The viewers members who gave Conan O’Brien a standing ovation upon his look on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon final 12 months — whom O’Brien then playfully chided for reducing into his 10 minutes on the late-night NBC discuss present — doubtless 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 turned a family title because the host of Late Evening With Conan O’Brien since 1993, serving because the lead-out for Leno’s Tonight Present, which debuted a 12 months earlier. As each exhibits turned 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 can 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 yet another certified than Conan,” he mentioned in a press release on the time. Privately, nonetheless, Leno felt devastated that NBC had proven him the door.
Because the changeover date approached, NBC executives obtained qualms about shedding Leno, so that they supplied the comic varied prospects for one more NBC present. Leno settled on a five-night-a-week 10 p.m. discuss present titled The Jay Leno Present that may lead into native newscasts earlier than O’Brien’s Tonight Present kicked off at its standard 11:35 p.m. begin time.
The information of The Jay Leno Present took O’Brien unexpectedly. “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 changing into sad, and it had the makings of a state of affairs that may make me sad. I like Jay. I don’t need 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, nonetheless, rankings for each exhibits started to slide. O’Brien was shedding older viewers, and it didn’t assist that Leno’s present was dogged by dwindling rankings and dangerous critiques.
With its associates pissed off with the viewers loss, NBC tried to discover a answer. One concept was to provide Leno a half hour at 11:35 p.m. and push O’Brien’s Tonight Present to 12:05 a.m. Leno accepted of that plan; O’Brien didn’t, releasing a now-famous assertion to the “Folks of Earth” in January 2010. He wrote, partly:
For 60 years, the Tonight Present has aired instantly following the late native information. I sincerely imagine that delaying the Tonight Present into the following day to accommodate one other comedy program will critically injury what I take into account 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 contemplate shedding it. My employees and I’ve labored unbelievably arduous, and we’re very pleased 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 “Workforce Conan.” Tons of if not 1000’s 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 obtained 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 obtained going, and he obtained to go on after successful present; he obtained to go on after ER.”
Inside days of his “Folks 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 employees 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 12 months. 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 last 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 anyplace. No one in life will get precisely what they thought they have been going to get, however when you work actually arduous, and also you’re variety, superb issues will occur.”