of O’Brien speaking.  There are ways around that, but you won’t see Conan talking in clips advertising the interview.

Check out 60 Minutes this Sunday, May 2, for Conan’s first interview.

Just weeks after, in essence, firing Conan O’Brien, NBC has ordered a pilot from O’Brien and The Tonight Show executive producer’s Conaco productions.

The pilot from O’Brien’s company has not yet been officially titled, but is currently being referred to as “Justice”.  It was written by John Eisendrath and reportedly centers around an ex-Supreme Court justice who leaves the country’s high court to start his own practice.  In Hollywood’s inner circles, it’s considered one of the season’s best pilots.

Ross and O’Brien will co-produce the project, making it a very real possibility that O’Brien could provide with the network that pulled the rug out from under him as the host of The Tonight Show with a hit show it has been seeking for several TV seasons.

This seems strange, doesn’t it?

The reason the pilot is on NBC is because Conaco operates under the NBC umbrella, basically making them a part of the NBC family.  And in O’Brien’s $33 million settlement to exit The Tonight Show, he and the network agreed that Conaco would continue to operate under the NBC umbrella until the end of the TV season.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

Jay Leno comes back tonight!

YES!

Just kidding.  I, as I’m sure you are having clicked on this post after reading the headline, are a fan of Conan O’Brien’s.  Which left me feeling extremely excited when I read about O’Brien’s plan of taking his talk show on the road while he waits out the NBC timeout forced upon him in his buyout.

O’Brien, according to multiple sources, is set to take his show on the road for a couple months in order to keep creating revenue for himself and his out-of-work staff.  More importantly, O’Brien’s decision would make the thousands of members of Team Coco around the country extremely happy and would continue to keep his name on the tips of peoples’ tongues up until he is allowed to return to television is September of this year.

Expect more information about the tour in the days and weeks coming.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

For years, WGN battled TBS for the rights to the name of ‘Best Superstation in the Country’.  Well, for the duration of my lifetime, TBS/TNT has reigned supreme.

But now, in a move that doesn’t seem the least bit feasible, it seems WGN could possibly try to regain the title over TBS/TNT by hiring Conan O’Brien.

Brandon C. Clark is spearheading the effort.  He wrote a statement that attempts to explain Chicago’s need for CoCo…

We think Chicago will be just right for Conan and his masturbating bear! Chicago has what Conan needs — plenty of stars and plenty of fans. What is lacking is a major network with a local show in place for him. Enter WGN …For years WGN and TBS have been battling for supremacy as the cable superstation. TBS has clearly been winning and has recently upped the ante by premiering The George Lopez Show. WGN should counter with an all new late night talk show hosted by Conan O’Brien and brought to you from downtown Chicago (both Block 37 and the Sullivan Center are looking for tenants and could easily provide real views of downtown from a specially built studio).

So until Conan finds a new home it will be the stated goal of ‘Chicago Wants Conan’ to convince both Conan O’Brien and WGN that his new home should be Chicago!

I don’t think this will ever happen because WGN can’t possibly afford O’Brien, but it’s a fun thing to think/talk about.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, check out RipcordNews.com.

TMZ is reporting (and NBC is denying) that Jay Leno has agreed to a contract to take over The Tonight Show when Conan O’Brien leaves.  The show will reportedly be an hour-long.

At this point, TMZ’s report is unconfirmed, with various sources on the internet speculating that Leno might leave NBC.  In my opinion – and the opinion of hundreds of television experts – Leno’s the type of guy who loves the spotlight and loves to be loved by everyone.  With Conan leaving The Tonight Show, Leno is faced with a pretty rare situation where he isn’t loved by most of the public.

In fact, he and NBC have taken the brunt of the hits throughout this whole ordeal, which, in the long run, figure to hurt the new Tonight Show because more people have switched to Letterman and Leno is now a tainted product.  He’s a failure who was unfunny at 9:00 p.m. and is now bringing his new/old product back to the old timeslot.  The problem is that it’s the old show with the old host on the same crappy network.

That’s why I won’t be watching.  What about you?

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, check out RipcordNews.com.

Conan O’Brien’s struggles in taking over for Jay Leno have been well documented since he began at the beginning of June.

If you’re reading this article, that means you’ve most likely read about Conan’s lack of appeal to middle America and how his type of show is basically the same thing David Letterman has been doing since 1982.

These two things, along with many others that show why Conan is failing, have been beaten to death over the last four months.  But a few days ago The New York Times published an article that shows exactly how many people have abandoned The Tonight Show…

For the first month of the television season, the declines for Mr. O’Brien have been the worst among total viewers, something most NBC executives had predicted. Those numbers are big: Mr. O’Brien is off by more 2 million viewers, ­or about 47 percent, from Mr. Leno’s performance last year. He has averaged 2.53 million total viewers for the first four weeks of the season; Mr. Leno averaged 4.75 million last year. (Mr. Letterman is at 4.59 million this season, up from 3.97 million.)

The one underrated thing about Conan failing at 10:30 (CT) is the use of DVR.  Let’s say somebody prefers Leno to Conan.  They could simply tape Leno’s 9 p.m. show and then watch it at 10:30.  It would allow them to return their life to normal while, at the same time, skipping over a ton of commercials.

This is one of the increasing number of problems NBC has to deal with while trying to fix their massive blunder.

After addressing why he disappeared for five days during Wednesday’s press conference, Mark Sanford seemed ashamed.  His life had officially fallen apart because his career was finished and his marriage was done.  Sanford’s actions – flying to Argentina to hook up with a woman who wasn’t his wife – was incredibly stupid, but also hilarious for late night hosts.

Stephen Colbert, originally from South Carolina, said: “I would never in my life have believed that Gov. Mark Sanford was capable of doing something interesting.”

David Letterman, trying to avoid another Sarah Palin controversy, said: “I have to be careful here, I haven’t had much luck with jokes about governors” he said.  But then added: “Why can’t he be like our governor and use a local escort service?”