NBC Chief Threatens Conan

The butt of Conan O’Brien’s jokes—NBC chief Jeff Zucker—apparently isn’t laughing. Insiders tell Nikki Finke that Zucker is taking a “super tough threatening position” over Conan’s refusal to move The Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m. Apparently, Zucker threatened Conan by saying “I’ll keep you off the air for 3.5 years.” Finke says Zucker blames Conan for the debacle, and that Conan “let me down” because he’s losing out to David Letterman. Now Zucker wants to “ice” Conan so that he won’t be on a rival network when Leno returns to the 11:35 time slot.