$16 million a year by NBC

In 2009, Jay Leno left The Tonight Show and was replaced by Conan O'Brien. Later that year, Leno launched his new NBC show, The Jay Leno Show. Because it was in prime time, Leno's show naturally started to get low viewing rates.

NBC then proposed an idea in which Leno would host a half hour program after the local news, and O'Brien would be pushed to midnight (ET). Instead of letting his program start half an hour later, O'Brien said "Go to Hell!" to NBC and left The Tonight Show, and the NBC network altogether in January 2010. After this, Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show.

Late in 2010, it was announced that TBS had made an agreement with O'Brien for O'Brien to host a late night talk show which would air before Lopez Tonight. That November, O'Brien's new show, CONAN, premiered at 11:00 (ET) on TBS. His first guest was Seth Rogen.

Jay Leno has a $16 million contract per year with NBC. Divide that by 260 episodes per year (his show is on Monday - Fridays only x 52 weeks per year):

• 52 weeks in the year / 5 days of airing per week = 260 episodes per year
• divide the $16,000,000 by 260 episodes:

Craig Ferguson is currently the host CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

He has written two books thus far: Between the Bridge and the River and American On Purpose (to be released Sept 2009), both humor. His first major role was as Mr. Wick on The Drew Carey show. He has written and starred in the movie Saving Grace and The Big Tease and was the voice of Gobber in the film How to Train Your Dragon. His stand-up show called A Wee Bit'O Revolution (2008) has recently been released on DVD. Craig is known for his earthy, common sense, irreverent comedy. One of his trademarks is starting each of his monologues by saying "It's a great day for America!" He was born outside of Glasgow Scotland, dropped out of school at 16 years of age, entered rehab at 29 years of age, and is recovering alcoholic having been sober about 19 years. Craig is married (4th wife Megan) and has two child. His son Milo is from his relationship with his third wife Wendy and his son Liam is from his current marriage with Megan.