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A 45 Million Dollar Joke
January 21, 2010
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The Washington Post is running an article entitled, "NBC: Conan
O'Brien Reaches $45M Exit Deal." The article reports, "Under the
deal, which came seven months after O'Brien took the reins from
Leno, O'Brien will get more than $33 million, NBC said. The rest
will go to his staff in severance, the network said in an
announcement on the 'Today' show."

Read the Article!!

Questions for Discussion:

1. Why do you think that Conan O'Brien refused to move the
Tonight Show one half hour later? Do you think he made the right
decision? Why or why not?

2. Do you think that Jay Leno acted unfairly when he agreed to
move his show to after the local news programs? Why or why not?
See if you can argue both sides of this question!

3. Mr. O'Brien reportedly has more than 200 people working for
him? What kinds of jobs do you think that so many people have to
do to put on a nightly comedy show? Do you think that it would be
interesting to work for a comedy show as a staff member? Why or
why not?

4. Imagine that you were a network executive trying to fill time
slots from 10:00pm to midnight with the understanding that local
news shows run from 11:00-11:30pm. What types of shows would
you place in these time slots? Why? How would you balance the
need to keep the cost of producing shows down while bringing in
as much advertising revenue as possible?

Questions for Younger Children and Everyone Else:

1. What is your favorite television show? What do you like about
this show?

2. Give an example of something that you think is fair. Give an
example of something that you think is not fair. Why do you think
that this is not fair?

3. Imagine that you were creating your own television show. What
would it be about? Who would be the main character? Make it up!!
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