Exit for Conan O'Brien as NBC offers $44m 'put up and shut up' deal

By: Amy Andrews | Published Thursday, January 21, 2010, 9:55 AM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 9:27 PM

Conan O'Brien is set to get a staggering $32m golden parachute from NBC as "The Tonight Show" debacle finally rumbles to a close. HIs staff will get $12m in a deal which will cost NBC an overall $44m.

Mind you, in a week which has seen the catastrophe in Haiti overtake every other news story there's something unseemly about over-paid grown-ups squabbling over the kind of money that would keep a small country going.

Just saying like.

Anyway, the deal forces the Irish-American comic to put up and shut up or what's politely called a "nondisparagement clause."

Neither NBC or O'Brien can say a bad word about each other. And O'Brien has to wait a set amount of time before he can get back on the air, although presumably not on NBC!

However, given the fact that the staff of the show, along with O'Brien, moved across the country I'd expect plenty of coded references on the final show tomorrow night.

Jay Leno will take back his old show at 11:35 after the Winter Olympics.