NBC Signs O’Brien to 5-Year Deal

Conan O’Brien has signed a five-year contract with NBC to host “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” The new deal is the first multiyear contract NBC has signed with O’Brien since he began hosting the late-night show in the fall of 1993.

The network had been renewing O’Brien’s contract every 13 weeks during his first years on the show. Later, it increased its renewals to one year at a time.

“Hopefully, this means I’ll be able to move out of the YMCA,” O’Brien joked in an interview Monday. “Actually, there was a time when a beeper went off every 20 minutes on [NBC entertainment chief] Warren Littlefield’s watch, and they had to decide whether to renew me.”

O’Brien, a former writer for “The Simpsons,” had virtually no on-air experience when he first was hired by NBC to succeed David Letterman in the 12:35 a.m. slot. Although he was lambasted by TV critics in the first weeks of the show, O’Brien and his young writing staff recently have been praised for hip humor.

His ratings--particularly among young adults--also have increased. During the February sweeps, the “Late Night” ratings among adults 18 to 49 were up 30% over last year. (O’Brien’s show airs opposite CBS’ “The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder”; ABC has no network programming at that hour.)

“Conan’s ratings have increased dramatically among younger viewers, and the quality of the show just keeps getting better,” Rick Ludwin, the NBC executive in charge of late night, said Monday. “Everyone in programming at NBC feels that Conan is viable for the long run as a talk-show host.”

The short-term renewals in the past, Ludwin said, had been reflective of “concerns of some NBC affiliates” about the show’s future.

Despite O’Brien’s jokes about the new contract, the short-term renewals had rankled some on O’Brien’s staff. “That period of my life could have been more relaxing,” O’Brien acknowledged Monday.

“But at least now nobody can say, ‘Who’s this guy to get a five-year contract?’ ”