By Chase Stevens ’12
THE ROUNDUP

The last episode of the “Tonight Show” with Conan O’Brien aired Jan 22 on NBC.

Due to Jay Leno not doing well on his own primetime show, NBC tried to move O’Brien back into a later time slot instead of the regular 10:35 time slot.

However, instead of moving the “Tonight Show” to 12:05 A.M., O’Brien instead resigned.

Not all is lost for the red-headed comedian though. O’Brien and his staff will get a $45 million severance package, with $33 million going to O’Brien and $12 million going to his staff, according to The New York Times.

To top it all off, NBC will air a pilot of the series “Justice,” of which O’Brien is the executive producer.

“Justice” is a show about a Supreme Court justice who quits to start his own private law firm. It is said to be a “dramedy,” or a comedic drama.

While many fans say it is unfortunate that O’Brien has left the “Tonight Show,” they believe that he was well compensated.

“He’s not getting fired so much as walking away… I think it worked out pretty fairly,” said Andy McCoy ’12, a watcher of the “Tonight Show.” “And the last couple of sketches he did on the ‘Tonight Show’ were worth $10 million.”

Some think that NBC would have been wiser to let O’Brien keep his show.

“But when you’ve got Jay Leno, you really don’t have a choice,” McCoy said.

“Jay had done the ‘Tonight Show’ for many years, so it makes sense that he would get his old time slot back.”

Others have different ideas as to what should be done at NBC.

If he was president of NBC, Scott Franz ’10 would “just get rid of all of the stupid sitcoms” in order to have room for more talk shows like the “Tonight Show.”

When asked what he would have done if he had been president of NBC, McCoy would have “fired Jay Leno. He’s just not that funny.”