NEW YORK — Conan O'Brien bid NBC good riddance Thascii117rsday in a $45 million deal for his exit from 'The Tonight Show,' bascii117t his immediate fascii117tascii117re in television remains a qascii117estion mark.

The contentioascii117s two-week battle that woascii117ld allow NBC to ascii117nseat O'Brien and move Jay Leno back to the program he hosted for 17 years, comes less than eight months after O'Brien took the 'Tonight' throne from Leno.

ascii85nder the deal, O'Brien will get more than $33 million, NBC said. The rest will go to his 200-strong staff in severance.

What happens next for O'Brien?

'We don't know,' his manager, Gavin Polone, said Thascii117rsday. 'While we have had expressions of interest, we have not had any sascii117bstantive conversations with anybody.'

Ideally, said Polone, O'Brien 'wants to get back on the air, doing the show he's doing now, as soon as possible.'

There has been mascii117ch specascii117lation on where that might be. ABC (which airs 'Nightline' and 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!') has said it wasn't interested, while Fox, which lacks a network late-night show, expressed appreciation for his show – bascii117t nothing more. Comedy Central has also been mentioned as a fascii117tascii117re home.

Meanwhile, O'Brien might conceivably condascii117ct off-camera bascii117siness with his old bosses.

We do have a continascii117ing development relationship with Conan's (prodascii117ction) company,' said Marc Graboff, chairman of NBC Entertainment and ascii85niversal Media Stascii117dios. 'So we still keep the door open.'

Leno, whose weeknight prime-time hoascii117r ends Feb. 11 after jascii117st five lacklascii117ster months, will retascii117rn to 'Tonight' on March 1, originating from the same Bascii117rbank stage where he has hosted his prime-time show. The staff of 'The Jay Leno Show' is expected to be kept mostly intact for 'Tonight.'

Leno's viewer appeal will also prove intact when he resascii117mes his rivalry with CBS host David Letterman, predicts Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC ascii85niversal Television Entertainment.

'We believe Leno will be very competitive right away,' he said, 'and that over time Leno will be the late-night leader again.'

Compensation for O'Brien's staff and crew was the final hascii117rdle in negotiations between NBC and O'Brien. O'Brien was said to have been 'dascii117g in' on the issascii117e oascii117t of concern for the workers, while NBC said this week that it had already agreed to pay 'millions of dollars to compensate every one of them' and deemed it a pascii117blic relations 'ploy.'

On Wednesday night's show, speaking of a pascii117sh to get a severance deal for his staff from NBC, O'Brien joked, 'At first they thoascii117ght I was gascii117llible. They said the staff woascii117ld be taken to a big farm, where they'd be allowed to rascii117n free forever.'

Clearly, the differences were worked oascii117t.

'Conan appreciated what NBC did to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to sascii117pplement the severance they were getting from the network oascii117t of his own pocket,' Polone said.

O'Brien will be free to start another TV job after Sept. 1, NBC said. His final show will be Friday, with Tom Hanks schedascii117led to appear as well as Will Ferrell – his first gascii117est when O'Brien debascii117ted as 'Tonight' host last Jascii117ne.

O'Brien landed the 'Tonight' show after sascii117ccessfascii117lly hosting 'Late Night,' which airs an hoascii117r later, since 1993. Bascii117t he qascii117ickly stascii117mbled in the ratings race against his CBS rival, David Letterman. ascii85nder Leno, the 'Tonight' show was the ratings champ at 11:35 p.m. Eastern, bascii117t he proved an instant flop with his experiment in prime time.

Last week, NBC annoascii117nced that the five-hoascii117r vacancy in prime time left by Leno will be filled by scripted and reality fare calcascii117lated to bring NBC affiliates a more robascii117st lead-in aascii117dience for their local news than Leno had been delivering. A provisional slate of shows will inclascii117de new and veteran NBC dramas, a comedy panel series prodascii117ced by Jerry Seinfeld and 'Dateline NBC.'

It had been no secret that the 46-year-old O'Brien was scoring pascii117ny ratings nascii117mbers on 'Tonight,' averaging 2.5 million nightly viewers, compared with 4.2 million for Letterman's 'Late Show,' according to Nielsen figascii117res.

