Conan O'Brien and Fox continue their courtship dance, with a deal moving closer to reality -- but hardly in the bag.
And in an interesting wrinkle, if for some reason O'Brien and Fox end up not doing a deal, there's been serious interest from at least two major syndication companies in launching a syndicated version of O'Brien's show not in late night -- but as an early fringe talk show that would air in the hour just before primetime.
Debmar Mercury, the super successful syndicators behind TBS's Tyler Perry sitcoms and the upcoming Will Ferrell project in the works at Comedy Central, have talked with O'Brien's reps about such a scenario, two people familiar with the conversations said. Another major syndication player has also expressed interest in O'Brien.
UPDATE 12:15 PM CBS Television Distribution has discussed the idea of syndication with the O'Brien camp, two people familiar with the conversations said. The studio declined comment when asked about the matter.
Syndication is currently seen as a longshot for Team Coco, if only because O'Brien seems to have his heart set on trying to stay in the late-night network TV game. But if he opts for the notion, it could end up being extremely lucrative in success.
Fox, however, remains Option One. As TheWrap reported February 19, the biggest question is whether all sides can make things work financially.
And as TheWrap reported last week, Fox and O'Brien's camp are researching the economic feasibilty of launching the show, with O'Brien's team hopeful that the scheduled June end of the Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television road show will segue right into preparations for a possible fall launch of a Conan show on Fox.
The only outstanding issue has been whether senior brass at Fox parent News Corp. would put up any roadblocks to the idea of Conan on Fox.
A person familiar with the situation told TheWrap Wednesday that all indications are that News Corp. figures such as Rupert Murdoch and Chase Carey aren't opposed -- as long as the price is right. The fact that talks have continued for weeks now certainly is a sign that there's been no decision to overrule Fox network executives who've been trying to make a deal.
The key to any Fox-Conan deal is making sure that Fox doesn't bleed money under any worst case scenarios. Specifically, Fox will likely go into a Conan show assuming that many stations won't air the show in pattern at 11 p.m., while others might push it past midnight -- or not carry it all.
That's because some stations may opt to stick with more lucrative off-network sitcom repeats at 11 p.m., rather than go for O'Brien's untested talk show, which would net them less short-term ad revenue (since Fox would control more commercial inventory).
The goal all along has been for both Conan and Fox to view a new show as a long-term business partnership, with O'Brien in particular willing to sacrifice any huge upfront payday -- he made more than $10 million per year at NBC -- in order to buy Fox's long-term backing for the show, which all parties expect could take years to build.
