Thaindian News

Mar 29 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Conan O’Brien has been offered yet another television deal which it seems he may have to turn down. Just last week it was told that Coco had to turn down an offer to be a guest star on American Idol’s charity event show due to air in April. NBC was even asked if it would be okay, and they gave a clear, “No.” Their reason, of course was the 43 million dollar “Hush Deal” that Conan made with NBC when he left after they took back the show they had given to him, in order to appease Jay Leno. Conan was offered a different time slot, and he chose to leave, according to reports. The 43 million was to pay the salaries of Conan and his crew, in exchange for his silence until Sept. He is not to appear on television, nor can he speak about NBC until after September.

According to sources, Conan had to turn down the offer from CBS to host the Tony Awards on June 13th. He said that the restrictions which had been put on him in the agreement with NBC would not allow him to accept the job. After he had turned the gig down, NBC reportedly came back with a statement which said that Conan’s excuse was bogus, that the severance deal which they made with Conan would not stop him from making television appearances after May 1st, so he could easily have taken the job, and just did not want to. “Team Coco” responded back to NBC’s statement, He can do interviews but can’t perform. He also can’t speak freely about NBC, which kind of kills his doing things in the way he’d want.”

What was NBC’s response? “The severance agreement gives Conan the explicit right to do hosting gigs after May 1, so its B.S. that he ‘can’t perform’. And if he wanted to ’speak freely about NBC’, he shouldn’t have accepted NBC’s over $40 mill payoff.”

However, Conan still insists that he cannot accept the job according to his contract. Team Coco gave this as a response statement to NBC claiming otherwise, “I am of the understanding that he can’t do that kind of thing until September. And you should ask what they are afraid of his saying that they have to gag him anyway? Seems like a lot to spend to keep someone quiet, if that is their intent. If he did the Tony’s and didn’t make jokes about the situation, it would be lame. He won’t take any job if he doesn’t think he’ll be great.”