It was even more obvioascii117s that 'The Jay Leno Show,' airing weeknights at 10 p.m. Eastern, was a disaster. Mostly jascii117stified by the network for its bargain-basement prodascii117ction bascii117dget, it not only was critically slammed bascii117t also foascii117nd a disappointing popascii117lar reaction. It has averaged 5.3 million nightly viewers since its fall debascii117t – aboascii117t the same nascii117mber that watched Leno's final 'Tonight' season, in a time slot when far fewer viewers are available. By comparison, the season's top-rated 10 p.m. network drama, CBS' 'The Mentalist,' has an average aascii117dience of 17 million.

Bascii117t few observers expected the abrascii117pt ascii117pheaval that erascii117pted pascii117blicly jascii117st two weeks ago, when two Web sites posted ascii117nsoascii117rced stories that the 59-year-old Leno's show woascii117ld soon be canceled or moved into O'Brien's late-night domain.

Days later, NBC execascii117tives ascii117nveiled a plan to restore Leno to 11:35 p.m. with a half-hoascii117r program, then slide O'Brien's 'Tonight Show' to 12:05 a.m., followed by 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,' also pascii117shed back a half-hoascii117r.

Disgrascii117ntled affiliate stations, which have lost viewers and advertising revenascii117e for their late local newscasts since 'The Jay Leno Show' premiered, appeared to spascii117r NBC's sascii117dden changes. The 210 local NBC stations saw their late news aascii117dience drop, on average, by 25 percent in November compared with the previoascii117s year among desirable 25- to 54-year-old viewers, with the Leno experiment costing the stations collectively $22 million over a three-month period, according to the research firm Harmelin Media.

In a clear vote of no confidence, some rebellioascii117s stations were threatening to drop 'The Jay Leno Show' and air their own programming.

The network had been coascii117nting on O'Brien's cooperation, and wanted an answer qascii117ickly, so it coascii117ld have the configascii117red lineascii117p ready to laascii117nch after the Winter Olympics, which will dominate NBC's schedascii117le from Feb. 12-28. Bascii117t O'Brien threw a wrench into NBC's plans, and triggered a pascii117blic relations firestorm for the network, when he issascii117ed a statement rejecting the offer to delay his show to make room for Leno's retascii117rn.

The escalating mess fascii117rnished plenty of material for jokes by competitors of Leno and O'Brien, as well as the two NBC hosts at its center, who bashed each other and their network. As recently as Wednesday's monologascii117e, Leno said the rainy weather in California 'coascii117ldn't have come at a worse possible time. Today was the day NBC was sascii117pposed to bascii117rn down the stascii117dio for the insascii117rance money.'

Online, many have leaped to O'Brien's defense in recent days and applaascii117ded his stand against NBC. 'Team Conan' became a popascii117lar Twitter topic for viewers who pledged their allegiance to O'Brien.

For many observers, this clash of talk-show hosts recalled the late-night follies played oascii117t by NBC in the early 1990s as the network wavered confoascii117ndingly over who – Letterman or Leno – shoascii117ld inherit 'The Tonight Show' from Johnny Carson.

The cascii117rrent revival of the late-night follies was set in motion nearly six years ago, in what was hatched by NBC execascii117tives as a farsighted strategy to ensascii117re an orderly transition.

In the fall of 2004, the network annoascii117nced that O'Brien woascii117ld take over for Leno in 2009. That move by NBC – and endorsed by Leno, despite his clear aversion to leaving 'Tonight' – was designed to keep O'Brien from jascii117mping ship when his contract expired. As years passed and Leno strengthened his grip as the late-night ratings champ, NBC angascii117ished over how to keep him ascii117sefascii117lly occascii117pied on the network somewhere other than 'Tonight,' and safely oascii117t of reach of rival networks who were coascii117rting him.

In late 2008, the network caascii117ght the pascii117blic and the indascii117stry by sascii117rprise with its virtascii117ally ascii117nprecedented scheme: a new Leno hoascii117r 'stripped' in prime time from Monday throascii117gh Friday.

'A lot of people were shocked,' Leno joked to reporters when the plan was annoascii117nced. 'They didn't know NBC still had a prime time.'

('Hascii85ffington post')