O'Brien considering leaving 'Tonight'

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Conan O'Brien is seriously considering leaving NBC after the U.S. network announced plans to move "The Tonight Show" to 12:05 a.m., sources say.

NBC ousted beloved "Tonight" host Jay Leno at the end of last season and gave the position to O'Brien to keep O'Brien from moving to another network. NBC then gave Leno his own nightly, hour-long, 10 p.m. chat series, "The Jay Leno Show." When the prime-time series failed to be a strong lead-in for local news broadcasts, however, NBC announced it would push Leno's show back to 11:35 p.m., shorten it to 30 minutes and air "Tonight" at 12:05 a.m, followed by "Late Show with Jimmy Fallon" at 1:05 a.m.

"This level of (expletive)-iness was not expected," one source told the New York Post about NBC's decision to put O'Brien on later.

"He's done a great job for NBC. He moved his entire staff, he moved his family to Los Angeles. And five months later, they repay him like this?" the insider said. "Conan would be happier somewhere else."

The source told the newspaper O'Brien is weighing his options carefully.

"(He) may not be operating on (NBC's) timetable. He's not going to be stampeded. This came out of the blue, and it will take him a while to figure out what's best for him," the insider said.

"My goal is to keep Jay, Conan and Jimmy as our late-night lineup," the Post quoted network Chairman Jeff Gaspin as saying. "I hope and expect that before the Winter Olympics begin, we will have everything set."