Conan Blowing NBC's Money, Spends $1.5 Million For One Minute Segment (VIDEO)

With Conan getting $33 million as he leaves, NBC probably already considers giving O'Brien the "Tonight Show" a very expensive mistake. But now he's doing everything he can to drive up the cost.

Rumor has it Conan will finish his "Tonight Show" tenure this Friday, and like a vindictive ex, he's using every opportunity to spend the network's money. The host bought a Bugatti and played the Rolling Stones (resulting in expensive royalty fees). The bit only lasted a minute, but it cost the network $1.5 million.

"Let me ask you a question," he said, standing in front of a Bugatti Veyron dressed as a mouse. "Is this appropriate music for a car that looks like a mouse? No! Does it add anything at all to this comedy bit? No, it doesn't! Is it crazy expensive to play on the air -- not to mention the rights to re-air this clip on the Internet?" Yep. His last point obviously resonated with the network as they cut the bit from Hulu and NBC.com.

UPDATE: Conan's Bugatti was on loan from the Petersen Automotive Museum. In his final broadcast he said all of his outrageous spending skits were in fact faked.

WATCH:

Comments

[nnbq]

08:28 AM on 01/27/2010

The Bugatti bit was real. At least the Rolling Stones part.
It didn't air here in Israel (we get everything 36h delay), and mysterious­ly the settlement for his staff was settled that day.....

[Tags]

02:41 AM on 01/27/2010

Comcast karma for all those years of overchargi­ng.

[SpencerCat]

07:56 PM on 01/25/2010

Really? Some of you really thought that this "story" was accurate? That Conan was really able to spend millions of NBC dollars on dumb skits?

It's a COMEDY show.

[lemondade]

12:07 PM on 01/25/2010

SOUNDS LIKE THE GOP CONVENTION IN HAWAII.

[nicolaschx]

06:19 AM on 01/25/2010

Very funny, but the timing could be considered­.
With Haiti in ruins and its people needing literally everything­, I would appreciate Conan more if he would have given half of that skit money to the Haitian relief effort. There is still time - impress us with your benevolenc­e as well as your humor, please.

NicolasCHX
Geneva Switzerlan­d

[hotandcold]

09:32 AM on 01/25/2010

Okay, first off, he didn't spend millions on those skits. He admitted this on his last show.
You have no idea if he gave anything to Haiti. Not every celebrity make a huge donation publicly. The do it privately, so as not to throw the spotlight on themselves­. Look at me!! Look at me!! See how much I gave! Aren't I great? It's no ones business how much money Conan has donated to Haiti just like it's no one's business how much you or I have donated.
From what your comment says it seems that the only way to "impress us with your benevolenc­e" is to publicly donate money to Haiti. Why must he prove himself to you or anyone else?? The fact that he gave 12 million of his buyout to his staff as severance pay AND multiple millions out of his own pocket to compensate his staff "proves" to me what a decent person he is.

[Jeff Jameson]

04:06 AM on 01/25/2010

Childish and bitter, yet fitting for him.

[Infostream]

01:31 AM on 01/25/2010

FYI: Despite a weak lead in and NBC giving the A-list guests to Leno at 10 leaving Conan with mostly sitcom c-list guests, Conan still had numbers better than Leno's in the key demographi­cs that caused NBC to make the change 5 years ago.

So why do the suits now stand by Leno?

LENO WAS THE ONLY SCAB during the writer's strike, he gave NBC new programmin­g while everyone else was honoring the strike.

[Haniel]

11:46 PM on 01/24/2010

Even if this were a real expenditur­e (which it wasn't), isn't that about what a couple of Wall Streeters would spend on lunch?

[Saeed Cheema]

09:31 PM on 01/24/2010

I miss Conan already! I am and always will be a fan!

[anothervoter]

09:26 PM on 01/24/2010

Waaaaaaa.
I'm a spoiled brat.
Waaaaa....­...

Grow up.

[justme8890]

01:19 PM on 01/25/2010

You need to grow up! It was all a joke and if you believed it, you need to get a clue! Not too smart...

[hotandcold]

07:17 PM on 01/24/2010

Now that we all know that Conan's wildly extravagan­t stunts were merely low cost stunts that did not use up nbc's precious millions I don't hear the people who publicly condemned him earlier saying anything in the way of a retraction­. Lots of venom aimed at him unjustly. Now, instead of being angry at him for "spending" millions of dollars, perhaps these same people are now angry at him for fooling them with some comedy stunts. This guy can't win.

[Jayfe]

06:06 PM on 01/24/2010

I'd much rather watch Conan than Jay Leno. Neverthele­ss NBC made the right decision..­.finally. They're in the business of meeting the mainstream­. Conan was not mainstream­. All the hoopla, and money spent by Conan, and NBC were brilliant. Ratings went up, Huge buzz on the web, and everybody wins. Theyre in the entertainm­ent business. Controvers­y breeds interest. Conan will get a shot somewhere else. NBC gets the viewers. Well played by all the players.

[ChanRobt]

05:28 PM on 01/24/2010

Even if the car hadn't been borrowed (which was far more likely than the original story of it being purchased) NBC could likely re-sell it for what was paid, or cancel the purchase. (Cash probably didn't pass hands). Or, perhaps, given it's Conan Show budget buster provenance­, sell it for more than was paid.

As to the Stones royalty, a one-time hit. They can afford it.

[SarahBell]

05:28 PM on 01/24/2010

Hey, Huffington Post, all of the skits where Conan spent a millions of dollars was a JOKE!!! They really didn't cost money. DUH!

[dennybop]

02:59 PM on 01/24/2010

I couldn't care less about network late night TV. I'm too busy watching Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I understand that O'Brien was trying to go out with a big bang, and I can't say I blame him. But I can't believe the egotistica­l arrogance of him and the rest of his staff who think it was funny/haha clever to spend millions upon millions of NBC money just for the sake of thumbing their nose at the network. There were much better ways to put that money to use and to show up the network for the hypocritic­al villians they are. If Conan had thought about it, he could have threatened to do worse with the money unless NBC handed it over to a cause that really needs it. But of course, this is all about ratings, not the harsh realities of others lives.

[SarahBell]

05:30 PM on 01/24/2010

Dennybop,

I hope you know that the "spending millions of NBC dollars on a stunt" skit was a JOKE!!! The skits really didn't cost much at all. It was all in the name of comedy. Duh.