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Jay Leno Announcement
NBC's Jeff Zucker announces that Conan O'Brien will succeed Jay Leno as host of The "Tonight Show" beginning in June 2009. -
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The War for Late Night
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Leno Will Not Leave
Four years after Leno promised Conan the Tonight Show, he felt like he was not ready to retire. NBC executives created the "Jay Leno Show," which put Leno at the 10:00 pm primetime spot. -
Debut of the Tonight Show
"The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" debuted at 11:35pm. The ratings and reviews were strong. -
The Jay Leno Show premiere
The "Jay Leno Show" premiered as a variety show/talk show. In the begnning, the ratings were high, but eventually they started to fail. Leno's raitngs started to effect the local news ratings and then the Tonight Show's ratings. NBC was not happy. -
NBC announcement
January 7-9: NBC threaten to pull the plug on the "Jay Leno Show" because the ratings were poor. But because Leno had a contract, it would have cost the company $105 million. So NBC came up with a plan to move the "Tonight Show" to 12:05am slot and the "Jay Leno Show" to the 11:35pm slot. Fans and Conan were upset. It was stated that "The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't the Tonight Show." O'Brien did not want to move the legendary spot of the "Tonight Show." -
I'm With Coco
Artist Mike Mitchell designed this poster to show support for Conan. Fans rallied outside of NBC studios all across the country: the main rallies being in New York City and Los Angeles. Fans thought it was unfair that NBC was taking Leno's side when they promised Conan the "Tonight Show." -
A Deal is Reached
January 15-16: O'Brien would agree to leave the "Tonight Show" because he did not want the legendary time slot to be moved up a half an hour. NBC announced that after the Winter Olympics, Leno will go back as the host of the Tonight Show. In the deal with NBC, Conan recieved $30 million. Conan could not appear on TV until May 2010. It was also released that Conan could not have his own talk show until September 2010. -
Last day of the Tonight Show
This is Conan's final show. Goodbye speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e35SVmdx9nY#t=220 -
The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour
On March 11, 2010, O'Brien announced on his Twitter account that he is doing a 30-city tour called "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour." It began on April 12, 2010 in Eugene, Oregon, and ended on June 14, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia -
First Interview
Conan was interviewed by 60 Minute's Steve Kroft. Here are Conan's thoughts on how NBC reacted to his exit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFMtQ5UKz-I -
