January 13th, 2010 | By Rick From Chicago

Conan O’Brien to NBC: Drop dead.
O’Brien broke his silence on Tuesday with a lengthy statement that left no doubt about his unhappiness over NBC’s plan to move “The Tonight Show” to 12:05 a.m. — declaring he could not “participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.” But the host did leave doubts about his next move given NBC’s stated determination to move the show.
Insiders said O’Brien had no intention of resigning and would continue to show up for work and do his show. Biz observers said that NBC and O’Brien now appear to be in a game of chicken, with NBC trying to force O’Brien to quit, while O’Brien appears to be looking to force the network to fire him if it proceeds with the 12:05 move. How O’Brien’s contract is settled out is likely to vary greatly depending on whether he quits or is let go.
O’Brien’s release of the statement adds another bizarre chapter to an extraordinary public drama that has unfolded during the past six days, ever since word surfaced of NBC’s plans to reroute the failing “Jay Leno Show” from its nightly 10 p.m. berth to back to his old 11:35 p.m. time- slot, albeit in a half-hour format.
“For 60 years the ‘Tonight Show’ has aired immediately following the late local news,” O’Brien wrote in the statement addressed tongue-in-cheek to “people of Earth.”"I sincerely believe that delaying the ‘Tonight Show’ into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The ‘Tonight Show’ at 12:05 simply isn’t the ‘Tonight Show.’”
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