With Conan O'Brien reportedly leaving NBC, Sacramento's KTXL Fox 40 has announced that it will offer the late-night host a day job on its program Wednesday.
The Wednesday edition of "Fox 40 Live" will include a "formal" job offer to O'Brien, station officials said. The station will mail, fax and read the offer letter on air Wednesday morning.
Although it sounds as outrageous as any of O'Brien's humor, news director Brandon Mercer was quoted on the station's Web site as being "totally serious. We're hiring producers anyway, and he's one of the most creative guys in the business."
"The thing about Conan is: He's accessible," Mercer said in an interview with The Bee. "Who knows?"
The station is offering moving expenses and an undisclosed salary. Less than he made at NBC, more than he'll earn from unemployment, Mercer said.
If O'Brien wants to spread his talents around other station's owned by Tribune Media (KTXL's parent company), the offer wouldn't even require he live in Sacramento. "We're open to telecommuting," Mercer said.
To say the morning show is a day job, though, is a bit of a stretch. Though it culminates with the station's morning program, the producer's shift starts around midnight - 3 a.m. in New York.
One more perk for O'Brien: an office. "The other producers are jealous," Mercer said. "They have cubicles."
However, the office is under the stairs. "We call it the Harry Potter Office," Mercer said, alluding to the young wizard's room under the stairs when he was taken in by his cousin's family, the Dursleys.
Still, that may be a step up from how O'Brien feels treated by NBC after the network bumped "The Tonight Show" back to make room for a time slot change by Jay Leno.
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