It goes without saying that when Conan O'Brien announced that he had signed with TBS to do a new late night show, mostly everyone who follows these things was shocked. TBS? Didn't they already have George Lopez at 11PM? What happened to Fox, FX and Comedy Central? Is anyone even going to see Conan on cable?

But it didn't take long to realize that going to TBS was the right move for Conan, especially after some of the details of the deal were revealed. In fact, the longer you look at it, the better the deal looks, for these four reasons.

1. Conan will own the show. This is a big one. TBS had no problem letting Conan own his show and just paying him a licensing fee to air it. Fox was never going to allow him to do that. And control was a big deal to Conan, according to The Daily Beast's Peter Lauria, especially after everything he went through with NBC and 'The Tonight Show.'

The implications of this move are quite large: Like David Letterman, Conan and not the network is now in charge of what and how his employees get paid. Given his generous history with his staff, both during the writers' strike and the aftermath of the NBC disaster, you know that he's going to use that power to support his staff any way he can. Remember when Worldwide Pants was able to negotiate a separate deal with the WGA during the strike so Letterman could have his writers? Conan will also be able to do that.

There won't be much money in DVDs and syndication -- maybe some foreign licensing money will come his way -- but, according to Lauria, Conan is more interested in ownership so he a) has creative control, b) can package his program for online outlets and other alternative media streams whichever way he chooses, and c) has the option to shop the show lock, stock and barrel to other networks when his licensing contract is up.

2. He doesn't need to beg affiliates to carry the show at 11PM. The affiliate issue was going to be a problem with Fox, and you don't need to be Bill Carter or Joe Adalian to know that. Anyone with some knowledge of how TV syndication works knows that stations buy the rights to air shows years in advance, and in multi-year blocks.

Fox was not going to be able to get all of its affiliates to give up on showing 'The Office' or 'Seinfeld' or whatever program they had purchased to air at 11PM, just to roll the dice on Conan. At best, Conan probably wouldn't have cleared 11PM until a few years into the show's run.

3. There's no pressure at TBS. Think about it: George Lopez has been doing his show mostly in obscurity for almost six months now, and TBS was standing behind him. He was so confident that he'd stay around that he called Conan up himself to volunteer to move to midnight and make room for Conan. So if Lopez was feeling secure, surely Conan won't have to be anxious, either.

Remember: this is basic cable. If Conan draws the two or so million viewers that watch 'The Daily Show' every night, TBS will be doing back flips. That's less than the audience that got him fired from NBC. And, besides, on Fox Conan would not only be scrutinized directly against Leno and Letterman, but he'd be under pressure to save Fox in late-night, given their sorry history during the week (Chevy Chase, anyone?).

4. TBS will promote the hell out of the show during the baseball playoffs. Since his show starts in November, TBS is going to take every opportunity to promote it during the Division Series and the ALCS. I just hope they don't make us hate Conan they way they made us hate Frank Caliendo.