The viewers members who gave Conan O’Brien a standing ovation upon his look on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon final yr — whom O’Brien then playfully chided for reducing into his 10 minutes on the late-night NBC discuss present — possible keep in mind that for a second, the Tonight Present desk was his. That stint got here to an finish 15 years in the past now as O’Brien misplaced the job to Jay Leno, his predecessor, after simply seven months and fewer than 150 episodes.
O’Brien grew to become a family identify because the host of Late Night time With Conan O’Brien since 1993, serving because the lead-out for Leno’s Tonight Present, which debuted a yr earlier. As each reveals grew to become rankings leaders of their respective time slots, NBC brass did all they might to maintain O’Brien in-house, together with a 2004 promise that The Tonight Present could be his 5 years therefore.
Publicly, Leno initially endorsed the transition of energy — “I felt that the timing was proper to plan for my successor and there’s no another certified than Conan,” he stated in a press release on the time. Privately, nevertheless, Leno felt devastated that NBC had proven him the door.
Because the changeover date approached, NBC executives bought qualms about dropping Leno, in order that they supplied the comic varied potentialities for one more NBC present. Leno settled on a five-night-a-week 10 p.m. discuss present titled The Jay Leno Present that will lead into native newscasts earlier than O’Brien’s Tonight Present kicked off at its normal 11:35 p.m. begin time.
The information of The Jay Leno Present took O’Brien abruptly. “It took me about 45 minutes of, ‘Actually?’” he advised The New York Instances in 2009. “I believe, realistically, that Jay will likely be doing the identical present he’s doing now. I knew that there was this factor that was beginning to brew that poor Jay was being pushed out by Conan. Jay was clearly turning into sad, and it had the makings of a scenario that will make me sad. I like Jay. I don’t wish to be an disagreeable chapter in his life. Or he in mine.”
And so The Tonight Present With Conan O’Brien premiered on weeknights at 11:35 p.m. in June 2009, and The Jay Leno Present premiered on weeknights at 10 p.m. that September. Quickly, nevertheless, rankings for each reveals started to slide. O’Brien was dropping older viewers, and it didn’t assist that Leno’s present was dogged by dwindling rankings and unhealthy critiques.
With its associates annoyed with the viewers loss, NBC tried to discover a resolution. One concept was to present Leno a half hour at 11:35 p.m. and push O’Brien’s Tonight Present to 12:05 a.m. Leno permitted of that plan; O’Brien didn’t, releasing a now-famous assertion to the “Individuals of Earth” in January 2010. He wrote, partially:
For 60 years, the Tonight Present has aired instantly following the late native information. I sincerely imagine that delaying the Tonight Present into the subsequent day to accommodate one other comedy program will significantly injury what I think about to be the best franchise within the historical past of broadcasting. The Tonight Present at 12:05 merely isn’t the Tonight Present. … So it has come to this: I can not specific in phrases how a lot I get pleasure from internet hosting this program and what an unlimited private disappointment it’s for me to think about dropping it. My workers and I’ve labored unbelievably onerous, and we’re very happy with our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Present. However I can not take part in what I actually imagine is its destruction.
In the meantime, public assist had O’Brien’s again, with celebrities and followers alike becoming a member of “Staff Conan.” A whole bunch if not hundreds of individuals, for instance, turned out for “I’m With Coco” rallies throughout the nation.
Leno, in the meantime, took a beating within the press, with pundits berating him for taking his present again after The Jay Leno Present failed. “When Jay bought The Tonight Present, he didn’t must comply with Johnny [Carson] bombing for an hour,” Invoice Burr identified on a podcast. “[Leno] struggled for eighteen months earlier than he bought going, and he bought to go on after successful present; he bought to go on after ER.”
Inside days of his “Individuals of Earth” letter, O’Brien and his workforce reached a $45 million settlement with NBC, and the exiting host used his personal cash to compensate workers members who had adopted him from New York Metropolis to Los Angeles. And with that, O’Brien left The Tonight Present, by no means to be seen within the discuss present’s studio till his triumphant visitor look final yr. Leno went again to internet hosting The Tonight Present in March 2010 and continued till February 2014, when he ceded the present to Jimmy Fallon. O’Brien took his expertise to TBS and hosted Conan from November 2010 to June 2021.
As painful because it was to see O’Brien lose The Tonight Present so quickly after getting the dream job, the comic closed his ultimate episode with a plea to look previous the behind-the-scenes ugliness. “All I ask is one factor … I’m asking this, significantly of the younger individuals who watch: Please don’t be cynical,” he advised viewers. “I hate cynicism. For the file, it’s my least favourite high quality. It doesn’t lead wherever. No person in life will get precisely what they thought they had been going to get, however for those who work actually onerous, and also you’re type, superb issues will occur.”
