Conan O'Brien

LOS ANGELES — Conan O'Brien refused to play along with NBC's plan to move "The Tonight Show" and return Jay Leno to late-night, abruptly derailing the network's effort to resolve its scheduling mess.

O'Brien said in a statement Tuesday shifting "Tonight" will "seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting," and he expressed disappointment that NBC had given him less than a year to establish himself as host at 11:35 p.m.

O'Brien is in line to make about $30 million from NBC if he is replaced on "The Tonight Show" or if the show is canceled, said a source close to the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about it publicly. However, the source said the sum would not apply just for moving O'Brien to a later time slot.

O'Brien said he doesn't have an offer in hand from another network. Fox, which lacks a network late-night show, has expressed its appreciation for him but said this week no negotiations have been held.

In his statement, wryly addressed to "People of Earth," the comic knocked his network's prime-time ratings woes, which stem in part from the poor performance of Leno's new prime-time show. "The Jay Leno Show" debuted in the fall after Leno surrendered his 17-year stake in "Tonight" last spring to O'Brien.

"It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both," O'Brien said.

"Tonight" has long been the dominant late-night program on television, with O'Brien following in a line of hosts that included Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Leno. For many of those years, an appearance on "Tonight," particularly for comics, could make or break a career.

NBC wants to move Leno out of prime-time and to the 11:35 p.m. slot with a half-hour show, bumping "Tonight" to 12:05 a.m. — the latest it's ever regularly aired. The network was under pressure to make a change from its affiliate stations, who found Leno's show an inadequate ratings lead-in for their lucrative local newscasts.

It doesn't make sense for NBC to try and hold him to a contract, said John Rash, a media analyst for the Chicago advertising firm Campbell & Mithun.

"An unhappy comedian is not a good premise for a program," Rash said.

Jody Simon, an entertainment lawyer with Peter Rubin & Simon, said it's very likely O'Brien and NBC will reach some sort of settlement that might require him to refrain from working at another late-night show for a certain time.