One sticking point in negotiations between NBC and Conan O'Brien, according to gossip sites like TMZ, is who will control characters from O'Brien's Tonight Show and Late Night. Characters like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the Gaseous Weiner.
NBC owns the rights to all the characters, so they could easily keep them tucked away in a vault, never to be seen again.
But rumors suggest that O'Brien might get the characters as part of his severance package - a huge goodwill gesture, one might say, from NBC. Quite different from the days when NBC fought with David Letterman over such things as his Top Ten List and Stupid Human Tricks. They didn't even let Calvert Deforest take the name Larry "Bud" Melman with him.
We'll see what happens. Rumors say a deal is imminent, announcing O'Brien's terms and departure date: this Friday, January 22.
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