Urgent: O'Brien rejects NBC late-night plan

Putting himself further into play among competing networks, Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien (left) says in a statement that he won't accept NBC's plans to shift the show into a 12:05 a.m. time slot, in order to accommodate the network's plans to move Jay Leno to a later start.

O'Brien's statement follows positive signals yesterday from News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment, where President Kevin Reilly "strongly endorsed O’Brien in an interview with The New York Times. "He would be a very compatible fit for our brand,” Reilly said. “He is one of the few guys on the planet that has demonstrated he can do one of these shows every night.”

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