Report: Fox-O'Brien talks may start soon

January 25, 2010 - 0 comments

New York -- Talks between Fox and Conan O'Brien regarding a new late-night chat show may begin as early as this week, a source told the New York Post.

"Chances like this don't come around very often," the insider told the Post. "If Fox wants to be in late night, now's the time."

NBC ousted Jay Leno as host of "The Tonight Show" at the end of last season and gave the position to O'Brien to keep O'Brien from moving to another network. NBC then gave Leno a nightly, hourlong, 10 p.m. series, "The Jay Leno Show." When the prime time show failed to be a strong lead-in for local news broadcasts, however, NBC announced it would push Leno's show back to 11:35 p.m., shorten it to 30 minutes and air "Tonight" at 12:05 a.m.

However, O'Brien said he would not remain on "Tonight" if it was bumped to 12:05 a.m.

NBC said last Thursday O'Brien would leave the network but would not be free to start a show on a competing network until September. There are reports NBC and O'Brien inked a $45 million exit deal.

The network said Leno would return to "Tonight" March 1 in its regular 11:35 p.m. time slot.